Regional Cooperation Council’s (RCC) Employment and Social Affairs Platform Project (ESAP2) is convening an online meeting with representatives of Ministries of Labour, Labour Inspections and Tax Authorities from the six Western Balkan economies to review current policy measures introduced to support the transition into declared work and future plans on this front.  

Undeclared work traditionally represents a significant challenge for the Western Balkan economies, as the rate of undeclared work in the region is in the area between 18-30%. Lately, due to the lockdown measures caused by the corona virus pandemic, the undeclared workers have been disproportionately affected since they generally work in low productivity jobs and have little to no savings, which could act as a buffer during the crisis. They are also often excluded from the COVID-19 short-term measures implemented by the governments.  Western Balkan economies have developed measures to ease the impact of the pandemic on economy and jobs and several of them have also introduced measures targeting formalization of undeclared workers.

This meeting, bringing together key regional actors and the International Labour Organization (ILO), will also discuss and agree on the regional cooperation objectives and activities for tackling undeclared work, developed in the framework of ESAP 2.