site.btaLabour Inspectorate Finds over 12,000 Violations in Agriculture in Ten Months

The General Labour Inspectorate has established over 12,000 breaches of labour legislation in the agriculture sector so far this year, the Executive Agency said on Wednesday.

As of October 31, when the active agricultural season ends, a total of 3,756 inspections in agriculture found 12,487 violations of labour legislation.

This is an at-risk sector for undeclared work and health and safety violations. There were 7,354 health and safety violations and 5,119 violations of employment relationships. There were 211 instances of work without an employment contract.

The General Labour Inspectorate said that short-term seasonal employment contracts had been introduced to ease hiring and bring to light employer-employee relations. In the first ten months of the year, the Executive Agency provided 252,877 samples of one-day contracts.

Those contracts help farmers hire people without reporting the signing and termination of employment contracts to the National Revenue Agency, while employees are still entitled to social assistance and insurance.

Early in 2023, the General Labour Inspectorate launched a special campaign for prevention of undeclared work, which is high on its agenda at all times.