The rate of undeclared work has been significantly reduced as a result of the tightening of legislation for a few years now, which provides for the imposition of high administrative fines, as well as the official operation of the Unified Service of Inspectors this year.
This emerges from what was mentioned in a recent meeting that the social partners had with the Directorate of the Ministry of Labor, in the context of a meeting of the technical committee provided by the legislation establishing the Unified Service of Inspectors that oversees compliance with 30 labor laws. From the data presented at the meeting of the technical committee, the percentage of undeclared work, based on inspections conducted in recent years from 14,5% in 2018 was reduced to 12,6% in 2019 and 9,76% in 2020. this year the percentage was further reduced to 7,6% based on data presented for the first quarter. As it is known, the Inspection Service of the Ministry of Labor has been operating since the end of 2017 with European funding and with the power to impose tougher administrative fines for undeclared work, while from this year and with the approval of the relevant legislation, the monitoring of 30 laws by the Service for several of which there is also the possibility of imposing administrative fines.
According to the information received by the social partners in 2018, more than six thousand inspections for undeclared work were carried out, which increased to 7.603 in 2019. In 2020, due to the pandemic, inspections were reduced to 3 thousand, while in the first quarter of 21 they reached 2 thousand. .
In addition to inspections, the restriction of undeclared work has also led to the imposition of heavier fines in cases where undeclared employees are identified.
From 2017, in case of locating an undeclared person in the Social Insurance Fund, an administrative fine of € 500 is issued, multiplied by the months in which the violation of the legislation is confirmed. On the basis of the above, in 2018, administrative fines of approximately 1,3 million euros were imposed, which increased to 2,3 million euros in 2019. Administrative fines in 2020 due to the restrictions imposed due to the pandemic were reduced to 1,3 million. euros while the first quarter of this year is estimated at around 600 thousand euros.
It is noted that the strategic goal of the Ministry of Labor is by 2027 the rate of undeclared work to be reduced to 5%, through a volume of 10,000 inspections per year. In this direction, in addition to the inspections, it is estimated that the electronic system "Ergani" will be assisted, which was put into operation in September this year, in which the new recruitments are now made exclusively and compulsorily.
philenews.com