The expression used for illegal work is “undeclared” work and represents a profitable activity carried out outside the regulated legal framework. It is not recorded, taxed, protected, insured or socially assisted, the worker being at the discretion of the person for whose benefit he is working.
Work outside the legal framework is present and manifests itself in several forms, among which we mention:
- Unrecognized activity, totally unrecognized and untaxed, carried out outside the individual labor contract, without a legally drawn up pay statement and payment of obligations to the state budget, without time clocking for the time norm, without documents regarding the production norm and the kind of work and without in any way naming the person who provides the work;
- Partially unrecorded and untaxed work carried out through double recording and the so-called “in hand” payment, representing an addition to the documentary record;
- Incorrect recording of the production realized in exhausting time norms, longer than 8 hours, the worker being abused and being at the employer’s discretion;
- Work on the convention of 3 hours per day which in reality is carried out between 8 and 12 hours per day, Speculation, illicit trade and smuggling, Occasional work, in season;
- Domestic work in households;
- Work in so-called “probation periods”, not documented
Usually “undeclared” work is favored in all sectors of the economy in which cash is handled, a context in which commercial activity in the broadest sense of the term, is the preferred area of manifestation.
As a result, it can be found in construction, the provision of services, organized and unorganized trade, street trade, markets, fairs, but also in sectors that are difficult to access, such as agriculture and forestry
The causes of “undeclared” work are extremely varied, have a multifactorial determination and are related to the economic situation of the employee and the employer at a given time, their level of training and, last but not least, the legal framework and the sanctioning regime.
We consider the following causes as significant:
- imbalance between demand and supply of jobs on the labor market;
- the taxation perceived as high by most labor market operators;
- the fact that the vast majority of employers are in favor of short-term, high-profit policies, to the detriment of medium- and long-term business development strategies;
- low level of retraining;
- low incomes for a large part of the working population and very low incomes for pensioners and the present need to supplement them up to the individual’s level of acceptability;
- the large number of graduates of various forms of education looking for work, as a result of schooling figures that do not take into account the demand on the labor market, but are dictated either by the desire to maintain the schooling institution at any cost, or by commercial reasons;
- the sanctioning regime only for the employer, not for the employee.
The disadvantages of undeclared work
Undeclared work has a number of disadvantages for both the employee and the employer.
The disadvantages of undeclared work for the employee include the following:
– they do not benefit from the minimum wage, salary bonuses determined by seniority, working conditions;
– they do not benefit from reduced working hours due to working conditions;
– he is not paid travel allowance;
– is not entitled to statutory paid rest leave and other legally regulated leave for special events (marriage, death, birth of a child in the family), for studies, etc…;
– is not insured for foreseeable and unforeseeable risks such as: disability, accidents of all kinds, sickness, maternity, old age, death;
– is not entitled to benefits for temporary incapacity for work due to ordinary illness or accidents outside work, occupational diseases and accidents at work;
– is not entitled to childcare leave for children under 2 years of age or for sick children;
– are not entitled to an old-age, early, partial early, disability or survivor’s pension;
– no death grant;
– not entitled to free medical care, free or compensated medication;
– unemployment and support allowance;
– is not entitled to free qualification courses;
– is not paid meal vouchers;
– do not enjoy legal protection for women and children;
-the right to bank credit is limited, etc.
Consequently, by working outside the legal framework, the employee alone bears all the risks and negative consequences of this option on the labor market.
Ways and means of combating ,,undeclared work”
In the action to combat the phenomenon of undeclared work, the authorized institution will use both direct methods of control and sanction, and indirect methods of influencing the medium and long term attitude of the parties towards the employment relationship. Both methods have a strong preventive character.