Undeclared work. By July 2016, the authorities will adopt an integrated action plan (key deliverable) to fight undeclared and under-declared work in order to strengthen the competitiveness of legal companies and protect workers as well as raise tax and social security revenues. The plan will benefit from the intermediate results of the technical assistance provided by the ILO. It will include improved governance of the labour inspectorate and specify eventual further needs for technical assistance. Any changes to the system of controlling and fining will be made after consultation and agreement with the institutions. By June 2016 the authorities will link the tax, ERGANI and social security fund reporting framework to detect undeclared work, granting further access to the labour inspectorate to relevant administrative databases; and provide a timeline for the completion of the risk-assessment IT system. The authorities will adopt legislative actions to tackle the issue of undeclared work in agriculture by May 2016, to be followed by further actions to be taken by September 2016 in other sectors, including construction. Mechanism for diagnosis of labour market needs. The integrated mechanism for diagnosis of labour market needs developed as part of the deployment of EU funds will be fully applied as of December 2016.
Undeclared work. The authorities in cooperation with the social partners will start the implementation of the measures specified in the Action Plan for fighting undeclared work, to be adopted as a prior action. In particular:
Undeclared work. Work that is paid but not registered with the tax office and health insurance fund, and for which therefore no taxes and social security contributions are paid, is illegal and is referred to in Germany as "Schwarzarbeit". Fines and imprisonment are imminent! If someone receives social benefits or unemployment benefits but still works and conceals this from the social welfare office, the employment agency or the job center, this is also referred to as such. One is wrongly receiving government benefits even though one is engaged in paid work. Manners at Work:
Undeclared work. In Belgium, it is generally assumed that the introduction of the service voucher programme has drastically reduced the share of undeclared work in the domestic sector. Some 25% of users acknowledged that they would use undeclared work if there were no vouchers. USERS: In Belgium, the number of service voucher users is steadily increasing and reached more than a million beneficiaries in 2016, accounting for 22% of Belgian households. 64% of them were active, 37% were bi-active households, 24% were beneficiaries aged 65 or above, and 38% had children. They bought on average 2.3 hours of services per week. In Italy, between 2 and 2.5 million workers have access to company welfare vouchers. Related non- monetary benefits amount on average to between €600 and €700 a year. In France, in 2014, employers granted €298 million to 750.000 workers through prepaid CESU vouchers. WORK-LIFE BALANCE: In Belgium, a 2011 survey revealed that 17.8% of service voucher beneficiaries resort to this instrument to better combine their private and professional life. 23% of them were able to spend more time with their families, 22% of them managed to integrate other chores in their daily routines, and 20% of them dedicated their free time to other leisure activities. In France, 71% of the employees that received prepaid CESU vouchers from their employers used this instrument for childcare. Indeed, beneficiaries are mostly women (68%), aged between 30 and 49 years old (79%), with a monthly income ranging from €1,200 to €2,200 (60%).
