LABOUR Minister Ľudovít Kaník said that the two-week campaign against illegal employment, codenamed Vietor (Wind), resulted in employers sending more than 19,300 applications to register employees with social security provider Sociálna poisťovňa (SP).
Employers also informed SP of the creation of 38,600 jobs, according to the SITA news agency.
"This is a much larger number of jobs than will be created, for example, by Korean carmaker Hyundai/KIA's investment into an assembly plant in Slovakia," said Kaník, adding that last year in April, only 4,566 new policyholders were registered at SP.
Between April 4 and April 15 labour offices and labour inspectors carried out 7,077 checks and discovered 525 employers illegally employing 990 people. Most frequently the employer had failed to register the employee with SP prior to the employee starting work. This is part of Slovakia's new law against illegal employment that took effect from April 1, 2005.
Fewer employees were discovered who had not yet signed employment contracts, though they were registered with SP. Out of the 990 illegally working citizens who the inspectors discovered during the campaign, 143 were registered as unemployed and 67 drew social benefits. Almost 50 percent of those discovered working illegally worked in restaurants and pubs, more than 37 percent in shops, printing houses and bakery facilities, 11 percent worked in wood processing and forestry and only 2.2 percent in the construction industry.
