Filenews 26 April 2024
The extent of undeclared work amounts to 8% of the workforce, which corresponds numerically to about 40,000 workers and entails revenue losses for the Social Insurance Fund estimated at €10 million per year, the Minister of Labour said today.
However, according to Yiannis Panayiotou, through the targeted inspections carried out recently by the Ministry of Labor in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior and the Police, there is an increase in these violations in specific sectors of economic activity.
Specifically, in 2889 inspections carried out in the previous months on construction sites and businesses, 7937 employees were checked and violations of undeclared and illegal work were found in 1038 cases, corresponding to a percentage of 13%.
The increasing trend of undeclared work is worrying and the Government is taking additional measures to reduce and substantially reduce it.
Specifically, the Council of Ministers decided on the following measures, which begin to be implemented immediately:
- Increase of inspections carried out and targeting specific places and hours.
- Expansion of the coordinated operations of the Inspection Service of the Ministry of Labour and the Aliens and Immigration Service of the Police.
- Interconnection of available computer systems and existing databases for data and information utilization.
- Conducting a campaign to reach out to third-country nationals aged 17-65 who are legally present in Cyprus and are not identified as legal workers.
- Investigate the links between employers who practice undeclared and illegal employment of foreigners with smugglers of illegal immigrants.
- Conducting an information campaign on the consequences and consequences of undeclared and illegal work in cooperation with social partners and other relevant bodies," he said.
"In addition, the Council of Ministers decided on the following measures, for which relevant bills will be submitted in order to make the appropriate legislative changes, following the necessary consultation with the social partners:
- Electronic census of all employees in the information system of the Ministry of Labor and Social Insurance.
- Imposition of an extrajudicial fine of €1000 for each case of undeclared work.
- Inclusion of liability to the contractor in addition to the subcontractor for cases of undeclared work.
- Doubling of the extrajudicial fine in case of repetition of the infringement with a new case of undeclared work
We call on all employers to immediately comply with the provisions of the legislation and to cooperate with the Ministry of Labour, utilizing the potential of domestic human resources and employees who are legally in the country with legal access to the labour market, by registering in the electronic system ERGANI the details of all employees they employ and by paying to the Social Insurance Fund the total insurance contributions due to them," he added.
The issue will be included in the agenda of the next meeting of the Labour Consultative Forum and I am sure that with the support and cooperation of the social partners, the results of this effort will be substantial and mutually beneficial for all, Panayiotou added.
