The Coronavirus pandemic has led to restrictions on movement and workplace closures, resulting in governments offering temporary financial support to enterprises and workers. This paper evaluates a group unable to access this financial support, namely those in the undeclared economy, and possible policy responses. To identify the service industries and workers involved, a late 2019 Eurobarometer survey of undeclared work in Europe is reported. This reveals that undeclared work is particularly prevalent in the hospitality, retail and personal services sectors and identifies the population groups over-represented. Given that this undeclared workforce is now largely unable to work, it will be argued that providing access to temporary financial support, through a voluntary disclosure initiative, would be a useful initiative not only to provide the income support these enterprises and workers need but also to bring them out of the shadows and put them on the radar of the state authorities.
PurposeUntil now, there has been scant evidence on the proportion and characteristics of employees working without a written contract or terms of employment. To begin to fill this gap, the aim of this paper is to evaluate the prevalence and distribution of employees without written contracts or terms of employment in the European Union (EU), examining whether they are unevenly distributed across countries and EU regions, and whether it is vulnerable population groups who are more likely to be without such written contracts. MethodologyTo do this, a 2013 Eurobarometer survey comprising 11,025 face-to-face interviews with employees in the 28 member states of the European Union (EU-28) is reported. FindingsThe finding is that it is less socio-demographic and socio-economic characteristics, and more firm size, institutional environment and spatial factors that are important in explaining the prevalence of employment without a written contract. Thus, governments should address not individuals but rather, the formal institutional failings and asymmetry between civic and state morality, in order to reduce the level of employment without a written contract, and focus their attention on smaller firms, larger towns and Southern European countries, especially Cyprus, Malta and Portugal. Research limitationsFuture research needs to evaluate whether and how the conditions of employment (e.g., wage rates, health and safety conditions, holiday entitlements) of employees without written contracts or terms of employment differ to their equivalents who have written contracts or terms of employment. This will reveal the implications of workers not being issued with written contracts or terms of employment.2 Originality/value This is one of the first extensive evaluations of the prevalence and distribution of employees without written contracts or terms of employment.
In less than a decade, Turkey has become home to some 4 million Syrians due to the bloody conflict across much of its southern border. That only a fraction of those refugees live in designated camps with the overwhelming majority spread about the country has led to hostile sentiments among some natives who blame Syrians for taking away their jobs. Still, research about the impact of Syrians on Turkish labour market outcomes is too limited. Empirical findings analysing micro-level data find either no impact or just abysmall changes to natives’ formal employment rates but rather declines in rates of informal employment. This paper presents the findings of a three-month fieldwork in Istanbul’s informal textile sector. Looking at the issue from the view of employers, it shows that “on average” country-level findings of the empirical analysis might be quite simplifying and sometimes inconsistent depending on the context. By just looking at the issue in a specific/neighbourhood setting, namely informal textile sector in a rather homogenous urban neighbourhood where the main competition in jobs are between Kurds and Syrians, this study shows that employment rates of natives declined in that specific field due to other factors independent of the Syrians.
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