How to check that your security company pays its guards lawfully

Every hour of guarding is an hour of one person’s work. Lawful pay for the hours of cover is not an internal matter for the employer; it is the floor below which a guarding arrangement does not hold. Price does not tell you which company to choose, only which one to reject: a company that cannot show your hours are paid lawfully is rejected. The guide on when to reject a guarding offer covers that test at the quote stage.

• Continuity: a guard who is paid properly stays, and their knowledge of your site stays with them.
• A rested person on the post: unpaid extra work usually means one person covers more hours than are declared.
• A stable relationship: a company that saves on its guards has already decided appearance matters more than substance.

• 40 hours a week is full-time work (Labour Code art. 189).
• +25% for work between 22:00 and 06:00 (art. 150).
• +75% for work on Sundays and public holidays (art. 219).

The minimum-wage amount and everything else that concerns the guard personally is in the guide to security guard pay in 2026. For you, the arithmetic of hours is enough: a 24/7 post is 168 hours a week, at least 4.2 full-time positions of 40 hours, with a third of the hours at night and a seventh on Sunday.

Employers run an electronic working-time system connected in real time to ΕΡΓΑΝΗ ΙΙ; the digital work card records every change, in particular start and end of work, breaks, work beyond the schedule and leave, and its data are cross-checked against the employer’s periodic social-security return (Labour Code art. 580). Ministerial Decision 24595/2024 covers businesses whose main activity is guarding and protection services, ΚΑΔ 8010 and 8020.

These are the employer’s records. Your way to use them is to ask, as a contract term, for confirmation that your post’s shifts are declared with hours that match the post’s schedule. A post covered 24 hours a day while declared shifts cover fewer is the clearest sign that someone is working undeclared. How the card works in guarding is explained in the guide to the digital work card.

1. Work-licence numbers: every guard needs a personal work licence, category A or B, and the company reports its staff to the police every month with each licence number and post (Law 2518/1997, arts 3 and 4). Ask for the numbers of those guarding your site.
2. The post’s roster: who covered each shift last month. If one person appears for far more hours than a 40-hour week, ask how those hours are declared and paid.
3. Confirmation of declared shifts: that your post’s hours correspond to shifts declared on the digital work card.
4. Breakdown of hours: how the price covers ordinary hours, nights, Sundays and holidays, on separate lines.

You do not need the guards’ payslips, and should not ask for them. The GDPR limits personal data to what is “necessary” for the purpose (art. 5(1)(c)). Ask for evidence per post and shift, or a statement from an independent accountant, not pay by name.

• Undertaking: the company states that the guards on your post are employed on declared terms and paid in line with labour law, including night, Sunday and holiday premiums.
• Deliverables: every month, the post’s roster by shift and the work-licence numbers of those who staffed it.
• Check on request: the right to ask for confirmation that shifts are declared, or a statement from an independent accountant, within a set time.
• Consequence: what happens if the evidence is not provided or does not match — from correction to termination.

The clause sits alongside the other terms covered in the guide to guarding contract terms. Have your lawyer review the final wording.

• One person covers shifts that plainly exceed a 40-hour week.
• The guard you see is not the one on the roster.
• New faces every few weeks, with no notice.
• The price is not broken down into hours, nights and Sundays.
• The work-licence numbers “will come later”.

A roster is only worth something if it matches who was actually on the post. The guide on checking the guard is on post shows how to verify it. OVIT shows clients patrols, incidents and reports in one live picture through the Guardly platform, and you can request a proposal broken down by hour.