Practice Areas
Employment, Pensions & Benefits
Overview
Employment is one of the firm’s most active practices. We advise Greek and international employers on the full span of individual and collective employment matters, from executive arrangements and workforce restructurings to union relations, business immigration, workplace investigations and high-value employment litigation.
We support clients across the employment relationship, from hiring, employment contracts, workplace policies and remuneration structures to working time, termination strategy, employee mobility, social security, collective consultation, workforce reductions and post-transaction integration. We also advise on the employment aspects of M&A, carve-outs, outsourcing projects and corporate reorganisations.
Our client base includes multinational groups, Greek corporates, financial institutions, technology companies, retailers, industrial businesses, hospitality operators and consumer brands. Many instruct us as Greek employment counsel for ongoing HR advisory work, sensitive executive matters, collective labour issues and employment litigation.
Employment law increasingly intersects with data protection, whistleblowing, workplace harassment, equality, health and safety, internal investigations and cross-border mobility. We help clients manage these issues in a way that is legally robust, practical for HR teams and aligned with wider business risk.
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Services
We advise on employment contracts, workplace policies, senior executive arrangements, remuneration structures, restrictive covenants, incentive plans, working time, pay, leave, termination strategy and the Greek-law aspects of cross-border secondments or postings. Our work covers both day-to-day HR advisory matters and sensitive executive-level issues.
We support employers on workforce reorganisations, collective redundancies, transfers of undertakings, outsourcing projects, consultation processes, severance structuring and post-transaction integration. We also advise on the employment aspects of M&A, carve-outs, corporate restructurings and business transfers.
We advise on engagement with trade unions, works councils and employee representatives, collective labour agreements, collective consultation obligations, industrial action and workforce communications. Our work covers establishment-level, group-level and sector-level labour relations.
We advise on Greek work and residence permits for foreign employees, including intra-company transfers, highly qualified employment, Blue Card routes, digital nomad arrangements and other mobility structures. We also support clients on social security coordination, secondments, postings and the employment-law implications of deploying international talent into or out of Greece.
We represent employers and senior executives in disputes before the Greek civil and labour courts, including dismissal claims, executive severance disputes, discrimination and harassment claims, restrictive covenant enforcement and employer-liability matters. We also advise on whistleblowing systems, internal reporting channels, workplace investigations, harassment complaints, equality issues, employee data protection and remediation steps.
We advise employers, funds, insurers, executives and international groups on supplementary pension and benefit arrangements, social security contributions, cross-border social security coordination and benefits connected to international assignments. Our work includes the design, implementation, amendment, termination and dispute management of pension and benefit structures, including employment, regulatory and tax-sensitive aspects.
Featured Work
- Advised OTE, the Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation, on the first early voluntary retirement project implemented in Greece, a landmark workforce-restructuring mandate.
- Advised Dell Inc. on the employment aspects of a major corporate restructuring and integration of its Greek operations.
- Advised the BP and Mobil joint venture on employment matters connected with the outsourcing of financial services to Accenture.
- Acted as Greek employment counsel for HSBC, Toyota Motor Corporation, Mars Inc., Rentokil Initial, INC Research, Praktiker, Mango, Camper, R-Gol, Hudson / KIABI, Accenture and Nissan, covering employment contracts, HR policies, collective agreements, industrial disputes, immigration, restrictive covenants and employment litigation.
- Advised on international stock-option and equity incentive plans for BAT plc, AstraZeneca Group plc, Diageo plc, Halifax plc, Pearson plc, Reckitt & Colman plc, Regus Business Centres plc and The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, including Greek-law implementation for employees based in Greece.
- Advised Accenture S.A. on employment, HR and employee data-protection matters, including privacy frameworks for employee data processing.