Right now, more than 15 000 people, ages between 20 and 50, have been caught in the nets of the illegal job search bureaus. The dealers’ network has been working for at least five years in Greece. Victims are also Bulgarians living in the country. At this moment, the system works like that: one firm hires a worker from the bureau and he works for another company. He does not have any financial relations with the company, which uses him because he is paid by the firm, which “hired” him. If a company takes a worker from a legal bureau, he will cost it 89 Euros per day, from which he takes around 30 Euros. “In the “black” bureaus the worker costs 18-19 Euros per day, which is a tempting price for businessmen, who want to hire a permanent staff,” says the chairman of the private workers syndicate Yannis Komninos.

The companies who hire illegally, sign fake contracts and dismiss all labor laws. The workers do not have basic labor rights and do not receive the bonuses, which they deserve. Usually the employment of those workers does not exceed eight months. These are only some of the facts, which speak of the ancient condition of the Greek job market. In order to attract their “clientele,” the bureaus send advertising brochures to hotels, casinos, bars, restaurants, and stores during the months when workers are needed most. This way when there is a job “opening” the owners contact them. The eight hour work day does not count for them, because the “second category” workers are replacing the permanent employees, who are on leave.

Owners of such bureaus in Northern Greece are even bigger “vultures”. They send immigrants to pick grapes and to other agricultural jobs. One hundred people are working on a plantation in Halkidiki for 250 Euros per month, without any health or other insurances. The foreigners, who use the services of the bureaus usually work are waiters, valets, cleaning personnel, and dish washers. Among them are mostly Albanians and Bulgarians who have suffered by the “fake” job search bureaus. “Most of them receive their salaries late or not at all but they do not complain to the authorities because they need a job. They need the money and they prefer to keep it down,” notes Mr. Komninos.