Now that it has got some relief from the European Union, in the form of long-term, low-interest loans from the SURE program, the government is considering extending aid to employees, the self-employed and businesses hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

Official unemployment data show the clear impact of the pandemic. In July, the number of jobless seeking employment was 1,095,997 or almost 13% higher than the 970,201 registered jobless in July 2019.

The Court of Audit, Greece’s highest fiscal court, is expected to finally give the go-ahead in September for the repayment of some 1.4 billion euros in pension cuts which courts found unconstitutional.

In response to the continued climb in coronavirus cases, companies are introducing a series of measures ahead of the return of employees from their summer vacations.

The Manpower Organization (OAED) is preparing to overhaul its training, with Director Spyros Protopsaltis explaining the plan’s five pillars to Kathimerini.

The unemployment rate climbed to 17% in May, according to data released Thursday by the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT).

Faced with a pandemic spike, the government is working on a new package of measures, focusing on employment support in the affected sectors for the fall, as concern mounts over a rise in joblessness.

A joint ministerial decision allowing private sector employers to work from home, a measure that was implemented in the past few months by many businesses as a way to prevent coronavirus infections, has been extended for two months, until September 30.

The Finance Ministry draft law debated on Wednesday in Parliament has had an amendment incorporated providing for the increase of the state subsidy to employer social security contributions to 100% for workers who enter the Labor Ministry’s Syn-Ergasia program from July until the end of the program on October 15.

The Labor Ministry on Thursday took the first step in issuing pensions electronically, launching the so-called Atlas system in the presence of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

The risk of thousands of pensioners running to law firms and labor experts remains high as several points in the decisions published by the Council of State on the payment of retroactive dues to retirees remain vague.

The Labor Ministry is setting up a new framework for teleworking, an option that was widely applied during the spring lockdown to keep many companies from going under.

Employment in Greece will suffer a 3.8% decline in the coming months, with the jobless rate increasing by 2.3 percentage points, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) projects.

The Greek labor markets showed some positive reflexes over the first month out of quarantine and the gradual reopening of the economy, as according to the Labor Ministry’s Ergani hirings database there was a surplus of 37,568 jobs in June.

Tourism enterprises stand to benefit considerably from the 60% reduction of non-salary costs for three months, included in the new package of support for seasonal enterprises that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced last Friday.

Debts to the social security funds in Greece grew by almost 1 billion euros in the first quarter of the year, with the pandemic already making its presence felt in the system.

The Labor Ministry is preparing an omnibus bill for tabling in Parliament this month with important interventions concerning issues such as increasing temporary pensions and the lump sum deposit.

Greece’s creditors have noted considerable delays in the payment of expired state dues, especially in outstanding pension applications, which is now one of the most serious problems in the context of seventh post-bailout assessment that starts on Monday.

The Labor Ministry is set to find out how much it will have to fork out in retroactive payments to pensioners when the verdict on the pilot trial last January is issued in the next few days.

A small tweak to the terms of the state subsidy program for part-time labor, known as Syn-Ergasia, is expected to raise the number of participating companies.