Glossary

Portable document certifying that a mobile worker in the European Union or EFTA countries and Switzerland is registered in the social security system of the country that issued it

Concluded between Member States/EEA countries in written form and governed by European and/or international law. Bilateral agreements are agreements with binding rights and obligations between two Member States/EEA countries which describe in detail the specific responsibilities of, and actions to be taken by, each of the parties, with a view to accomplishing their goals in the area of undeclared work and related areas.

Cooperation between authorities in two countries.

Often referred to as false self-employment or dependent self-employment, this is commonly understood as involving persons/workers registered as self-employed whose conditions of employment are de facto dependent employment. National legislation and/or court decisions determine this status. This employment status is used to circumvent tax and/or social insurance liabilities, or employers’ responsibilities.

[OECD (2014) Employment Outlook 2014. Paris: OECD.]

national carriage of goods for hire or reward carried out on a temporary basis in a host Member State by a vehicle registered in another Member State or when the employer is not established in the Member State where domestic transport operations are carried out

liability of a company for a harm caused by its business partners extending the legal responsibility up in the supply chain

Measures to improve commitment to being compliant with labour, tax and social insurance laws and regulations among the public. Measures might include promoting the benefits of declared work, education initiatives, and promoting tax fairness, procedural justice and redistributive justice.

[Eurofound (2013), op cit.]

A tool for reporting abuses/malpractices in the field on labour laws, social security and taxes. These can use different mediums (e.g., telephone hotlines, websites, emails of different authorities), and be targeted at different forms of violation including labour, tax and/or social insurance violations. They can be hosted by enforcement bodies or by social partners. Companies also have internal systems to handle malpractices.

The act of obeying an order, rule, regulation or request. Compliance with a law means doing what is required to operate in the declared economy.

Sometimes referred to as a ‘white list’, this is a list of businesses or individuals who have been compliant over a time period and therefore are regarded as acceptable or trustworthy, and often rewarded with benefits (e.g., they can tender for public procurement contracts).

inspection carried out in two or more Member States simultaneously on related cases, with each national authority operating in its territory, and supported, where appropriate, by the European Labour Authority staff.

Action of the European Labour Authority to assist Member States to cooperate better across borders, to benefit from being part of an EU-wide network and to develop tools which facilitate their work and support capacity building

process of enhancing relations between Member States to overcome problems and foster the willingness to cooperate in relation to the mobility of workers.

Voluntary cooperation between EU/EEA countries national competent authorities to enforce legal obligations and combat undeclared work, occupational health and safety, etc. of mobile workers and businesses. This can involve the exchange of information and data, investigations and inspections, and/or preventative activities.

process aimed at hiring candidates from abroad, consisting of promotion for a job vacancy, a selection procedure and job offer, organised and led by an employer or facilitated by recruitment specialists from public employment services or private entities

The large-scale comparison of records or files collected or held for different purposes, with a view to identifying matters of interest. With data matching, two or more sets of collected data are compared (comparison of records). This process allows potentially fraudulent claims and payments to be better identified.

[De Wispelaere, F. and Pacolet, J. (2017), op. cit.]

A set of automated techniques used to extract buried or previously unknown pieces of information from large databases. Through the use of data mining, correlations or patterns among dozens of fields in large relational databases can be identified. This process allows potentially fraudulent claims and payments to be better identified.

[De Wispelaere, F. and Pacolet, J. (2017), op. cit.]

The process of making data available to other users.  Sharing of data both between enforcement authorities within Member States and on a cross-national level is important for tackling undeclared work. Legislative and technical constraints often prevent data sharing within and between Member States.

[De Wispelaere, F. and Pacolet, J. (2017), op. cit.]

The enforcement of compliance by increasing the perceived or actual risks of detection (through for example more effective joint workplace inspections) and/or by increasing the actual or perceived sanctions.

[Eurofound (2013), op cit.]

Policy measures that enhance the power of authorities by using either a deterrence approach and/or incentives.