A friend of mine, Manos, was working in Greece as a junior civil engineer, in a small office of 10 people give or take.
In four months as a fledgling there, with almost no support, he struggled to learn the tools of the trade and the software that is used to create blueprints and other stuff that have to do with his work. However, because of his little experience, that led to minor mistakes which were heavily criticized by his boss.
Things there started to escalate. Manos' boss would not pay him or would say to him: You made X mistakes this month so, given those mistakes, I remove Y amount of your monthly income for this month.
After 6 months of this continuous situation, Manos explained to him that this is against the law and that he will no longer tolerate this. Things got pretty bad, with shoutings and cursings. In the end, the boss grabbed Manos from the neck in front of everyone, led him out and kicked him down the stairs. Manos got an injured leg as a result of this and a personal threat if this goes further.
Now, I know all those sound very deviant for a workplace, but there are lots of companies in Greece who have slightly similar situations.
How should Manos proceed? How can he get the money that they did not pay him plus to retaliate against this guy with almost no collateral damage?