Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-09-06-Speech-3-391"
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"en.20000906.17.3-391"2
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"Mr President, when we talk about undeclared work, let us not forget that we are talking about construction workers, who more exposed than anyone to bad weather and accidents at work, and that our discussions concern the outcasts working in sweatshops, deprived of any social status, often including the right to residence.
To these people we must also add workers in the new economy, whose working hours, time between shifts, and salaries are subject to the hazards of excessive insecurity and flexibility. In short, we are talking about a form of exploitation in the workplace, which admittedly is detrimental to public finances due to lost revenue from tax and social contributions, but we must never forget that we are talking about the exclusion to which, according to the Commission, between 10 and 28 million citizens of the European Union are reduced. Far from stigmatising these victims, we should be concerning ourselves with a specific type of employer criminality.
Lumping together those offering this type of work and those accepting it is inappropriate, even shocking. The report that has been submitted to us is not entirely free from reproach in this respect, and nor, what is more, is the Commission's communication. What should we do? Integrate undeclared work into the labour market or adapt the job market to the existence of these excessively flexible types of work?
I fear that proposals consisting of reducing taxes and contributions and increasing the flexibility of the job market will only lead to even greater deregulation of the labour market, at the risk of these precursors of excessive flexibility eventually becoming legitimate. As the report that has been submitted to us indicates, poverty fosters the prosperity of the black economy, obliging employees and the self-employed to accept it.
Staunchly fighting for the creation of quality activities and jobs, paying attention to working conditions and limiting insecurity are the surest methods of reducing the attractiveness of undeclared work in all sectors.
Measures also need to be taken to prevent certain conditions for sub-contracting and the award of public contracts from leading small businesses or the self-employed to seek illegal ways of achieving the profit margins forbidden to them by contractors.
We do not need to regulate less, but rather to give greater resources to the authorities responsible for monitoring work. In some States, the Labour Code stipulates that every illegal contract must be re-classed as a full-time, permanent contract. That would certainly be a very active policy and a strong incentive for the employers concerned to regularise the situation."@en1
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