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Document 02009L0052-20090720
Directive 2009/52/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 June 2009 providing for minimum standards on sanctions and measures against employers of illegally staying third-country nationals
Consolidated text: Directive 2009/52/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 June 2009 providing for minimum standards on sanctions and measures against employers of illegally staying third-country nationals
Directive 2009/52/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 June 2009 providing for minimum standards on sanctions and measures against employers of illegally staying third-country nationals
02009L0052 — EN — 20.07.2009 — 000.001
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DIRECTIVE 2009/52/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 18 June 2009 (OJ L 168 30.6.2009, p. 24) |
Corrected by:
DIRECTIVE 2009/52/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL
of 18 June 2009
providing for minimum standards on sanctions and measures against employers of illegally staying third-country nationals
Article 1
Subject matter and scope
This Directive prohibits the employment of illegally staying third-country nationals in order to fight illegal immigration. To this end, it lays down minimum common standards on sanctions and measures to be applied in the Member States against employers who infringe that prohibition.
Article 2
Definitions
For the specific purposes of this Directive, the following definitions shall apply:
‘third-country national’ means any person who is not a citizen of the Union within the meaning of Article 17(1) of the Treaty and who is not a person enjoying the Community right of free movement, as defined in Article 2(5) of the Schengen Borders Code;
‘illegally staying third-country national’ means a third-country national present on the territory of a Member State, who does not fulfil, or no longer fulfils, the conditions for stay or residence in that Member State;
‘employment’ means the exercise of activities covering whatever form of labour or work regulated under national law or in accordance with established practice for or under the direction and/or supervision of an employer;
‘illegal employment’ means the employment of an illegally staying third-country national;
‘employer’ means any natural person or any legal entity, including temporary work agencies, for or under the direction and/or supervision of whom the employment is undertaken;
‘subcontractor’ means any natural person or any legal entity, to whom the execution of all or part of the obligations of a prior contract is assigned;
‘legal person’ means any legal entity having such status under applicable national law, except for States or public bodies exercising State authority and for public international organisations;
‘temporary work agency’ means any natural or legal person who, in compliance with national law, concludes contracts of employment or employment relationships with temporary agency workers in order to assign them to user undertakings to work there temporarily under their supervision and direction;
‘particularly exploitative working conditions’ means working conditions, including those resulting from gender based or other discrimination, where there is a striking disproportion compared with the terms of employment of legally employed workers which, for example, affects workers’ health and safety, and which offends against human dignity;
‘remuneration of illegally staying third-country national’ means the wage or salary and any other consideration, whether in cash or in kind, which a worker receives directly or indirectly in respect of his employment from his employer and which is equivalent to that which would have been enjoyed by comparable workers in a legal employment relationship.
Article 3
Prohibition of illegal employment
Article 4
Obligations on employers
Member States shall oblige employers to:
require that a third-country national before taking up the employment holds and presents to the employer a valid residence permit or other authorisation for his or her stay;
keep for at least the duration of the employment a copy or record of the residence permit or other authorisation for stay available for possible inspection by the competent authorities of the Member States;
notify the competent authorities designated by Member States of the start of employment of third-country nationals within a period laid down by each Member State.
Member States may provide that notification under paragraph 1(c) is not required where the employee has been granted long-term residence status under Council Directive 2003/109/EC of 25 November 2003 concerning the status of third-country nationals who are long-term residents ( 11 ).
Article 5
Financial sanctions
Sanctions in respect of infringements of the prohibition referred to in Article 3 shall include:
financial sanctions which shall increase in amount according to the number of illegally employed third-country nationals; and
payments of the costs of return of illegally employed third-country nationals in those cases where return procedures are carried out. Member States may instead decide to reflect at least the average costs of return in the financial sanctions under point (a).
Article 6
Back payments to be made by employers
In respect of each infringement of the prohibition referred to in Article 3, Member States shall ensure that the employer shall be liable to pay:
any outstanding remuneration to the illegally employed third-country national. The agreed level of remuneration shall be presumed to have been at least as high as the wage provided for by the applicable laws on minimum wages, by collective agreements or in accordance with established practice in the relevant occupational branches, unless either the employer or the employee can prove otherwise, while respecting, where appropriate, the mandatory national provisions on wages;
an amount equal to any taxes and social security contributions that the employer would have paid had the third-country national been legally employed, including penalty payments for delays and relevant administrative fines;
where appropriate, any cost arising from sending back payments to the country to which the third-country national has returned or has been returned.
In order to ensure the availability of effective procedures to apply paragraph 1(a) and (c), and having due regard to Article 13, Member States shall enact mechanisms to ensure that illegally employed third-country nationals:
may introduce a claim, subject to a limitation period defined in national law, against their employer and eventually enforce a judgment against the employer for any outstanding remuneration, including in cases in which they have, or have been, returned; or
when provided for by national legislation, may call on the competent authority of the Member State to start procedures to recover outstanding remuneration without the need for them to introduce a claim in that case.
Illegally employed third-country nationals shall be systematically and objectively informed about their rights under this paragraph and under Article 13 before the enforcement of any return decision.
Article 7
Other measures
Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that employers shall also, if appropriate, be subject to the following measures:
exclusion from entitlement to some or all public benefits, aid or subsidies, including EU funding managed by Member States, for up to five years;
exclusion from participation in a public contract as defined in Directive 2004/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts ( 12 ) for up to five years;
recovery of some or all public benefits, aid, or subsidies, including EU funding managed by Member States, granted to the employer for up to 12 months preceding the detection of illegal employment;
temporary or permanent closure of the establishments that have been used to commit the infringement, or temporary or permanent withdrawal of a licence to conduct the business activity in question, if justified by the gravity of the infringement.
Article 8
Subcontracting
Where the employer is a subcontractor and without prejudice to the provisions of national law concerning the rights of contribution or recourse or to the provisions of national law in the field of social security, Member States shall ensure that the contractor of which the employer is a direct subcontractor may, in addition to or in place of the employer, be liable to pay:
any financial sanction imposed under Article 5; and
any back payments due under Article 6(1)(a) and (c) and Article 6(2) and(3).
Article 9
Criminal offence
Member States shall ensure that the infringement of the prohibition referred to in Article 3 constitutes a criminal offence when committed intentionally, in each of the following circumstances as defined by national law:
the infringement continues or is persistently repeated;
the infringement is in respect of the simultaneous employment of a significant number of illegally staying third-country nationals;
the infringement is accompanied by particularly exploitative working conditions;
the infringement is committed by an employer who, while not having been charged with or convicted of an offence established pursuant to Framework Decision 2002/629/JHA, uses work or services exacted from an illegally staying third-country national with the knowledge that he or she is a victim of trafficking in human beings;
the infringement relates to the illegal employment of a minor.
Article 10
Criminal penalties
Article 11
Liability of legal persons
Member States shall ensure that legal persons may be held liable for the offence referred to in Article 9 where such an offence has been committed for their benefit by any person who has a leading position within the legal person, acting either individually or as part of an organ of the legal person, on the basis of:
a power of representation of the legal person;
an authority to take decisions on behalf of the legal person; or
an authority to exercise control within the legal person.
Article 12
Penalties for legal persons
Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that a legal person held liable pursuant to Article 11 is punishable by effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties, which may include measures such as those referred to in Article 7.
Member States may decide that a list of employers who are legal persons and who have been held liable for the criminal offence referred to in Article 9 is made public.
Article 13
Facilitation of complaints
Article 14
Inspections
In respect of each of those sectors, Member States shall, before 1 July of each year, communicate to the Commission the inspections, both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of the employers for each sector, carried out in the previous year as well as their results.
Article 15
More favourable provisions
This Directive shall be without prejudice to the right of Member States to adopt or maintain provisions that are more favourable to third-country nationals to whom it applies in relation with Articles 6 and 13, provided that such provisions are compatible with this Directive.
Article 16
Reporting
Article 17
Transposition
When they are adopted by Member States, those measures shall contain a reference to this Directive or shall be accompanied by such reference on the occasion of their official publication. The methods of making such reference shall be laid down by Member States.
Article 18
Entry into force
This Directive shall enter into force on the 20th day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
Article 19
Addressees
This Directive is addressed to the Member States in accordance with the Treaty establishing the European Community.
( 1 ) OJ C 204, 9.8.2008, p. 70.
( 2 ) OJ C 257, 9.10.2008, p. 20.
( 3 ) ►C1 Opinion of the European Parliament of 19 February 2009 ◄ (not yet published in the Official Journal) and Council Decision of 25 May 2009.
( 4 ) OJ L 105, 13.4.2006, p. 1.
( 5 ) OJ L 248, 16.9.2002, p. 1.
( 6 ) OJ L 203, 1.8.2002, p. 1.
( 7 ) OJ L 261, 6.8.2004, p. 19.
( 8 ) OJ L 18, 21.1.1997, p. 1.
( 9 ) OJ C 321, 31.12.2003, p. 1.
( 10 ) OJ L 281, 23.11.1995, p. 31.
( 11 ) OJ L 16, 23.1.2004, p. 44.
( 12 ) OJ L 134, 30.4.2004, p. 114.
( 13 ) OJ L 328, 5.12.2002, p. 17.