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Conference on illegal employment of foreigners “Preventing illegal employment of foreigners in Poland” was the subject of a conference held at Warsaw University on 11 May 2010. It was organized by National Labour Inspectorate, Social Policy Institute of Warsaw University and Embassy of France. Its objective was to initiate a public debate about the increasingly frequent phenomenon of exploitation by employers of illegally employed foreigners. It is a new social problem, which has recently become visible in our country. The meeting was organized under the auspices of Labour Protection Council affiliated to Parliament. Its vice-chairperson Prof. Danuta Koradecka emphasised that it confirms the significance which the Parliament attaches to addressing problems discussed at the conference.
She pointed out that almost twice as many cases of illegal employment had been identified in Poland in 2009 as in 2008. It leads to the conclusion that the scale of this problem increases. This disturbing dynamics is a reason why the issue requires closer attention, especially that many Polish citizens had personal experiences of going abroad to find a job. Prof. Koradecka expressed the opinion that our society has a moral debt to other nations and therefore we should help people who are looking for a better life in Poland, and ensure decent and just working conditions to them.
Chief Labour Inspector, Tadeusz Jan Zając reminded the audience that it has been almost three years since the National Labour Inspectorate took over the tasks of inspecting legality of employment, also of foreigners. NLI has had to fulfil these new tasks in difficult conditions because of a growing problem of illegal employment of foreigners, and especially more frequent and more serious offences against their rights as employees. Many foreigners do not have their salaries paid, they are made work in breach of working time norms, they are not registered with social insurance and not covered with health insurance, they do not have work contracts in writing, and they are offered accommodation in conditions which are against human dignity. The National Labour Inspectorate has already tried to develop organizational solutions aimed at raising effectiveness of inspections focused on foreigners’ employment and effectiveness of law enforcement with regard to that group of workers. At the beginning of 2009, special sections for employment legality were established in all District Labour Inspectorates. Much attention was attached to proper selection of workplaces for inspection, based on continuous monitoring of illegal labour market. The labour inspectorate has also developed closer cooperation with Border Guards, which is our closest, key and natural partner organization in inspecting legality of foreigners’ employment. Those changes have contributed significantly to increasing effectiveness of inspections. Tadeusz Jan Zając stated that in the previous year labour inspectors had conducted 1.7 thousand visits during which they had checked legality of employment and work performed by over 10.3 thousand foreigners. Breaches of law were identified in 43% of inspected entities, while illegal performance of work by foreigners was proved in almost 13% of inspected workplaces. In the area of legality of employment of foreigners, the most frequent offence was lack of required work permits – as was the case in one fifth of workplaces where this aspect was inspected. Many instances of illegal employment of foreigners were also connected with: performance of work in position or on terms other than those specified in the work permit, and lack of documents necessary for legal stay and work of a foreigner in Poland. Altogether, NLI proved illegal work of nationals from 36 countries. The largest group included foreigners from the former Soviet Union’s republics, mainly Ukraine, and from the Far East, in particular China and Vietnam. In addition, citizens of countries that had not been mentioned in statistics for previous years, among others Philippines, Thailand and Nepal, came to work illegally in Poland in 2009. As determined by labour inspectors, sectors of economy with the highest percentage of illegal work of foreigners included: industrial manufacturing, construction, commerce and repairs. Inspections focused on legality of foreigners’ employment led to identifying 656 offences. Labour inspectors imposed 54 fines on perpetrators. In addition, 335 requests for penalising offenders were submitted to courts and 123 disciplining measures were applied. In 32 cases, inspectors notified the prosecutor’s office about 46 deeds having features of a crime.
At the conference, a report prepared by the Social Policy Institute was presented. It describes the issue of illegal employment in other countries. In Germany, it is estimated that illegally employed foreigners make 10-13% of all unregistered workers – in 2009 it was almost 970 thousand individuals. Recently, specialised inspection authorities have recorded a growing number of cases when they managed to prove illegal employment of workers. In the United Kingdom, the estimated number of illegally employed foreigners is about 500 thousand and in Italy it is between 300 thousand and 1.5 million individuals.
A representative of the French Ministry of Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Solidarity Development, Philippe Garabiol said at the conference that illegal employment of foreigners is related to high social costs, estimated at about 6 million euro annually, due to unpaid social insurance contributions, taxes, etc. In the opinion of the French guest, besides the financial aspect, fight against illegal employment has an equally important ethical aspect arising from republican tradition which says that no one should accept a job on unacceptable terms. Inhuman, slavery work should be eradicated. Illegal work undermines fair competition and market rules – so counteracting it means protecting free competition and free market. Philippe Garabiol said that in France, like in other EU countries, dishonest employers who engage foreigners illegally, are penalised, but it is not the only type of sanctions. Enterprises that employ persons illegally should be prepared for exclusion from public tenders, and even for temporary closure. When talking about the situation in Poland, the conference speakers emphasised that inspection authorities alone are not able to tackle the problem successfully. Intensification of inspections, to whatever degree, shall not give such results as would the creation of a system of properly selected legislative, economic, social or fiscal mechanisms, which would effectively counteract illegal employment. The basic role should belong to clearly defined state policy on fighting illegal work and limiting shadow economy. An additional difficulty in disclosing this malpractice was mentioned: neither an employee, nor an employer are interested in notifying state authorities about illegal employment. The employer does not want to be held responsible for breaching the law, while the worker is glad to have a job, whatever it is. Some workers do not want to work only 8 hours a day, explaining that they came to earn as much money as possible, to pay off high debts to intermediaries who had enabled them to arrive in Poland and find a job. Foreign workers also want to support their families in home countries. The conference was attended by Deputy Chief Labour Inspectors: dr Marian Liwo and Anna Tomczyk, as well as Jarosław Leśniewski, Director of Legality of Employment Department and Małgorzata Kwiatkowska, Director of Department of Cooperation with Parliament and Social Partners at the Chief Labour Inspectorate. |
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