2.16 Percent Drop in Uninsured Employment

During the high tourist season, the government only uncovered seven uninsured employees in Rhodes, three in Mykonos and none in Santorini, making it easy to assume that something in the process went wrong. However, it explains why the effort made by the Greek Minister of Labor Yiannis Vroutsis to eradicate the uninsured employment in Greece within six months is described by the media as extraordinarily successful. It was only last February that the Federation of Hellenic ICT Enterprises (SEPE) controls showed that uninsured employees came up to 40 percent. Today, after the operation of the “Artemis” system inspired by Mr. Vroutsis, the numbers have changed and the uninsured employment seems to have dropped to 2.16 percent. According to the data published by Mr. Vroutsis, in the period of time between September 16 2013 and January 31 2014, the Ministry operated controls in 7,878 enterprises, 684 of which were found to have engaged uninsured employees (8.68 percent). In a total of 49,126 employees of those enterprises, only 1,063 were uninsured (2.16 percent) while the fines imposed for the uninsured employment amounted to 10,839,987 euros. However, an analysis of the data shows that Mr. Vroutsis attempts to convey an ideal illustration that is far from the reality that employees experience daily. Someone could easily reach this conclusion if they are aware of the labor market on the Greek islands during the tourist season. Thus, the controls that took place from last September on the Greek islands – when the tourist season for islands such as Mykonos, Santorini, Crete, Corfu and Rhodes is at its peak – showed that from Islands on the Aegean, only 16 employees were uninsured, in Crete the number reached 100, while on the Ionian Islands there were only 13.

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