Greece approves more than 80,000 third-country work positions a year, yet fills only 40-50% of them — and a draft bill from the Ministry of Migration and Asylum aims to close the gap by turning temporary employment agencies into direct employers of non-EU workers.

The bill's most contested provision requires any agency seeking that employer status to hold share capital of at least €2 million. "Only two temporary employment agencies fall into this category," says Nikos Papalambrou, CEO of recruitment group Ingroup, who warns of "the risk of an oligopoly taking over the market." The Ministry of Labor, he notes, sets no such capital threshold for any other type of temp agency. "What distinguishes the workers we currently employ from the others?" he asks.

Five temporary employment agencies have attacked the clause in a joint statement on the bill's public consultation page, calling it "a tailor-made clause that violates the principle of equality, distorts competition and introduces protective measures in favor of specific stakeholders." A Migration Ministry representative told Kathimerini the €2 million threshold was deemed necessary so the companies involved "inspire a high degree of credibility and reliability," adding that all feedback remains under consideration.

Why hospitality and construction need the workers

Third-country recruitment has become Greece's main tool for filling vacancies in agriculture, hospitality, food service, construction and manufacturing over the past three years. Studies indicate actual labour needs run at more than double the 80,000-plus positions approved annually. Red tape and consular visa delays mean each recruitment process takes five to six months — a timeline incompatible with seasonal demand.

Roughly 30 licensed companies, operating since 2001, currently manage documented third-country workers in Greece. Together they employ about 10,000 people on annual turnover of around €500 million, according to Papalambrou. That figure will grow if the firms gain employer status.

What would change for operators?

Under the bill, temp agencies as employers would take over procedures that now burden hotels, construction firms and plants: securing social security numbers, tax identification and payroll. Papalambrou says demand is highest for skilled trades — machinery operators, drivers, metalworkers — plus trained roles such as site managers. "Our role is to provide high-caliber people," he says.

Vangelis Kanellopoulos, CEO of recruiter Work in Europe, has already filed paperwork to establish a temp agency. His company has collected some 49,000 resumes from India, Nepal and Vietnam through online campaigns. He plans bundled packages — housing, transport, integration support — with an online platform for CVs, self-presentation videos, psychometric tests and English assessment. "For the company, it will all come down to receiving a single invoice," he says. The service would cost employers roughly 15% of the worker's salary.

Who carries the risk?

Key questions remain unresolved for employers and workers alike. Chamber of Hotels vice president Grigoris Tasios wants to see the final list of agency responsibilities, their fees, and whether they can fill posts faster than employers can — plus what guarantees apply if a worker abandons a post to travel illegally to another EU country such as Germany. Migration lawyer Vassilis Kerasiotis raises the mirror image: who protects a worker if the employer dismisses them without notice or fails to issue a residence permit? "In theory, temporary employment agencies are supervised by the Labor Inspectorate; however, we know that in Greece there is no substantive and regular oversight," he says.

Christos Constantinidis, vice president of Greece's Association of Technical Companies, calls the capital criteria "rather excessive" and notes the sector's biggest problem — delays in personnel arriving — is not solved by the agency model. The financial crisis, he explains, drove skilled workers abroad or blocked those who stayed from gaining experience.

Recruitment consultant Christos Economides, with two decades as a financial director at technical companies in the Gulf, says Greece competes for the same workers as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE. "Greece is a new market in labor outsourcing," he says. "For them to choose us, we must be competitive in terms of wages — and not only wages." Even basic steps — translated safety instructions, English speakers in every team — are currently missing, he argues.

The public consultation will determine whether the €2 million threshold survives into the final text, and with it the shape of the market that hotels and contractors will rely on to fill their vacancy lists.