Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2004, published 93rd ILC session (2005)

Protection of Wages Convention, 1949 (No. 95) - Greece (Ratification: 1955)

Further to its previous observations concerning the application of Articles 4 and 7 of the Convention, the Committee notes the Government’s explanations, in particular the reference to article 653 of the Civil Code which, according to the Government’s report, explicitly takes up the provisions of the Convention in respect of the payment of wages in kind. The Committee is inclined to believe, however, that the quoted text is part of a commentary, possibly from an annotated edition of the Civil Code, rather than the actual text of article 653 of the Civil Code. It would therefore request the Government to provide in its next report further clarifications on this point and to transmit a copy of the legislative text in question. The Committee wishes to refer in this connection to paragraph 510 of its 2003 General Survey on protection of wages in which it expressed the view that some of the provisions of the Convention require specific practices to be prohibited or to be regulated in a particular manner and thus call for legislative action to this effect, while others merely require certain practices to be followed and thus seem to leave scope for implementation by various means, including custom or practice. Recalling that the provisions of Article 4, paragraphs 1 and 2, and Article 7, paragraph 2, of the Convention are not self-executing and therefore require the competent authorities to take appropriate measures to ensure their observance, the Committee hopes that the Government will make every effort to take the necessary action and bring its legislation into conformity with the Convention. Finally, the Committee would appreciate if the Government could provide, in accordance with Part V of the report form, general information on the practical application of the Convention, including any difficulties encountered with respect to the timely payment of wages, extracts from labour inspection reports, copies of any official publications or studies relating to the questions dealt with in the Convention as well as any other particulars bearing on the implementation and enforcement of the Convention.