On average every other spot check in the horeca industry discovers one or more rules violations, according to the annual reports by Sirs (information and social research service) relayed by Le Soir and the Sudpresse group papers on Monday. Rates of “positive” testing in the horeca sector vary between 45% and 55% since 2007. In 2013, out of 3,956 instances of fraud in horeca businesses, 3,106 involved illegal employment.
These figures are no surprise to Yvan Roque, president of the Brussels Horeca sector federation. “Businesses in the catering industry can not meet the expenses because they have no margins," he says.
The building industry is hardly doing better, as the number of cases registered skyrocketed to around 38% in 2012 and 2013. The larger part of the infringements concerned illegal employment with 1,613 cases among 2013's 1,781 infringements.
(Source: Belga)
