Improving the involvement of social partners in tackling undeclared work: a learning resource

On 19th April 2021, the Western Balkan Network Tackling Undeclared Work held an online seminar that brought together representatives from enforcement authorities and social partners. The intention was to discuss and share understanding of the major challenges they face in pursuing greater cooperation and provide tips for other Western Balkan economies on how these challenges might be addressed. It was also an opportunity to explore the scope for greater cooperation and to share learning on the type of initiatives that social partners can pursue to protect legitimate businesses and workers by transforming undeclared work into declared work.

Around 40 participants from the Ministries of Labour, Labour Inspectorates, Tax Authorities and social partners (representatives of trade unions and employers’ associations) across the Western Balkans exchanged views and contributed to peer learning by answering the key discussion topics: identifying major challenges in developing greater cooperation; ways to improve the cooperation between social partners and authorities; and naming practical steps that could be undertaken to improve cooperation.

The aim of this learning resource is to summarise the discussion at the seminar. To do so, section 2 reports the discussion on the scope for greater cooperation between enforcement authorities and social partners, section 3 reports the discussion on the types of initiatives in which social partners could become more involved and section 4 the next steps that can be taken.