11,500 jobs emerge due to citizen complaints of labor fraud

More than 30,000 inspections have been carried out in five years following citizen complaints of fraud, resulting in 11,500 jobs being created

The Ministry of Employment and Social Security is very satisfied with the public's collaboration in the fight against labour fraud, through the electronic mailbox that the Department launched for this purpose in 2013.

In the five years it has been in operation - until December 2017 - the device has provided the following data to the Labour Inspectorate: "The information has allowed the completion of 31,245 inspections, which have resulted in 11,437 jobs and the processing of liquidation files for a total amount of more than eleven million euros."

The balance of the electronic mailbox is included in the Strategic Plan of the Labor and Social Security Inspection for the period 2018-2020.

It is true that, compared to the total data of the fight against illegal employment, the results of the electronic mailbox are small: 11,437 legalized jobs represent 2.251 TP3T of the 506,274 that surfaced in the six years of the general plan to fight against labor fraud, which came into force in 2012.

Eleven million raised

The eleven million euros collected from the liquidation of investigation files on irregular work represent 1.25% of the 878.60 million collected by the Labour Inspectorate in this matter of employment fraud.

However, the satisfaction of the labour administration lies more in the fact that the electronic mailbox has opened up new avenues of investigation for the Labour Inspectorate, as a consequence of the opening of citizen collaboration. A path that had never been explored by the administration, beyond that coming from the workers of the companies themselves.

The Labour and Social Security Inspection Plan thus highlights that "the communications received in the aforementioned mailbox have not only served to bring about employment, but are also proving to be a very useful tool for planning inspection actions." And also, to respond to situations of violation of the fundamental rights of workers."

Anonymous complaints

The anonymous nature of the mailbox is a fundamental element that the Ministry highlights in order to assess its function. Thus, the Department of Fátima Báñez, underlines that, with this instrument, "it is possible to improve citizen collaboration, as well as overcome the resistance that workers and other people may have to communicate the labour breaches of which they are aware through the ordinary procedure of the complaint, which requires the identification of the person who makes it."

Dissemination of the operation

The Ministry notes that it has disseminated the function of the electronic complaint mailbox, explaining its objectives to employers and unions, and at conferences and seminars.

In five years, there has been no record of any complaints from unions about the operation of the system. It is also true that the Ministry of Employment has never published the results of the electronic mailbox, as it does now in the Labour and Social Security Inspection Plan until 2020.

In any case, the Employment Office highlights that "this direct means of communication between citizens and the administration has become a very important source of information that has allowed the planned actions of the Labour and Social Security Inspectorate to be improved in the fight against the underground economy."

For all these reasons, the Government intends to "extend the functionality of the mailbox for combating employment fraud to other social matters." This means that the Ministry is considering using the electronic device to also report irregularities in Social Security benefits, the prevention of occupational risks or the existence of fictitious companies.

In fact, citizen complaints often lead to the Labour Inspectorate along these paths. Thus, Fátima Báñez's Department has planned to develop a computer system over the next three years that will allow "visualisation of fraud patterns" and, therefore, potentially anticipate the possibilities of crime, based on "intensive management of available information".