Brouns wants to tackle the abuse of economic migration more seriously | Inland

In the first place, Brouns argues for greater responsibility for clients and contractors. This should prevent companies that work through subcontractors from evading their liability. Today, they can contractually state that they are not responsible for breaches committed by a subcontractor. This implies that they cannot be prosecuted, even if the main contractor turned out to be aware. Minister Brouns wants to delete that possibility to contractually exclude liability.

Fines should also be increased. Today, a company can be fined between 1,800 and 18,000 euros per undocumented person employed. Flanders wants these fines to be in line with federal legislation. In the Social Criminal Code, for example, the administrative fines are between 300 and 3,000 euros, an amount that you have to multiply by a factor of 8, the so-called surcharges.

In addition, extra attention is paid to the handling of files of major applicants for work permits. Within the economic migration service of the Department of Work and Social Economy, a cell is being set up to handle such large applications. Additional staff (3 full-time employees) will be recruited for this purpose. And within the Flemish Social Inspectorate there will also be a new cell – and extra staff – which should significantly boost the number of checks.

“We have an overview of every foreign worker who is employed with a work permit. However, they often do not dare to sound the alarm in the event of exploitation, because of the power relations with their employer. With a proactive approach, we can take major steps in this regard.” said Minister Brons.

He also hopes that the sectors will react alertly to situations involving unfair competition. This can be done, for example, through awareness-raising campaigns and through cooperation with the inspection services. In the event of serious infringements by an employer, the victims will be referred to the VDAB. They can guide them to new work.