Member State Factsheets
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European Platform Undeclared Work Member State Factsheets 2017 LEGAL NOTICE Neither the Commission nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission is responsible for the use which might be made of the following information. The information contained in this publication does not necessarily reflect the official position of the European Commission. This publication is part of the work programme 2017-2018 of the European Platform tackling undeclared work established through Decision (EU) 2016/344. The information contained in this publication does not necessarily reflect the official position of the European Platform. For any use of material which is not under the European Union copyright, permission must be sought directly from the copyright-holder(s) indicated. This publication has received financial support from the European Union Programme for Employment and Social Innovation "EaSI" (2014-2020). For further information please consult: http://ec.europa.eu/social/easi Table of Contents 1 Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 2 Member State Factsheets .............................................................................. 2 Factsheet on Undeclared Work – AUSTRIA (September 2017) ................................. 3 Factsheet on Undeclared Work – BELGIUM (September 2017) ................................11 Factsheet on Undeclared Work – BULGARIA (September 2017) ..............................17 Factsheet on Undeclared Work – CROATIA (July 2016) ..........................................23 Factsheet on Undeclared Work - CYPRUS (September 2017) ..................................29 Factsheet on Undeclared Work – CZECH REPUBLIC (September 2017) ....................35 Factsheet on Undeclared Work – DENMARK (September 2017) ...............................41 Factsheet on Undeclared Work – ESTONIA (September 2017) ................................47 Factsheet on Undeclared Work - FINLAND (September 2017) ...............................54 Factsheet on Undeclared Work – FRANCE (September 2017) .................................60 Factsheet on Undeclared Work – GERMANY (September 2017) ...............................68 Factsheet on Undeclared Work – GREECE (September 2017) .................................74 Factsheet on Undeclared Work – HUNGARY (September 2017) ...............................81 Factsheet on Undeclared Work – IRELAND (September 2017) ................................87 Factsheet on Undeclared Work – ITALY (September 2017) .....................................95 Factsheet on Undeclared Work – LATVIA (September 2017)................................. 102 Factsheet on Undeclared Work – LITHUANIA (September 2017) ........................... 107 Factsheet on Undeclared Work – LUXEMBOURG (July 2016) ................................. 113 Factsheet on Undeclared Work – MALTA (July 2016) ........................................... 119 Factsheet on Undeclared Work – NETHERLANDS (September 2017) ...................... 125 Factsheet on Undeclared Work – POLAND (July 2016) ......................................... 131 Factsheet on Undeclared Work – PORTUGAL (September 2017)............................ 139 Factsheet on Undeclared Work – ROMANIA (July 2017) ....................................... 146 Factsheet on Undeclared Work – SLOVAKIA (September 2017) ............................ 151 Factsheet on Undeclared Work – SLOVENIA (September 2017) ............................ 159 Factsheet on Undeclared Work – SPAIN (September 2017) .................................. 166 Factsheet on Undeclared Work – SWEDEN (September 2017) .............................. 172 Factsheet on Undeclared Work – UNITED KINGDOM (September 2017) ................. 179 1 Introduction In 2016 factsheets were produced for each Member State to provide an overview of the state of play regarding efforts to address undeclared work, as part of preparations for the launch of the Platform Tackling Undeclared Work. The factsheets were produced by national experts from the European Employment Policy Observatory and covered a range of topics, including: The definition, characteristics and scale of estimated undeclared work (UDW) in each Member State; The institutional framework for addressing UDW – including the characteristics of the authorities responsible for identifying, tackling and/or preventing UDW, and the degree of cooperation between organisations within and between Member States; and The policy approach and measures used to tackle UDW in each Member State – including their effectiveness, the challenges and barriers faced in tackling UDW, and examples of good practice. In 2017, following the first year of operation of the Platform, each Member State was given the opportunity to update their 2016 factsheets to reflect changes in the previous 12 months. A total of 20 Member States provided an update to their factsheets (as shown in Table 1 below), with an additional three reporting that no changes were required. Table 1. Member States Updating Factsheets - 2017 Member State Member States updating factsheets Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, UK Member States reporting that no Finland, Ireland and Sweden changes were required Member States not responding Croatia, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland and Romania The remainder of this document provides factsheets for all 28 Member States. In each case, the headings describe whether these were updated for 2017 (including Member States reporting no change) or whether the original 2016 factsheet is provided. 1 2 Member State Factsheets This section provides the factsheets for each Member State. As described above, they include: Factsheets were updates were provided marked as 2017; Factsheets were responses indicated no changes were required (marked as 2017); and Factsheets where no responses were received, and where the original 2016 factsheets are included (marked as 2016). 2 Factsheet on Undeclared Work – AUSTRIA (September 2017) 2.1 Nature and Estimated Scale of Undeclared Work 2.1.1 Definition of undeclared work Legal definitions in Austria can be found in the Criminal Code (Strafgesetzbuch - StGB), where § 153e defines “organised undeclared work” as “professional recruitment or placement of people in independent or dependent employment without the required registration for social insurance or without the required business license”. The law combating social security fraud (Sozialbetrugsbekämpfungsgesetz – SBBG) addresses and specifies several forms of social fraud, namely partial / no payment of social security contributions in the form of undeclared work (envelope wages, bogus part-time work, falsely declared employment), organised undeclared work or bogus registration to the social security system to obtain benefits or to avoid obligations. The Law against wage and social dumping (Lohn- und Sozialdumping-Bekämpfungsgesetz, LSD-BG in force since 1.1.2017; former LSDB-G), aims to ensure equal pay conditions for everyone employed in Austria and to ensure fair competition between Austrian and foreign companies. Penalties to companies are imposed if wages and salaries (as provided for in the collective agreements) fall short. The previously mentioned laws are the essential common framework for several institutions involved in combating undeclared work. 2.1.2 Characteristics of undeclared work In Austria, several types of undeclared work exist. Any ranking of the importance of different types suffers from a lack of data and limited comparability. Furthermore data reporting is irregular or undertaken in a compromised form, so that further distinctions cannot be provided. Undeclared work (e.g. (partly) envelope wages, bogus part-time work, underpayment – where wages and salaries are less than what is provided for in the collective agreements). Underpayment is controlled under the LSD-BG including all forms of wages and salaries that fall short of collective agreements. Between 2011 (start of the implementation of the LSDB-G) and end of November 2016, nearly 1,950 reports relating to underpayment are documented (affecting 7,308 workers). More than 1,100 final decisions relating to underpayment exist which affect around 2,300 workers, of whom nearly 64% are from abroad. Information on other types of activity, especially quantitative information, are highly limited (for results based on qualitative methods see footnote1). For the gastronomy sector, the Chamber of Labour2 analysed the situation of part-time workers, finding more than half (58%) of the analysed cases reported to the social security authorities as being part-time or marginal employed workers had actually worked longer hours. Bogus self-employment (incl. undocumented (illegal immigrant) work) Despite bogus self-employment being continually discussed as a problem, quantitative data are also limited. The union estimates that up to two-thirds of people working on the basis of a service contract (one-person-enterprises and ‘new self-employed’) or free service contract (Freie Dienstnehmer) are not employed correctly (cf. www.watchlist-prekaer.at). 1 Schmatz, Susanne / Wetzel, Petra, ‘Developments in the field of wage dumping’ (‘Entwicklungen im Bereich Lohndumping’), on behalf of the Chamber of Labour, Vienna, 2014. 2 Chamber of Labour, ‘Evaluation of 371 questionnaires in the gastronomy’ (‘Auswertung von 371 Fragebögen Gastgewerbe‘), unpublished report,