In August this year the European Migration Network published a report on illegal employment of third-country nationals in the EU.
The comparative study covered 23 Member States and addressed the issues of statistical data, preventive measures, identification, sanctions for employers and outcomes for third-country nationals.
Being the UE’s policy objective, tackling illegal employment brings states to adopt new measures and practices in this regard. Apart from introducing or increasing sanctions (while the actual application of sanctions plays big part in them having a deterrent effect) states employ wider array of measures, such as for example establishing lists of ‘trusted’ or ‘unreliable’ employers (forms of them existing in the Czech Republic or Denmark, where employers found guilty of illegal employment of foreigners would be excluded from public contracts). One of the most common preventive measures employed by the states are awareness and information campaigns.
The report addressed the question of compensation of unpaid wages for foreigners found to be illegally employed. The report shows, sadly, that there is some reluctance on the part of foreigners to claim for back payments.
As the report did not cover Poland it can be mentioned here, that the Polish law introduces strict obligations for employers regarding the verification of the foreigners legal status as well as sanctions for employing migrants staying illegaly. At the same time the law provides foreigners with a possibility of claiming unpaid wages from the employers.