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Reporting illegal working


ruonglue
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Don't worry about it too much devil's advocate.

We had only been here a week or so (or around that as I recall) when the gendarmes turned up wanting to know if my OH was my builder and working on the black.

Told them no, showed them our permit and we haven't seen them since (Oh except the time they fined us for running a stop sign!). Chances are they won't come back and if they do, then what can anyone do if you are just getting a little help from family - pretty much impossible to prove that your helpers are not your family - certainly easy enough to prove that they are I would have thought, if required.

We are registered as a business and we know there are other similar businesses around who are not, and while I understand the sentiments expressed here I think I would find it quite hard to report someone. But that's probably just me being soft.
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Best thing they did when son and one of his friends were out relaying the patio around my swimming pool. They went to the village Bastille Day party, introduced themselves to everyone and said who they were and what they were doing.

Timing was of course fortunate but is sorted any problems before they started.

My son always introduces himself as the future owner of my house and refers to it as "the inheretance".
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  • 2 weeks later...

Going back to the original post and the statement

"I am paying cotisations which support their stay here"

How does that work exactly?....while I do not in any way condone working outside the rules aren't these characters doing so rather than drawing against funds raised by cotisations?

I am not stirring...I genuinely don't know how that part of the system works...I couldn't imagine myself ever claiming 'French benefits' even if I lived there I wouldn't feel entitled unless I had paid in.

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[quote user="Richard51"][quote user="Stan Streason"]My son always introduces himself as the future owner of my house and refers to it as "the inheretance".[/quote]

Your son sounds just like our kids [:)]...little do they know we have a cunning plan to spend it!

Mrs R51
[/quote]

SKI ng.[:)]

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There is another side to this coin.....There are French artisans who will not do work for Brits...  . I  was wondering why one guy in the village would not get back to me after leaving more than one  message with his wife I had a job for him..I later  found out  that after falling out with a British customer he decided never to work for them again .  I did the job myself in the end after looking up how on the internet . I wonder how many more French workers feel like this ?
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I can imagine that happening Frederick, but it hasn't been my experience.

Any artisans or suppliers have generally said to me that the British are fine to work with. What they say is that we insist on a proper and binding devis, have the work done and then pay promptly.

The French on the other hand, tend to 'nickle & dime' over the price, often seeking a non-TVA cash price. They'll sometimes go along with the latter, but only for a small job and even then, there are risks for all concerned.

I know that this won't be everyone's experience, but that's mine.

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I have decided to report a couple for working on the black but I cannot speak French,if I call URSSAF as you suggest do they have English speakers that I can talk to? Also what is their telephone number?

Are there any other departments that I could call? Is the Maire likely to be interested enough to do something about it?
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URSSAF have an anonymous line for denouncing le travail noir. You ring and tell the person answering you wish to report le travail noir and they will transfer you.You give the story,the names and addresses of those concerned but you are not asked for your identification at all. I'm afraid I have actually done this BUT it turned out one of our employees was moonlighting with one of our vehicles whilst he was supposedly off sick for which we paid heavy cotisations to PROBTP. It was the husband of our bookeeper at the time who saw him and informed us, being they live in the same village as the moonlighter.We also informed l'Inspecteur de Travail who warned us to make the site propre and she came out and tackled him about constant sick notes for which we terminated his contract when it came up for renewal. There is a difference between doing that when someone is blatantly abusing both the system and his patron and some poor down-on-his luck person doing a few odd jobs for cash.
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[quote user="face42"]I have decided to report a couple for working on the black but I cannot speak French,if I call URSSAF as you suggest do they have English speakers that I can talk to? Also what is their telephone number?

Is there any other departments that I could call? Is the Maire likely to be interested enough to do something about it?[/quote]

I know of one Maire who uses an English 'plumber' on the black for work on his house, so I would tread carefully [blink]

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I know of a chap who has been taking photos of UK plated cars that are parked in the local airport and do not conform to either French or UK rules. He has a mate who works for DVLA and the information is passed to him. As far as I understand it will also be passed to the French authorities after the cars concerned have been de-registered by the DVLA.

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I think I answered your PM with these details. NO the URSSAF receptionist will not speak english and the number is in the pages jaune for your nearest large town/city under administrations (Union pour Le Recouvrement de Sécurite Sociale et Allocations Familiale). The local gendarmerie if you live in the country will operate under the umbrella of the main HQ in your nearest town. Again they will not usually speak in english as they get very irritated when people refuse to speak french.
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face2face - Re reporting them to the Mairie - if it's French workers you are talking about, the maire will (if he's up to the mark) already know perfectly well, and far better than you, exacly which people in his commune are working legally, working illegally, doing a bit of both, good at their jobs, cxxp at their jobs, or have no jobs at all. It's his job to know these things and to step in when things are being taken a step too far. You 'reporting' someone won't make much difference. If however it is an English person that he doesn't know about, it might interesting to see how he reacts.

Also - no offence meant - it does seem a trifle bizarre that you have such a strong social conscience about this, yet haven't bothered to learn the language ...
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[quote user="Val_2"] NO the URSSAF receptionist will not speak english....... The local gendarmerie if you live in the country will operate under the umbrella of the main HQ in your nearest town. Again they will not usually speak in english as they get very irritated when people refuse to speak french.[/quote]

That’s a sweeping generalisation if there ever was one! The local police here love to chat in English when they stop you and ask you to blow into the bag or check your papers, they never seem irritated. Do you know the URSSAF receptionist personally? That is a pretty definitive “NO” you have given the OP.

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I would say it was a pretty silly question, given that it is unlikely any of us here know the URSSAF person who will answer the enquiry, so we are unable to say.

On the other hand since we are in France it is surely better to speak in French? Nothing is more likely to put the back up of officials than the arrogant 'Little Briton' attitude of speaking English loudly as if they were deaf [:)]

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