Tackling undeclared work in the PHS sector

On March 2022, PHS Social Partners issued a set of recommendations calling Member States, the European Labour Authority and the European Commission to implement concrete actions that will contribute to the reduction of undeclared work in PHS.

EFFAT, EFFE, EFSI and UNI Europa wished to jointly contribute to the debate following an online seminar of the European Platform Tackling Undeclared Work held on March 10, 2022 devoted to addressing the issue in the care and personal and household services sector. Firstly, the statement looks into the many drivers of informality in PHS and stresses that the major one remains the relative cost and the complexity of hiring a domestic worker or affordability of doing so in relation to one’s income and need.

Therefore, they underline the importance of encompassing all drivers of undeclared work when designing a policy to tackle it in the PHS sector. Whereas the sector is expected to expand in the coming years, PHS Social Partners consider that in the current state, this expansion will lead to development of undeclared work rather than formal work. Therefore, they issued a set of recommendations calling Member States, the European Labour Authority and the European Commission to implement concrete actions that will contribute to the reduction of undeclared work in PHS.

The full statement is available here.