Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 30

By Elchin Mehdiyev, Anvar Mammadov – Trend:

The elimination of illegal employment is one of the main tasks facing the Azerbaijani government, Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the Commission for Regulation and Coordination of Labor Relations Ali Ahmadov said at a press conference in Baku Nov. 30.

“The facts of illegal employment are often observed in trade, catering and service sector in Azerbaijan,” he said. “Illegal employment is the reason for tax evasion.”

"It is impossible to protect the social and labor rights of the population due to unofficial employment,” he said. “This also hinders the process of carrying out the employment statistics in the country.”

Ahmadov called on entrepreneurs to give up illegal employment.

"The Azerbaijani government has created favorable conditions for businessmen, therefore we urge employers to stop illegal employment,” he said. "I also want to urge employees to formalize labor relations.”

“Much work is being done in the country to prevent illegal employment,” Ahmadov added.

"Priority directions are specified in the ‘Plan of measures to prevent illegal employment in Azerbaijan",” he said. “One of the main directions is the creation of a more flexible legal framework. Today, there are a number of gaps in the legislation. While using these gaps, entrepreneurs refuse to conclude employment contracts.”

Another direction is the improvement of administration and control mechanism.

"Penalties for illegal employment in Azerbaijan are not tough as in European countries, so we are going to review the system of sanctions and fines,” Ahmadov said. “We will pay attention to the strengthening of the control mechanism. We need to resort to such a mechanism to reveal illegal employment without resorting to the inspections."