Financiarul

According to Ministry of Labour Secretary of State Valentin Mocanu, the illegal work phenomenon reached ‘alarming levels.’ He could not provide accurate statistical data, but when characterizing the extent of this phenomenon, Mocanu based his considerations on the assessments regarding the dimensions of the underground economy and on the difference between the declared official household incomes and the consumption level.

The official also warned against the ‘gray market labour’ issue, which is the national minimum wage paid under a labour agreement plus other unreported additional amounts. An indicator related to this phenomenon, in the private sector, is that out of a total 2.5 million labour agreements, 1.5 million of them stipulate the national minimum wage.

With respect to employers, it is obvious that they accept to hire people without the legal formalities in order to pay less taxes, especially given that these taxes are more and more numerous. The Ministry is developing a study in order to identify the main reasons behind the employees’ decision to work on the black market.
Mocanu says that first come the difficult social situation and the lack of information, elements that determine mainly the poorly qualified people to ‘foolishly’ accept this status. These people accept to gain immediate advantages, believing that otherwise part of the money would go to the ‘state.’

‘We cannot speak of the black market labour annihilation, but of a level at which it can be tolerated,’ said Mocanu. On the other hand, Labour Minister Mihai Seitan said that the social insurance budget deficit in the first two months of this year was 1.5 billion lei (1 euro=4.1 lei). The all-year deficits will be covered from the consolidated budget, so that there is no risk of suspending the pension payments.