Most of the bars run by Greeks or English will NOT pay IKA, you are lucky if you get 30euros a 8hour shift and they are still getting away with it!!!
Companies employing workers on the Marina also are now only paying a pitance for hardworking people on a daily basis.
Boat owners have been hit with a new tax which apparently is being back dated from 2009.
I know of 2 who have been given a bill for over 10.000euro...do you think these people will pay? I think not.
Very soon there will be even less boats mooring in the marina as there are many cheaper alternatives with better facilities not far away.
Message posted by Eleni k on 15 May 2010 at 10:30am - IP Logged
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Planthead-it depends on what type of bar that you work in.
My uncle has a bar on another Greek island and he pays his staff 70Euro a shift, they also make about the same in tips and they have IKA.
However this is a large, busy cocktail bar that makes enough to be able to do this.
It is extremely hard for a small business that does not have a large turnover to
employ someone for even 1000€ a month especially when on top of that they have to pay around 350 a month for insurance.
Message posted by tiger79 on 15 May 2010 at 9:27pm - IP Logged
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Quote:
Boat owners have been hit with a new tax which apparently is being back dated from 2009.
I know of 2 who have been given a bill for over 10.000euro...do you think these people will pay? I think not.
Very soon there will be even less boats mooring in the marina as there are many cheaper alternatives with better facilities not far away.
I think this tax only applies to Greek tax payers, and only for boats longer than 10m (power) or 15m (sail). It's part of the measures designed to capture "wealth tax" from Greeks who have, by and large, not properly declared their income.
Message posted by littleh on 15 May 2010 at 9:52pm - IP Logged
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The tax is not only for Greek tax payers it is for any boat over 12.5 metres and is a greek new system, most people wont pay this Greek Sea Tax they will just leave.
As for the minimum wage thank you for all the replies but I will be being paid with ika, but just changing my job, Im one of the lucky ones my mom was here ten years and in that time she never got ika and even after giving 100 % loyallty to these jobs, nothing was ever returned, so has now had to leave Greece. But as the saying goes "what goes around comes around" for sure if these buisnesses are still not paying ika this year will bite them hard... I hope.
Message posted by janmanessi on 16 May 2010 at 1:34am - IP Logged
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I know it is wrong to underpay, not pay IKA etc. but these are all economy measures...and there have been a number of posts enquiring anxiously about prices for food and drink, and hopes that they will not go up have quite naturally been expressed...but how do you balance it all? On one hand you pillory places for charging more, and on the other hand condemn them for not paying out more to their staff! In the good times I can understand but few bar owners now do more than scrape a living- where is all the extra money to come from if not from raising prices?
Message posted by planthead on 16 May 2010 at 3:03am - IP Logged
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Janmanessi...Underpaying and not paying IKA are NOT economy measures!!! It has been going on for years.
Its all very well coming on holiday and not wanting prices to rise but if petrol has gone up so will prices as delivery charges are more.
But there is no excuse for the way the majority of staff are treated...made to work illegaly.
Also if anyone says you should complain if this happens to you, then please tell me to whom?
You have probably never been in this awful position (luckily for you)
Message posted by doug on 16 May 2010 at 9:42am - IP Logged
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A Greek friend of mine was offered a job last week in a restaurant in Corfu and he was told the wage of 35euros per 12 hour day with no day off and no IKA.
Message posted by janmanessi on 16 May 2010 at 10:35am - IP Logged
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planthead- agree in the past, but no good looking at things that happened historically, I was meaning now, in the current financial climate.
Incidentally I am NOT condoning the IKa evasion etc. just understanding why, in many cases, it happens
And yes, I worked for a very reputable UK tour company for 10 years who refused to pay any National Insurance or IKA- at that time Greece was not in the EU so it was not a legal obligation. When I said that as full time employees, albeit seasonal, we should be covered in one country or the other, I was told that if I wanted that I should look for a job elsewhere...end of conversation
Message posted by Susanna on 16 May 2010 at 12:39pm - IP Logged
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This is a huge topic and needs to be looked at from both sides. Those of us that have been living in Greece for years have experienced both sides of this problem. We all knew of the UK tour operators which didn't pay either IKA or National Insurance in the UK. They simply said "take it or leave it", presumably in the interests of keeping the cost of holidays down.
From the other point of view, I can almost guarantee that any small business making money in Corfu today is doing so a) because they own the premises and don't have to pay rent and b) because they work the business themselves with family members (no IKA required) from morning till night 7 days a week.
Shop-keepers in Athens are no better off. The shops there are open from 9a.m. to 9p.m. and beyond. Many shops are run by one person working six days a week without a break in order to cover their expenses. All this BEFORE the current crisis.
It's not that the owners of businesses are raking it in and refusing to pay their staff a decent wage and IKA, it's that they simply cannot afford to do the "right" thing. You can't even argue that they should therefore close their business - to do what?
A glimmer of hope comes from the fact that rents are being lowered in Corfu as more and more businesses are forced to close their doors, but it is only fair to look at this problem from both sides and recognize the reasons why certain "wrongs" are perpetuated.
Obviously this is a general picture. There are many unpleasant people out there who do take advantage of their employees - maybe the crisis will weed them out.
Message posted by tiger79 on 16 May 2010 at 2:46pm - IP Logged
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Quote: Originally posted by littleh on 15 May 2010
The tax is not only for Greek tax payers it is for any boat over 12.5 metres and is a greek new system, most people wont pay this Greek Sea Tax they will just leave.
Whilst there's confusion over the new taxes, there's no confusion over the boat sizes involved. The new law (3790/2009 143A of August 2009) proposed 2 taxes, applying to power boats bigger than 10m, and sailboats bigger than 15m. One tax (the "Part 3" tax) is a "one-off" retrospective tax, which apparently is targetted at Greek nationals, and which some port authorities are now starting to collect. The second tax proposed (the "Part 2" tax) is an annual charge, but is not yet being collected, and may only apply to Greek-flagged boats and/or boats owned by Greek nationals. As an indication, the annual tax for a 15m sailboat would be 3000 euros, but I'd have to add that a 15m sailboat is a pretty big boat, and many boats in Greek waters are smaller than this and wouldn't be taxed at all.
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