Informed discussion about how to tackle undeclared work in the 27 Member States of the European Union has been severely hampered by a lack of understanding of the nature of undeclared work. The new report from Eurofound, based on a Eurobarometer survey and an examination of policy measures, reveals that that some 5% of the surveyed population had carried out undeclared work during the 12 months prior to the 2007 survey. It also reveals that almost one in five undeclared jobs are found in the household services sector, which includes domestic cleaning services, as well as child and elder care provision.
Across the EU, a majority (55%) of all undeclared work is conducted for friends, family and neighbours, the report found. A further 20% is conducted on a self-employed basis for other private persons or households, while just 20% related to undeclared waged employment. The remaining 5% is unrecorded or not known.
There are, however, big differences between countries. On the one hand, in some countries, the participation rate is much higher, including Denmark (18%), Latvia (15%), the Netherlands (13%), Estonia (11%) and Sweden (10%). In the other countries, levels are low, for example in Germany (3%), Ireland (4%) and in Romania (4%). While undeclared workers participated in this form of work for an average of almost 200 hours during the past 12 months across the EU as whole, undeclared workers in southern Europe appear to have worked an average of 350 hours in this sphere compared with 330 hours among central eastern Europeans, 110 hours among those in Continental Europe and 60 hours in the Nordic countries.
'Undeclared work is one of the issues of common concern in the employment field in Europe, but our work shows that it is not the same everywhere, especially when looking at the types of undeclared work, its sectoral distribution and the motives for engaging in such work,' says Radoslaw Owczarzak, the Eurofound research manager behind the report. 'Our report is aimed at creating a common understanding of the size and nature of undeclared work, and to propose a platform where social partners can pool and share knowledge on how to tackle it.'
In a direct response to calls from the European Commission and the European Parliament, Eurofound is also launching today an online database with 100 case studies examining effective policies tackling undeclared work. The database is an important first step in producing a comprehensive learning hub for European social policymakers on how best meet the challenges of undeclared work, review evaluations of policy initiatives and explore their feasibility and transferability to other sectors and areas.
