What is the availability of “under the table” work in Europe?
What I just wrote here would certainly apply to your question too. I do have a work permit though, and have told prospective employers that I do, but I don’t think I ever had to actually produce it for them … and until recently was paid with a temporary social insurance number on my pay slip…all very above the table. Actually come to think of it getting a bank account, into which my pay goes, was much more of a hassle than in Canada and I assume the US. Only HSBC would give me one – a ‘basic account’ that I couldn’t access from Europe. And I think not having a bank account would be a stumbling block in getting a normal job that wasn’t like painting houses or cockle-picking…anyway to answer your actual question, yes there seems to be an abundance of that kind of cash in hand work done here, but Eastern Europeans seem to have a lock on it.
Also plenty of cash work in NL (in the Randstad area at least), generally in cleaning and small business as noted above. No job that you would really want to do (ie offering decent pay) would be for cash. For anything that’s *not* cash work you need to show your residence permit/passport to the employer. They keep a copy on file, as they risk hefty fines if they get caught employing people without the right papers.
Cash-in-hand work is often from small businesses, where the boss is the owner, and prepared to take the risks. Construction used to be good for this, but a huge crackdown has changed that. Cleaning jobs are nearly always cash in hand, too, except when employed by one of the big sub-contracting firms.
