Brussels, 09/04/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 9 April, the European Commission presented a proposal to give the EU a platform to bring together national control entities involved in the fight against undeclared work. The involvement of the member states in this platform would be obligatory. The idea of creating a dedicated European agency has been discounted, as this would be “premature”, according to the Commission.
There are plenty of reasons to create a platform of this kind, according to Commissioner for Employment Laszlo Andor. Presenting his proposal to the press, he took pains to illustrate, point by point, all the ills of a phenomenon which is believed to represent up to 30% of the GDP of countries such as Greece and Portugal. Andor stressed that “undeclared work deprives workers of social protection, puts their health and safety at risk and lowers labour standards. It also undermines fair competition for businesses and endangers the sustainability of public finances and social security systems”. Under the European strategy for employment, undeclared work is defined as “any paid activities that are lawful as regards their nature but are not declared to public authorities, taking into account differences in the regulatory systems in member states”. The fraudulent activity to be targeted will also cover activities related to worker secondment.
The European platform would provide a forum for the various national bodies, with each member state having its own administrative division of duties. It would mainly include employment inspectorates, social security authorities, tax services and the authorities in charge of immigration matters, not forgetting the Commission itself. The Commission also proposes to make room for observers and representatives of the European social partners, the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound), the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The cost of this platform would be borne by the Progress programme, to the tune of €2.1 million a year.
The Commission proposes assigning at least six missions to this platform, whilst the exact working programme will be drawn up on a biennual basis. These missions will be: - create a forum where experts could share information and best practices, thereby expanding the limited contacts which exist at the moment; - explore national and EU tools to face shared problems, such as the related phenomenon of bogus self-employment and undeclared work in subcontracting chains; - tackle cross-border aspects by, for example, exploring ways to improve data exchanges between national administrations; - strengthen operational cooperation such as joint training sessions, exchanges of staff and joint inspections; - develop common principles and guidelines for inspections to tackle undeclared work; - increase awareness of the problem through common activities, such as European campaigns and adopting regional or EU-wide strategies. (JK)