The State Labor Inspectorate will have several levers to combat informal work
The State Labor Inspectorate will have several levers to combat informal work. The government approved, during Wednesday's meeting, a draft decision that provides for the amendment of the Law on the State Labor Inspectorate, the Criminal Code, the Law on state control over entrepreneurial activity and the Law on the public social insurance system.
According to the changes, labor inspectors will be empowered with the right to carry out unannounced checks based on information supported by evidence regarding undeclared or under-declared employment. This will allow more efficient identification of cases of undeclared work. Also, the State Labor Inspectorate will be able to examine contraventions regarding undeclared and underdeclared work and apply sanctions without going to court. At the same time, it will be able to apply methods and indirect sources for estimating the amount of unpaid contributions to detect cases of "envelope" salary payments. Moreover, the State Labor Inspectorate will notify the State Fiscal Service about the finding of the use of informal work in the employers' activity. The project also proposes the introduction of some incompatibilities regarding the function of labor inspector to ensure minimum rules of professional integrity in the inspector's activity, in accordance with the provisions of the Global Code of Integrity for Labor Inspection. According to the data of the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2021, about 192,000 people worked informally, mostly in agriculture, construction, trade and industry, undeclared work constituting almost a quarter of the economy of the Republic of Moldova. As a result, in 2022 there is a deficit of almost 5 billion lei in the social insurance budget, and the total fiscal losses are estimated at 15 billion lei annually, reads a press release from the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection.
