Court Rules Against Restoring Public Sector Holiday Bonuses

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The Council of State has definitively rejected calls to restore holiday and annual leave bonuses for public sector employees, ruling that their continued abolition does not violate either the Greek Constitution or European Union law.

In Decision 1201/2026, the Plenary of the Council of State, Greece’s highest administrative court, ruled that the legislature did not act unconstitutionally by refusing to reinstate the bonuses abolished under Law 4093/2012.

The case reached the Plenary through Greece’s “model trial” procedure. A public employee had filed a claim with the Administrative Court of First Instance of Athens, seeking two additional basic monthly salaries for each year. ADEDY, the civil servants’ umbrella trade union, intervened in support of the employee.

The claim covered the period from January 1, 2023, to December 31, 2024, and relied partly on EU Directive 2022/2041 concerning adequate minimum wages across the European Union.

Court rejects EU directive as legal basis for claim

The Council of State first examined whether the directive could provide a legal basis for the employee’s claim.

The court noted that the directive could only apply after November 15, 2024, when the deadline for its transposition into Greek law expired. It therefore ruled that the directive could not support the claim for the earlier period.

The court also considered a November 11, 2025 ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union in Case C-19/23.

The CJEU held that the regulation of workers’ pay, including the setting of minimum wages, remains within the competence of EU member states. It also ruled that the concept of an “adequate minimum wage” does not constitute an EU-wide legal concept that would allow EU law to determine national wage levels.

The CJEU further annulled, among other provisions, part of Directive 2022/2041 that required member states to include four specific factors in their national minimum-wage-setting criteria: the purchasing power of statutory minimum wages, taking into account the cost of living; the general level and distribution of wages; the rate of wage growth; and long-term national productivity levels and developments.

The Council of State also found that Article 31 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights could not extend the scope of EU law beyond the Union’s existing competences in relation to remuneration or the right to “adequate” or “fair” minimum wages.

Consequently, the court ruled that the directive did not give individuals a sufficiently defined right to claim the additional payments and that the claimant could not rely on the EU Charter either.

Budgetary stability supports continued abolition

The court then examined the constitutional arguments surrounding the continued abolition of the bonuses.

It reviewed Greece’s fiscal performance since 2018, the country’s obligations under the revised European economic governance framework and data from the Hellenic Statistical Authority concerning the poverty threshold.

The Council of State also reviewed changes to the public-sector pay system following Law 4354/2015, as well as subsequent legislation, including Laws 5045/2023 and 5163/2024.

The court considered the additional permanent annual cost that restoring the bonuses would impose on the state. It also took into account nationally funded primary expenditure, which includes public-sector salaries, public investment and pensions.

The Plenary concluded that public-sector pay regulations form part of a wider set of government policies that lawmakers prioritise and assess within successive medium-term fiscal frameworks.

It found that the financial burden created by these measures remained within the applicable fiscal framework and that reasons of public interest linked to Greece’s fiscal stability justified the legislature’s position.

The court also found no evidence that the absence of the bonuses endangered the dignified living standards of public employees.

On that basis, and taking into account the legislature’s broad discretion over fiscal policy, the Council of State ruled that the state had not committed an unconstitutional omission by refusing to restore the payments.

Court rejects discrimination argument

The court also dismissed the employee’s argument that the absence of the bonuses violated the constitutional principle of equality and the EU directive’s prohibition on discrimination between public and private-sector workers.

The Council of State pointed to the distinct constitutional and statutory framework governing public servants.

It ruled that public employees and private-sector workers do not provide their services under identical or sufficiently similar conditions. As a result, the different treatment of the two groups does not breach the principle of equality.

The court also considered the potentially significant impact of public-sector wage structures on the finances of general government bodies and, consequently, on the country’s fiscal stability.

Six members of the court, however, dissented on the equality issue.

The Council of State ultimately resolved the legal questions under the model-trial procedure and rejected the employee’s claim in its entirety.

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