Our View: Crackdown risks worsening labour shortages

The number of inspectors at the labour and social insurance ministry, clamping down on illegal or undeclared work will be doubled, said Labour Minister Marinos Mousiouttas. There were currently eight inspectors, but more positions would be opened soon after a decision was taken by the council of ministers. Mousiouttas said that with more inspectors the service would be able to carry out more workplace checks in the clampdown on illegal and undeclared work. Illegal work was back in the news, because it was reported that on Thursday night the police, labour inspectors and migration officials carried out checks on 16 restaurants and bars and detained 47 people for illegal employment. The detainees were not all living in Cyprus illegally, according to the director of the Industrial Relations department of the ministry, Andis Apostolou. The work these people – mostly students and asylum seekers – were doing was in breach of labour regulations, he said. We suspect he was referring to the law which stipulated the sectors in which students from third countries and asylum seekers could work and because the law did not cover restaurants, their employment was illegal. How the law will deal with these hapless individuals, doing the work that no Cypriot or European citizen would do, we cannot say. The illegal migrants caught will be deported, while an administrative fine will be imposed on the employers, it was reported. In the coming months, Apostolou said, the law will be amended so that administrative fines could be imposed on foreigners working illegally alongside the fines imposed on employers. Why the government wants tougher measures targeting foreigners willing to do the work Cypriots will not touch, is difficult to understand, considering the existing measures have worked extremely well. Apostolou said that the proportion of undeclared work had fallen from 15 per cent in 2017 to 5 per cent in 2025, but illegal employment remained a concern. Why increase the number of inspectors and the administrative fines when undeclared work is merely 5 per cent? Is the government under the illusion that undeclared work can be completely eliminated with tougher fines and more inspections? It will never happen. The clampdown at the height of the tourist season, when there is an acute labour shortage, particularly for menial jobs, which locals consider beneath them, is inexplicable. Has the labour ministry decided to make it even more difficult for restaurants to find waiters and workers for their kitchens? If there were rational officials at the labour ministry, capable of seeing what is in the interest of the economy, their priority would have been a change to the regulations restricting the sectors in which foreign students could work. There was no need to place any restrictions on foreign students, considering the acute labour shortage and the full employment conditions we have been experiencing in the last few years. It really defies belief that the labour ministry mandarins have decided to increase inspections and clamp down on undeclared and illegal employment in these conditions. Was this a demand of the union bosses who have a lot of influence at the labour ministry? One of the reasons for undeclared/illegal work is job restrictions imposed by the ministry on the sector in which foreign students and asylum seekers can work. If there were no restrictions imposed for no other reason than to appease union bosses, there would be even less undeclared/illegal work. Now, if these labour inspectors find few illegal migrants employed in restaurant kitchens, would there be an impact on the migration problem, which, according to the government, is being dealt with effectively anyway? This clampdown, which the labour minister is so proud of, is just another misguided measure by ministry mandarins who have no clue – nor seem to care – about how difficult it is for restaurants and bars to find workers for low-paid menial jobs, which locals would not do even if the wages were doubled. There must be no restrictions on what type of work people who are legally residing in Cyprus can do, particularly at a time of acute labour shortages.