Brief Comments on the European Union Strategies for Preventing and Combating Undeclared Work

In social life, undeclared work has acquired economic and legal connotations that are more and more pronounced, with major influences on social security systems on the one hand and on budget revenues on the other. Therefore, knowing the causes of this phenomenon, the forms of manifestation in each EU Member State, may determine a more realistic assessment of the social-economic impact, and may also identify legal action ways of reducing illicit work. In a European Union which has set the objective to create more and saferjobs, the vulnerability of theose under undeclared employment is an important problem, whose solution can be found not only at European level. Identification of the means of action against undeclared work is a concern of each Member State of the European Union, due to the fact that the underground economy undermines national social programs and funding has a negative effect on economic growth. In this respect, the Community institutions have proposed the Member States, for effectively combating undeclared work, reducing work-related taxes and bureaucracy, and a more active involvement of society in the fight against undeclared work. Also, undeclared work could be reduced by improving checks taken by authorities in all categories of employers. In the context of a labor market with normative dimensions in constant evolution, the employee status is quite difficult. In consistence with the principle of protecting employee rights, labor law has imposed new measures that counterbalance the employer’s position of authority within the employment relationship, both at European and national levels. These include the obligation to inform the employee about the essential elements of his working relationship, obligation established at European level by Council Directive 91/533/EEC of 14 October 1991, and at national level by the Labor Code