Business warns against fines for hiring illegal workers

BusinessEurope, the European employers’ organisation, has warned that a European Commission proposal to impose financial and criminal penalties on those who hire illegal workers is "disproportionate" and will introduce "burdensome and costly administrative requirements".

BusinessEurope said that it had "serious concerns" about the proposal and warned that it did not respect member states’ competence.

"Against the background of demographic ageing and labour shortages that impact adversely on growth and competitiveness, Europe should be particularly cautious not to take well-intentioned but ill-conceived initiatives that could have detrimental long-term consequences," a position paper by BusinessEurope says.

It says that the proposal would "impose disproportionate sanctions".

The criticism from BusinessEurope, which represents all the major employers’ groups in Europe, follows the decision by the UK and Ireland not to opt in to the Commission proposal following lobbying by their national employers groups.

Member states are concerned about the proposal including a requirement to inspect 10% of businesses per year for illegal workers.

At a meeting yesterday (30 October), member state experts also referred to a judgement last week by the European Court of Justice which some experts say questioned the Commission’s competence to levy criminal penalties in areas outside environmental law. The BusinessEurope paper says: "It is not fully clear whether the EU has the competence to take measures which relate to member states’ criminal law." The Commission proposal to criminalise businesses which employ at least four illegal workers, "does not make sense…as just one worker would be enough to consider a behaviour a criminal offence", according to BusinessEurope.

The group opposes measures such as closure of premises, unless the employment of illegal workers is linked to trafficking, since "member states are best placed to decide on and set effective sanctions".

The group is also opposed to attempts in the Commission proposal to harmonise definitions of employment, employer and employee, saying this "enters into the area of national labour legislation". "Such definitions are and should be left to the discretion of member states, bearing in mind variations in concepts and traditions," the paper adds.

The group criticises the Commission’s ambition to make employers pay for the cost of returning illegal workers to their home countries, since this "would be justified only if workers have been deliberately recruited for illegal employment or ‘trafficked’ into the country by the employer who is employing them".

Sabine Craenen of the Organisation for Undocumented Workers told a seminar at the Centre for European Policy Studies this week (29 October) that American attempts to impose heavy sanctions for the firing of illegal workers had not been successful. In 1986 measures were introduced when there were between 2.5 and 3.5 million illegal workers in the US. This figure had now risen to between 11 and 12 million illegal workers, she said.

The measures would drive the practice of employing illegal workers further underground and force illegal migrants to seek the help of criminal organisations and traffickers, Craenen said. "Exploitation should be punished, not the employing of undocumented workers," she added.

BusinessEurope, the European employers’ organisation, has warned that a European Commission proposal to impose financial and criminal penalties on those who hire illegal workers is "disproportionate" and will introduce "burdensome and costly administrative requirements".