Many of us have on one or more occasions hired craftsmen such as carpenter and electricians, but done so without paying taxes, and not having the necessary paperwork in order. This is called illicit work ("svart arbeid" in Norwegian), and have a great number of negative consequences. Throughout this blog post I will use craftsmen as an example, but the issues goes for every other illicit work too.

Consequences of illicit work

Let's briefly review some of the negative consequences of illicit work.

Damages to you property

When you hire a craftsman to do illicit work for you, you have nowhere to turn to if you wish to propose a formal complaint. So if the craftsman does a poor job, or even causes damage to your property, you are not entitled to any form of compensation. You won't be able get your insurance company to cover the expenses to repair the damages.

Injuries

If the craftsmen get a serious injury while doing the illicit work for you, you may be held accountable for it. Say the craftsman get a permanent injury to his back, and get disabled, you may end up paying him money every month for the rest of his life. Since the craftsman is not entitled to any financial compensation from the public, she have everything to gain from suing you for a hefty compensation.

Non-illicit craftsmen will go out of business

By hiring illicit craftsmen instead of legal labor, you're a part of system causing craftsmen offering legal labor going out of work.

Contribute to increased criminalization of professions

The trend across Europe is that criminal organizations get a foothold in an increasing number of professions. By supporting illicit work, the you are more likely to support this trend as opposed to hiring legal labor.

You don't contribute your part to the public

By not paying taxes, you play a part in reducing state income. A direct consequence of this is that less money can be spent on everything from hospitals and schools, to medical research and infrastructure.

Other issues

This page sum up some of the points I talked about above, plus as few more:

• No wages during illness
• No holiday allowance
• No accumulation of pension benefits
• No right to unemployment benefits
• No possibility to take out a bank loan
• No employment contract, no references and no documented work experience, making it difficult to find new work

Summary

Illicit labor is the root cause of many problems, both for the craftsman himself and for society in general. By supporting this phenomenon you are part of a problem, not part of a solution.

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