The Social Inspectorate has already checked 1,885 companies in the construction sector this year. The figure amounts to ten checks per day and around 70% of the 2,700 checks anticipated for the whole of 2018. During these initiatives, one in three employees, and one in four self-employed individuals was found to be breaking the law. The announcement came on Tuesday from the Walloon Minister-President, Willy Borsus (Reformist Movement) and the Secretary of State for Social Fraud, Philippe De Backer (Flemish Liberals-Conservative Liberals).
Philippe De Backer stressed, “Never have this many social inspectors carried out anti-fraud and social dumping checks during the day and night.” He explained that an inspection was carried out in Namur on the building site for a future hotel in Suarlée, with the media present. The papers for around 30 workman - Belgians, Romanians, Portuguese and Brazilians - were checked.
Since the beginning of the year, 3,042 employed workers have been checked and 1,075 of them were breaking the law (around one in three). The two ministers stated that this was equally the case for 382 of the 1,274 checked self-employed workers (one in four).
The men added that although illegal workers have been detected during these checks, black-market operations have in particular been highlighted, as have irregularities such as non-valid papers or non-compliance with the rules relating to temporary assignments.
The Brussels Times
