Simplifying cross-border employment

Fighting undeclared work

At EU and international level many organisations, organisms and agencies are engaged in fighting, analysing and monitoring undeclared work.

The European Commission, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the European Labour Authority (ELA), the European Union information agency for occupational safety and health (EU-OSHA) support countries in collecting data, laying down policy measures, planning informative campaigns, putting in place schemes and initiatives to make the transition to declared work possible.

PREVENTION, SOCIAL DIALOGUE AND SHOWING CONCRETE AND POSSIBLE ALTERNATIVES PLAY A KEY ROLE.

At EU level, undeclared work is defined as “any paid activities that are lawful as regards their nature, but not declared to public authorities, taking into account differences in the regulatory systems of the Member States”.

Moreover, there are four European strategic priorities to tackle undeclared work:

1) cooperation and joint action
2) mutual learning
3) increasing knowledge
4) communication and reporting

UNDECLARED WORK MAY COME IN DIFFERENT FORMS:

• The most common type is work carried out in a formal undertaking, partially or fully undeclared. Partially undeclared work is sometimes also called “under-declared work“, “envelope wages” or “cash-in-hand“;
• Another type is undeclared “own account” or self-employed work, where self-employed persons provide services either to a formal enterprise or to other clients, such as households;
• Undeclared work occurs in all kind of economic sectors, both within countries and across borders. It is often carried out in sectors like construction, renovation or repair works, gardening, cleaning, provision of childcare, domestic and personal assistance or HORECA (Hotel / Restaurant / Catering – food services).

UNDECLARED WORK IS EVERYBODY’S PROBLEM

Within each Country, the main responsibility for tackling undeclared work lies with national authorities. The fight against undeclared work relies mostly on three types of enforcement bodies:

• Labour inspectorates addressing abusive behaviour regarding working conditions and/or health and safety norms;
• Social security inspectorates fighting fraud on social insurance contributions;
• Tax authorities dealing with tax evasion.

Additionally, in some Member States, social partners are also involved in these tasks, as well as customs authorities, migration bodies, the police and the public prosecutor’s office.

Within the last ten years, all Member States introduced various measures to step up their efforts in the fight against undeclared work, given its negative consequences. Most of them are in the area of deterrence measures to influence people’s behaviour with stricter sanctions or focusing on more effective inspections. In addition, Member States use preventive measures such as:

• tax incentives
• amnesties
• awareness raising

to decrease the incidence of undeclared work and facilitate compliance with existing rules.

EURADRIA PARTNERSHIP STANDS BY WORKERS AND EMPLOYERS TO COMBAT UNDECLARED: THE CROSS-BORDER CONTEXT

As of 2019, Euradria has decided to dedicate a space to collecting data on undeclared work in the border region between Italy and Slovenia, in order to better understand the extent of the phenomenon.

At the end of the same year, a specific analysis has been conducted by INCA Slovenija, a patronage already partner of the project, through the support of the InfoDesks network and the Public Employment Services within the recruitment events.

In particular, an anonymous questionnaire has been made available to jobseekers and frontier workers to collect a first set of data to identify:

• the target group composition (gender, age, residence, education level)
• the sectors where the main violations occured
• the responsibility for irregular work (employer’s responsibility or own choice?).

The questionnaire involved 300 workers, moving across the cross-border area for labour purposes, as jobseekers and frontier workers.

The data collection, included in a final report on irregular work has been publicly presented in Koper (Slovenija) on 18 December 2019, showing the following results: