Filenews 22 September 2024 - by Evagoras Prokopiou
Pending -in Parliament- the two bills concerning the fight against undeclared work, the Minister of Labour Yiannis Panayiotou last Thursday, from the podium of the 16th Pancyprian Congress of OVIEK-SEK, linked the need to reduce the phenomenon with the sustainability of the social security system.
Panayiotou said that he expects the Plenary of the Parliament to vote on the Government's bill on the mandatory census and recording of working conditions, as well as the bill on strengthening penalties for undeclared and illegal work.
The minister considers them important additions to the fight against undeclared work, as the phenomenon has been on the rise recently.
The two bills
The first bill concerns the mandatory implementation of an electronic registration system for employees and their working conditions, such as the nature of employees' work and the working hours of each employee.
The second bill concerns the effort to tighten penalties for undeclared work.
The attempted electronic recording/census of employees and their essential working conditions will be done through the Ergani electronic system, while regarding the tightening of penalties for undeclared work, an extrajudicial fine of 1,000 euros is foreseen, while maintaining administrative fines of 500 euros for each month of the detected violation - up to six - unless it is found that this period was shorter.
What happens on the battlefield?
We asked Andy Apostolou, Head of the Inspection Service and Director of the Department of Labour Relations -and Trade Union Superintendent- to present us with the latest data from the action of his Service.
During the months March 2024 – July 2024, targeted inspections were carried out in the sectors related to hospitals and service platforms, construction industry, industries / industrial areas, florists / wedding and christening services and hotel units.
For the period March – July, 2,894 inspections were carried out. During the inspections, the Service met 7,766 employees, of whom 467 were undeclared (6.01%).
The number of inspections, as well as the percentage of undeclared employees per month, are recorded in detail in Table 1.
It is clarified that the highest percentage of undeclared work was found among workers from third countries, with a rate of 70.24%. They are followed by Community Nationals with 16.06%, Greek Cypriots with 13.49% and Turkish Cypriots with 0.21% (Table 2).
Of the 467 undeclared workers, 384 were men and 83 women.
Of the 467 undeclared workers, 9 were recipients of benefits.
Table 4 shows all inspections carried out by economic sector for the months March 2024 to July 2024.
During the same period, 291 Fine Enforcement Notices were issued, in accordance with the Social Insurance Law (undeclared work and undeclared earnings), with the total amount of fines amounting to €789,800.
It is noted that out of the 291 issued Fines Notices, 287 concerned undeclared work and 4 concerned undeclared remuneration.
The fine and months
It is reminded that, according to the provisions of the Social Insurance Law (Law 59(I)/2010), in case of detection of an undeclared employee in the Social Insurance Fund, an administrative fine of €500 is issued, multiplied by 7 months, unless it is proven by the employer that the violation period was shorter.
In case it is found that the actual period of employment was more than 6 months or the actual amount of earnings was higher than €500, the actual period and the actual amount of remuneration are taken into account.
At the same time, regarding the Establishment of the Inspection Service Law (Law 88(I)/2020), which entered into force in 2020 and the provisions of the Laws, illegalities are subject to an administrative fine (Minimum Wage, On Employees in the Building Industry, etc.) and 209 Fine Enforcement Acts were issued, with the total amount of the fine amounting to €223,500 (Table 5).
It is also noted that a total of 439 illegal aliens were identified, of which 13 were people with false documents, 242 were asylum seekers, who had no right to employment.
In addition, 132 illegally staying foreigners were identified in the Republic of Cyprus. Regarding students, 137 were identified, of which 52 were illegal.
Cooperation between competent persons
The Inspection Service cooperated with the Aliens and Immigration Service (Police) to carry out joint inspections in cases of illegal employment. During the months of March 2024 to July 2024, a total of 155 joint inspections were carried out in various economic activities and 74 arrests were made by this agency.
Joint inspections were also carried out with other Departments / Services, such as the Office for Combating Trafficking in Persons, the Department of Road Transport, the Crime Prevention Unit, the Department of Immigration, the Department of Labour Relations, the Service for the Administration of Welfare Benefits, etc. Specifically, 204 joint inspections were carried out in various economic activities.
