The Ministry of Labor seeks to prevent the reactions from the proposed legislative regulation, through which debts, fines and charges of nine years, amounting to €58 million, relating to administrative fines for undeclared work, will be written off, which declares that it is open to differentiations.
The relevant bill has been in Parliament since last June and, although its discussion has not yet begun, the first grumbles and reservations have begun from some parties, which believe that certain categories of citizens will be treated favorably. With the bill, which will be put under the microscope of the parliamentary Labor Committee after the return of MPs from summer vacation, a ceiling is placed on the increase in administrative fines for violations of the law on undeclared work.
The provisions of the bill
In detail, the bill provides that the increase in the administrative fine due to delay in its payment by employers or self-employed persons cannot exceed twice the amount of the initial fine imposed by the Inspection Service of the Ministry of Labour.
Under the current legal framework, for each day of delay in the payment or payment of debts, they increase by €50 per day, resulting in the accumulation of debts of employers and self-employed workers amounting to €65.6 million. It should be noted that the write-off of debts and charges will occur through the retroactive application of the regulation from June 2017.
The Minister's statements
The Minister of Labor Marinos Mousiouttas, speaking to "F" in an interview (pages 48-49), said that he is open to changes. "In the context of the debate in Parliament, all the parameters of the issue will be explained and we are open to further dialogue on any differences," he added.
According to Mr. Mousiouttas, today the fine is increased by €50 for each day of delay, with no upper limit, adding that "this in practice means that a fine of €1,000 can reach €30,000". As the Minister of Labor said, this results in very small businesses being unable to pay the fine along with the charges and ending up in court. "The state does not collect anything and the company is led to a dead end," he indicated.
He explained that the purpose of the bill is to put a ceiling on this increase, so that the burden does not exceed twice the original fine, pointing out that "the fine is not deleted. A limit is placed on an increase that today has none."
Other data show
Although the Minister of Labor claims that no fines will be deleted, the data of the Social Insurance Services accompanying the government proposal show otherwise. Specifically, the debts from administrative fines for undeclared work currently amount to €65.6 million. and concern 827 persons. If the bill is approved, with the imposition of a ceiling on the fine, these will be reduced to €7.9 million.
That is, the current debts (debts, interest and charges) of the 722 employers amount to €56.7 million, while with the proposed formula they will be reduced to €7.6 million. It is worth noting that the initial amount of fines was €2.4 million.
After all, today 105 self-employed people owe €8.8 million. And, through the approval of the bill, they will be asked to pay around €224,000, as €8.5 million will be written off. It is noted that the initial amount of the administrative fines imposed was around €74,000.
