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Social security payments that private au-pairs, or gardeners, or teachers will pay to IKA from now on will decrease from 35.40% to 20%. This will lead to a decline in IKA’s revenue, but the state goal is to motivate workers to pay their taxes. About 50,000 people are currently recorded with IKA as au-pairs, and the regulation aims to tackle the black labour market. IKA services have opposed this measure because, according to their calculations, it would reduce the revenue of the insurance fund by € 3,825,000 per year.

Moreover, this staff category is allowed to pay social securities for 30 days instead of 25, which means that instead of paying € 146.2 for 25 days, they will pay € 99.1 for 30 days. This system is likely to include other jobs under the excuse that their work is unstable. According to the unionists about 200 000 people are “endangered” as “their employers could take advantage of ambiguities in the law and begin to pay the social securities with payment cheques, even for those who work regularly,” said the daily Elevterotipiya.

The implementation of the new system will start in August or early September after the vote of the relevant provision (Article 20 of the law of Loverdos). The new law introduces payment cheques of a certain value, which will include the amount of the salary of the employee and the amount of social security. Employers will be able to buy these payment cheques from the branches of the social security fund IKA, banks, post offices and the service centres.

Then the employer writes the name of the worker on the check and gives it to him as payment for the services rendered. The employees then submit them to IKA, a bank or post office that pay them the salary amount and deduct the amount of the social securities paid by the employer.

This regulation necessarily includes au-pairs who are paid hourly or daily wage and who possibly work for more than one employer. Gardeners, women or men, who take care of older people, private teachers, childminders, beauticians who work at home will get paid in this way.