New European Platform tackles undeclared work

The European Commission joins forces with Member States and stakeholders in a further step to fight social dumping and to ensure fairness on the European labour market.

Today, a new European Platform on undeclared work has been launched. The network aims at turning undeclared into declared work, thus ensuring social protection for millions of Europeans who lose out through various kinds of risky job arrangements, including dependent work relationships hidden as self-employment.

Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility, Marianne Thyssen, said at the launch event this morning: "This Commission vowed to put people at the heart of our policymaking and here, we have taken bold action to defend our social values and to strengthen fairness in our common market. For us it is clear: there is no place for unfair working conditions and social dumping in our European Union."

The Platform is composed of the relevant authorities of all Member States and representatives of cross-industry social partners on EU level. Chaired by the Commission, the Platform will discuss ways and means of how to improve policies and measures tackling undeclared work, foster cooperation between national authorities and other actors, also regarding the cross-border aspects of undeclared work. Additionally, it focuses on increasing public awareness of the issue.

A multitude of sectors with a high incidence of undeclared work will be represented on the Platform, such as agriculture, tourism, construction, security services, cleaning, commerce and road transport. The Platform will meet twice a year and define a work programme. The Commission suggests focusing in the beginning on three priorities:

• Gaining better knowledge about the different forms of undeclared work,.
• Helping members to learn from each other by the exchange of good practices,.
• Encouraging joint activities, for example staff exchanges, joint inspections at cross-border level or campaigns.