In order to fight undeclared work, INPS has instructed its inspectors to carry out special inspections especially in the firms owned and managed by foreigners.
The “ethnic firms”, as INPS calls them, are on the top of the list of the firms to be inspected this year.
In a circular letter, INPS said that special inspections will be carried out in the ethnic firms as well as in those with immigrant workers.
Such firms, according to INPS, usually operate without respecting labour, social security and financial rules. INPS also believes that ethnic firms usually exploit hired workers. This special attention on ethnic firms is being justified as a response to the recently approved European Directive against employers of illegal immigrants.
The so-called Sanctions Directive, asks the Member States to conduct effective inspections sufficiently frequently to check on the employment of non-EU nationals in an irregular situation. Employers are required to check that their non-EU employees have a valid residence permit and inform a national authority of any new recruitments of non-EU nationals.
This Directive, however, doesn’t say that ethnic firms should be inspected.
FP-CGIL Trade Union has criticised the measure, saying that it smells racist. It will not be of great help in fighting undeclared work, FP-CGIL said.
The trade union observed that the hunt for firms owned by Chinese, Senegalese hawkers or Indian restaurants gives an impression that only firms owned by non-EU citizens break the law.
Mr. Alfredo Garzi, National Secretary of FP-CGIL said that INPS is creating the equation: foreigner = illegal. He said it is not understandable why a foreign employer should break the law more than an Italian employer. Often foreign workers are hired by Italian employers and not always in a regular manner, he added.
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