From 15 to 60 per cent is estimated to be the number of black workers in Kosovo

There are actually different measurements, but there are no accurate statistics we can say, because recent measurements were made in 2017, referring to 2015 data<18x1>, says Ilir Murtezaj of the Kosovo Tax Administration.

Yusuf Azem, chairman of the Private Sector Workers Union, says over 60 per cent of the sector's employees are without employment contracts.

“The situation of workers in Kosovo's private sector is heavy, since it is known that the pandemic has made it its own, but even the undeterred private sector workers have been in very serious condition and no signal is seen that something will be done well. When we mention the job-free issue, it has now become almost normal to say that workers are out of business contracts even to the owners of companies and the state have become perfectly normal, we for years have shown that the figure has now gone beyond 60 percent”, he says.

Arton Qerkuni from the Kosovo Labour Inspectorate complains of the lack of sufficient number of inspectors.

We've been active somewhere around 36 inspectors who, in relation to the number of subjects registered to the Ministry of Commerce, indicate that the number of inspectors should be fivefold. However, with the opportunities we have, we are trying to do the best we can to”, he says.

According to Mr. Qerkini, the sectors where the undeclared employment phenomenon is most widespread are gastronomia, construction, agriculture and general productivity.

Mr. Azemi says it's not just a small number of inspectors.

The number of inspectors is not necessarily due because we have many cases when in some way the blessing of inspectors becomes these abuses and we have a small number of inspectors doing the job properly”, he says.

Professor Ardiana Gashi has conducted a series of studies on the issue. According to a study funded by the European Union “assisting the Labour Inspectorate in Fighting Undeclared”, she says, in Kosovo more contract-free jobs are performed by men, lower-level schooling persons, those with professions demanding lower degrees of skills, as well as those in the villages. The consequences of this phenomenon in the country's economy are numerous, she says.

Profiling undeclared work also undermines competition among businesses. When research is done and people ask what is the obstacle to doing business, it turns out that operating in the market with competitors working in black is an obstacle. The other is simply less inflow for the state budget and less opportunities to develop economic and social welfare”, says Mrs. Gashi.

She says the country must take measures to reduce the undeclared labour rate, not only through fines from the Inspectorate.

The first “is to make it a legal obligation for the worker to register before starting work. Currently, if you go and meet an undeclared employee at a job, the employer may say that he started today or two days ago, and this hinders the work of the Tax Administration and the” Inspectorate. The second recommendation is that a registry of workers should be made, in Kosovo there is no such registry, the only institution that has data, even that very little, is the Tax Administration and the Pension Fund”, says Mrs. Gashi.

The important one, according to her, is citizens' awareness of the importance and benefits of the declared work, which was witnessed even during COVID-19's pandemic, when the state offered assistance to declared employees.

Ilir Murtezaj from the Tax Administration says that the number of employees with contracts has increased markedly along the pandemic.

If we take the reference period, let's take January 2021 in relation to January 2019, it turns out we have 15.6 percent growth of declared employees. And if we take it on January 2020, we have an increase of 5.7 percent”, he says.

Fighting this phenomenon, according to Mr. Murtezaj, requires inter-institute co-ordination, while urging citizens to report undeclared work whenever they face it. Meanwhile, Mr. Azemi from the Private Sector Workers Union warns that if the number of young and professional people who can seek solutions abroad is not improved, it will always be larger. /voa/