The Council of Ministers decided to strengthen the measures to deal with undeclared and illegal work, expressing the will of the Government to combat this bad practice.
After the session of the Council of Ministers, the Minister of Labor and Social Insurance, Mr. Yiannis Panagiotou, made statements saying that undeclared and illegal work has a negative effect on healthy economic competition, smooth labor relations, the sustainability of the pension system and the treatment of illegal immigration flows.
According to the available data, as he mentioned, the extent of undeclared work amounts to a percentage of 8% of the workforce, which numerically corresponds to approximately 40.000 workers and entails revenue losses for the Social Insurance Fund estimated at €10.000.000 per year.
However, he added, through the targeted inspections carried out recently by the Ministry of Labor in collaboration with the Ministry of the Interior and the Police, an increase in these violations in specific sectors of economic activity is found.
Specifically, as he said, in 2889 inspections carried out during the previous months in construction sites and businesses, 7937 workers 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 countermeasures to limit and reduce it substantially."
In particular, as the Minister mentioned, the Council of Ministers decided on the following measures, which will be implemented immediately:
• Increasing the number of inspections carried out and targeting specific areas and times.
• Expanding the coordinated operations of the Inspection Service of the Ministry of Labor and the Aliens and Immigration Service of the Police.
• Interconnection of available IT systems and existing databases to utilize data and information.
• Carrying out a campaign to reach out to third country nationals aged 17-65 who are legally in Cyprus and are not identified as legally employed.
• Investigating the connection between the employers who apply the practice of undeclared and illegal employment of foreigners and the traffickers of illegal immigrants.
• Carrying out an information campaign on the consequences and effects of undeclared and illegal work in collaboration with the social partners and other competent bodies.
In addition, he added, 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 inventory 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 main contractor in addition to the subcontractor, for cases of undeclared work.
• Doubling the out-of-court fine in the event of a repeat violation 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, making use of the potential of the domestic human resources and the workers who are legally in the country with legal access to the labor market, by registering the data in the ERGANI electronic system of all the employees they employ, and paying to the Social Insurance Fund all the insurance contributions attributable to them", he noted.
Undeclared and illegal work, he said, harms the public interest by causing multiple negative effects, and the Government is determined to deal with it aggressively.
"The matter will be included in the agenda of the next meeting of the Labor Consultative Body 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 everyone", concluded Mr. Panagiotou.