Security guard scheduling in Greece: the Digital Work Card, 24/7 posts, rest and Sundays

02

How many people a 24/7 post needs

A post covered around the clock every day is 168 hours a week. With 40-hour full-time contracts (Labour Code, article 189) that is about 4.2 guards per post, before leave, sickness and training. With four guards each works 42 hours a week on average — 2 hours over 40, that is additional work (article 194) or a working-time arrangement (article 202).

03

Sundays, public holidays and nights

• Guarding is exempt from compulsory rest on Sundays and public holidays (article 210 §1 κγ).
• Work on a Sunday or public holiday is paid +75% (article 219) and night work, 22:00–06:00, +25% (article 150).
• More than 5 hours on a Sunday earns 24 hours of compensatory rest on another working day of the week, and in every 7 weeks at least one such rest must fall, at least for eight hours, on a Sunday — unless the schedule gives 7 Sundays of rest over the year (article 212).

04

Derogations from rest rules for guarding

For guarding and surveillance that needs a continuous presence — expressly guards, caretakers and security companies — the Code allows derogations from daily rest, breaks, weekly rest and the night-work limits (article 182 §2.1 β), on two conditions:

• they are made only by a collective agreement of the most representative organisations or an agreement with employee representatives on the works council;
• the employees get equivalent compensatory rest or, where that is objectively impossible, appropriate protection based on the occupational risk assessment (article 182 §2).

05

12-hour shifts

• The ceiling is 8 hours a day and 48 a week (article 187); with a working-time arrangement, up to 10 hours a day (article 202).
• Going beyond 8 hours is allowed in work that by its nature runs continuously with successive crews, if the average stays within 48 hours, the night crew moves to day hours every week and anyone working on a Sunday gets 24 hours’ rest on another day (article 201).
• Up to 48 hours a week on average over each four-month period, overtime included (article 174).

06

The sixth day

Activity code 80 is on ΕΡΓΑΝΗ’s “ΚΑΔ 6ης Μέρας” list. On a five-day week, a sixth day is allowed on the terms of articles 191 and 192 of the Code: up to 8 hours, no overtime, paid +40% and declared to ΕΡΓΑΝΗ before work starts.

07

The schedule in practice

• Work out in advance how many people each post needs including leave, and rotate shifts forwards (morning → afternoon → night): going from an afternoon ending at 22:00 to a morning at 06:00 leaves only 8 hours of rest.
• In 365shift a guard can clock in from their phone only if they have a shift, from 30 minutes before it starts until it ends. If the post has coordinates, a clock-in without a location or outside the post’s area is recorded with a flag, and admins and the team’s managers are notified; alternatively the guard clocks in with the manager’s QR code.
• You set rules for each guard — nights, weekly hours, minimum rest — and when a post falls vacant, the replacement suggestions show who can cover it and which rule each person would break.