Interview of the Lawyer Manolis Zacharakis at The Future of Work
Manolis Zacharakis is a partner in the Employment & Labour Practice team of Zepos & Yannopoulos, a Greek leading full service business law firm with international orientation and clientele from all over the world. He works on various employment matters arising from their operations in Greece, as well as on cross-border employment issues, including employee involvement procedures related to the establishment of Societas Europaea, international assignments, etc.
Manolis captivates you with his jurisdictional knowledge and clarity of thought on the arising opportunities for Greece, as a Country of Choice for highly-skilled labour migration, the obstacles and challenges in the process of relocation and the improvements that need to take place in the legislative framework.
Manolis, you have recently supported Deutsche Telekom (DT) in the immigration aspect of the launch of DT’s IT Hub in Thessaloniki. Could you tell us about your experience and how challenging was the process of relocation of more than 400 people within a record period of 3 weeks?
Indeed, the fact that our team was involved in this highly demanding project was highly intriguing and satisfying, as we look back at its successful and timely completion for the client.
The volume of the project required extensive work both at the preparatory stage and during the actual implementation. Considering the inflexible deadline of the fact that more than 250 foreign employees had to be recruited in Greece within a 3-week period, we had to organize a streamlined and smooth process to support the immigration aspect of their relocation and obtain residence permits for such employees and their families (a total of more than 650 persons).
The coordination of multiple teams on the project was crucial to organize a smooth flow of documentation required for the immigration process, as part of the supporting documentation was prepared by us, part was prepared by other providers in Greece, while the final part of the documentation was only available upon arrival of the persons in Greece, which took place in three weekly charter flights. Given that each application file contained an average of 10 supporting documents, we estimate that more than 7,000 files were shared on the project.
The cooperation offered by the Ministry of Migration in this project was outstanding and their role was pivotal for the efficient design of a process that would satisfy both the need for speed and safety required in all immigration cases and their hands-on approach on the implementation stage made sure that the project stayed on track. The Ministry acknowledged the impact of the establishment of the IT Hub in Thessaloniki in the short-term future of the city and the overall focus in the country’s growing IT scene and awarded the individuals residence permits for reason of public interest.
Our firm’s expertise in immigration issues and our outstanding resources, including lawyers, accountants and other professionals, supported the management of the project in a way that invited the Ministry of Migration to use the later arrivals of the project (during August and September) as a pilot case for the introduction of the electronic filing of residence permit applications that will soon apply for most immigration applications in view of the ongoing digitalization of the Ministry.
In this respect, the second wave of the project, including another 275 persons, that is currently ongoing takes place fully electronically at a scale that is unprecedented both for our firm and the Ministry of Migration. The efficiencies created by this development and the advancement of our country’s reputation as a consequence of this project was highlighted and appreciated by the client who in the end acknowledged that this process was nothing short of a “Greek miracle” in comparison to similar processes that the DT Group is trying to implement in other European countries.
Recently, a significant number of big multinationals and tech companies choose Greece as their regional hub for innovation and entrepreneurship. What is the particularity of the Greek jurisdiction in comparison with our neighbouring countries?
It is true that Greece has received a large number of direct investments by multinationals, especially in the tech industry, including the following:
- Pfizer established a Center of Digital Innovation in Thessaloniki aiming to recruit more than 300 employees,
- Deutsche Telekom set up an IT Hub in Thessaloniki that will employ more than 500 IT specialists in the next couple of years,
- Amazon Web Services also opened an office in Athens, while it has recently joined forces with Greek companies in a pilot project aimed at making the Cyclades island of Naxos a “smart island”,
- Microsoft is investing in the creation of three data centers in Greece, a project with an expected value of approximately 1 billion euros,
- Google also announced its plans to set up its first cloud region in Greece, a project that is estimated to contribute some 2.2 billion euros to Greece’s economic output and create some 20,000 jobs by 2030.
Such developments derive also from the continuing effort from Greece to become more extrovert and appealing destination for investments, pushing for its digital transformation across the public and private sector. The Greek Government has managed to efficiently cooperate with large multinationals and facilitate their plans for further investments in Greece. In this context, it is important to mention some significant initiatives, namely Elevate Greece, the official platform launched by the Greek Government and leading resource for in-depth information on the Greek Start-up Ecosystem, aspiring to help it grow and expand, Brain Regain, a non-profit association supported by a large number of Greek employers seeking to facilitate the return of Greek resources that left Greece during the recession, and Endeavor Greece, a non-profit organization supporting the high-impact entrepreneurship movement.
The Greek Government has also introduced tax incentives for businesses and individuals to relocate to Greece, which has facilitated significantly the decision for investment in Greece in the highly competitive forum shopping.
In practice, how ready is Greece to manage and support the cross-country relocation of highly skilled international employees from one side and of the digital nomads that have been so much promoted from the other side?
As mentioned above, Greece has taken substantial steps to facilitate the relocation of international employees. From an immigration perspective, we differentiate between three groups of applicants. The first group is EU nationals that enjoy the rights of freedom of movement within the EU, which is subject to the least bureaucratic process for the settlement in Greece, as following their establishment in Greece either as employees or as self-employed individuals they are merely required to register with the competent Police Authority at their place of residence under a straightforward process. The second group of non-EU nationals that take up employment in Greece, there are several options of residence permits, although access to the Greek labour market is restricted as is the case throughout the EU. Lastly, the digital nomad visa and residence permit is the only available option for persons that wish to work from Greece, rather than in Greece, as it is important to remember that such option does not grant access to the Greek labour market and digital nomads cannot work for Greek employers. Digital nomads work for foreign employers, although they provide their services based in Greece, which in turn raises a number of issues around the applicable law on such employment relationship (especially if the presence in Greece becomes the employee’s “habitual place of work” which is the decisive criterion for the application of Greek employment law also on employment relationships that are in principle subject to another legal framework), as well as the tax and social security treatment of the nomad’s presence in Greece. To the best of my knowledge, these matters have not been fully resolved, although there appears to be an ongoing discussion for potential European regulation of this matter.
The growth of the Greek market, especially in the tech and the Start-up sector, has been enormous in the last decade, as sources say that the valuation of our tech industry in 2014 was less than 0.5 billion USD, while now it exceeds 8 billion USD. Although such growth was mainly based on local resources, given the highly skilled Greek resources have long been acknowledged in the global tech market, in the last few years foreign experts, including the digital nomads, have added to this growth and have had a multiplier effect on the whole market. This “imported” talent has the prospect of adding substantial know-how, expertise and networking opportunities for the Greek market. The relocation of talented individuals in Greece, including the return of members of the Greek diaspora as well as Greek nationals that have been working abroad for a long period, can seamlessly convey such added-value knowledge to their Greek coworkers and the local market in general. Experienced founders and managers of startups have a lot to offer to the emerging market through the support and efficient guidance of local resources to harness their potential. The market is becoming substantially more extrovert and the resources relocating to Greece are also expected to further increase the visibility of Greek companies in their search for funding and overall support to successfully scale up their business in order to compete more effectively in the global market. This is a trend that is expected to continue and therefore local resources have a lot more to gain than to lose from foreign talent moving to Greece.
In your opinion, what needs to be improved in the legislative framework in order to facilitate the process of cross-border employment and cut red tape?
Immigration restrictions have always been present throughout the EU, with a respective impact on the Greek market as well. Given that Greek residence permits allow the travel of foreign nationals throughout the EU (in some cases also with the right to work there), Greece cannot regulate this mater fully independently. On the other hand, it can of course introduce measures that will provide more clarity on the tax and social security treatment of resident permit holders and target more highly skilled personnel that will bring added value to the Greek market.
The digital nomad visa has been a tool introduced by more than 10 European countries, with many similarities and differences between them as each country seeks to attract the best talent. Although it is unlikely that this matter will be regulated at a European level in the short term, there is some discussion on this matter and we will need to follow any relevant developments.
Information in the Greek immigration market seems to indicate that a potentially new product, the Tech Visa, is under consideration. Such residence permit will further facilitate the access of exceptional talent from the tech industry into the Greek market, either as employees or founders of new businesses, in an effort to strengthen the already impressive growth of the Greek tech market. Greece has already celebrated its first “unicorn” (i.e. a tech start-up with a valuation of more than 1 billion USD) with Viva Wallet following the strategic investment by JP Morgan that is soon expected to close and it is suggested that Greece should aim for 10 unicorns by 2030.
How do you see the Future of Work in Greece?
Greece is a European country with long history and strong geostrategic advantages as the passageway between three continents. In addition to the dominant maritime industry, it is necessary to strengthen its business sector with a focus on tech in order to harness the exquisite local resources, coupled with the multiplier effect that exceptional foreign talent can have on the local market.
In order to do this, the Greek Government needs to continue its effort to reduce red-tape on the everyday life of Greek businesses, design a more efficient immigration system that will attract the required talent and, lastly, align its employment framework with European best practices in order to project the security and stability that businesses need in order to achieve their full potential. Such efforts have the ability to turn Greece into a Country of Choice for entrepreneurs and corporations alike.
