SEPE cracks down hard on part-time work violations
Checks conducted on companies, temp agencies and businesses employing part-time workers last year revealed a number of work-related violations, the Labor Ministry’s team of labor inspectors (SEPE) reported in their 2000 statistics book released yesterday. Joint teams of SEPE and IKA (Social Security Foundation) inspectors ran checks on 58 companies not registered with the social security system and 428 which are on IKA’s books and found a number of them to have contravened certain regulations. This resulted in SEPE launching 56 lawsuits against the infringers. It also imposed fines totaling 21.75 million drachmas, while IKA inspectors were more severe with their fines of 200 million drachmas. Checks on 20 temp agencies also revealed a similar trend, with four of the companies facing a temporary and possibly permanent revocation of their licenses. The remaining 16 will continue to be closely monitored. A fifth of the firms employing part-time workers tend to use their employees far longer than the agreed duration, the report said. Yesterday, the cosmetics group Sarantis announced it had obtained the right to market men’s and women’s perfumes with the Athens 2004 Olympics emblems.
