2003 Annual Review for Belgium

This record reviews 2003's main developments in industrial relations in Belgium.

Political developments

Federal elections to the chamber of deputies and senate took place in June 2003, resulting in the election of a new 'purple' coalition, made up of liberals and socialists. This replaced the previous 'rainbow' coalition of liberals, socialists and ecologists. The ecology parties suffered a significant defeat in 2003, depriving the Flemish green party (Agalev) of any representation in the federal parliament (it subsequently changed its name to Groen!). Thus, the following parties are now in government - again led by Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt of the VLD - for a four-year term: the Flemish Liberals and Democrats (Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten, VLD); the (French-speaking) Reform Party (Movement Réformateur, MR); the (French-speaking) Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste, PS); and the (Flemish-speaking) Progressive Social Alternative (Sociaal Progressief Alternatief, SP.A). The coalition agreement includes a number of important employment and social plans, such as creating 200,000 jobs over four years and cutting employers' social security contributions (BE0308302N). With a view to achieving its job-creation objective, the new administration called a national 'conference for employment' in September, bringing together the government, the social partners and regional and community authorities (BE0310301N).

Collective bargaining

Belgium has a two-year collective bargaining cycle, with a two-year national intersectoral agreement normally concluded at the end of even years. Sectoral and company agreements are then negotiated within this intersectoral framework. The most recent intersectoral agreement was concluded by the social partners in December 2002 and officially signed on 17 January 2003, covering 2003 and 2004 (BE0302302F).

For 2002, the registry of the Federal Public Service for Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue (SPF Emploi, Travail et Concertation sociale/FOD Werkgelegenheid, Arbeid en Sociaal Overleg) (formerly the Ministry for Work and Employment) registered a total of 4,549 collective agreements. Of these, around 12% (539) were concluded in the National Labour Council (Conseil National du Travail/Nationale Arbeidsraad, CNT/NAR) or in sectoral joint committees and subcommittees. The remainder (4,010) were concluded outside these bodies, generally at enterprise level. The registry data confirm that there is a higher level of bargaining activity during uneven years than in even years. This can be explained by the fact that uneven years correspond with the first year of implementation of the intersectoral agreement. In general terms, the number of agreements has a tendency to increase over time, mainly due to growing numbers of negotiating bodies and the rising number of issues subject to social concertation.

As of 30 June 2003, according to the Federal Public Service of Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue, there were 170 sectoral negotiating bodies: 98 joint committees and 72 subcommittees. These bodies have a total of 3,093 members, a large majority of whom are men (85%). However, for several years, the number of women within these bodies has been increasing: the 2003 figure is up 10.24% compared with 2001 and 35.74% compared with 1998.

Pay

The intersectoral agreement for 2003-4 establishes 5.4% as the 'indicative norm' for total wage increases over these two years. Furthermore, 'in view of the uncertain international and economic prospects, the social partners call upon the negotiators in sectors and enterprises to focus as much as possible on 2003 when fixing increases in pay costs'. It should be noted that the partners are making an effort to ensure that the Belgian indicative norm does not exceed the increase in wage rates in its three main neighbouring countries - France, Germany and the Netherlands.

Working time

The 2003-4 intersectoral agreement confirms the necessity of exploiting all the possibilities set out in national collective agreement No.77, which was negotiated by the social partners in 2001, with regard to 'time credits' (BE0108360F). This is a scheme that seeks to allow the best possible reconciliation between work, private and family life, without damaging company performance. It includes career breaks and working time reductions.

The 2001-2 intersectoral agreement provided that the maximum normal working week would be reduced, without loss of pay. from 39 to 38 hours from January 2003. This was implemented by law of 10 August 2001 relating to reconciliation between employment and quality of life.

Job security

The new intersectoral agreement maintains during 2003 and 2004 existing early retirement schemes and company contributions of 0.10% of paybill for the training and employment of 'at risk' groups and 0.05% for the financing of 'accompanying plans'. It also promotes employment by a variety of means, including: greater flexibility in the 'Rosetta' recruitment plan; full maintenance of the 'Plan 1-2-3' employment scheme for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); a lowering from 57 of the age which a reduction in social security contributions in respect of older workers is applied; and confirmation of a sum of EUR 71 million to be spent on reducing social contributions in favour of enterprises. The Rosetta plan (BE9911307F) obliges private sector enterprises with at least 50 workers to employ young workers to make up 3% of the average workforce. The new agreement provides that students on alternating classroom-workplace training schemes, disabled workers and immigrants count twice towards this quota

Equal opportunities and diversity issues

There were no significant new developments in bargaining on equal opportunities and diversity issues in 2003.

Training and skills development

For 2003 and 2004, the social partners confirmed their commitment made in the 1999-2000 intersectoral agreement with regard to extra training efforts. The aim, over the next six years, is to increase training expenditure to the levels achieved in the main three neighbouring countries, France, Germany and the Netherlands - ie increasing the amount spent on training from 1.2% to 1.9% of paybill.

Other issues

The long-standing issue of harmonisation of the status of blue- and white-collar workers (BE0003307F) was touched on by the 2003-4 intersectoral agreement, but without producing any concrete progress. Given the unstable economic climate, the social partners concluded that it is not possible to undertake new initiatives in this area for the time being, though they reaffirmed 'their desire to continue to manage the issue of the alignment of blue- and white-collar status themselves' and committed themselves to 'not taking initiatives which could prejudice harmonisation'.

Legislative developments

A new law aimed at fighting discrimination (BE0212304F) was adopted on 25 February 2003 (BE0307303F). The law bans discrimination on the grounds of various 'protected characteristics'- ie sex, claimed race, colour, national origin, national or ethnic descent, sexual orientation, civil status, birth, wealth, age, religion or belief, current or future state of health, disability or physical characteristics. The ban applies to both direct and indirect discrimination and also bans other forms of discrimination - ie harassment, instruction to discriminate and the absence of reasonable arrangements for people with disabilities. The law is of general application, covering not only employment, but also many other areas, such as the supply of goods and services. The legislation contains various rules in order to help make its discrimination bans enforceable. These include: making discriminatory agreements invalid; making criminal sanctions available; shifting the burden of proof in court cases to the party alleged to have discriminated; introducing the possibility to have discrimination suspended by a court; and allowing associations, trade unions and other bodies to bring discrimination cases. The right to bring cases is also extended to the Centre for Equal Opportunities and the Fight against Racism (Centre pour l’égalité des chances et pour la lutte contre le racisme/Centrum voor gelijkheid van kansen en voor racismebestrijding), which has been given an important new role by the law. The legislation takes into account (BE0308304T) the EU race Directive (2000/43/EC) (EU0006256F) and framework equal treatment Directive ( 2000/78/EC) (EU0010274F).

The tripartite 'conference for employment' launched in September ended in agreement on a number of initiatives which, it is hoped, will create 60,000 jobs (BE0312305F). Notably, existing reductions in employers' social security contributions in respect of employees on low wages are to be increased. Together with a number of other (general) structural cost reductions, the total reduction in employers' contributions will be around EUR 900 million a year. Furthermore, there will be greater efforts to help unemployed people find work. Agreement was also reached on expanding and reinforcing the existing system of 'service vouchers', with the aim of bringing bring many household jobs (cleaning, gardening, etc) from the 'clandestine' economy into the open and creating local jobs. Once the system of service vouchers is fully operational, it is hoped that it will result in 25,000 extra jobs. A household can use these vouchers temporarily to employ a cleaner, gardener etc in an open and declared way (BE0401304F).

The law of 22 April 2003 provides for equality of treatment between private and public sector employees in the area of notice periods on termination of the employment contract, amending article 59 of the law of 3 July 1978. This change is aimed exclusively at employers and workers that are not covered by the law of 5 December 1968 on collective agreements and joint committees.

The organisation and role of the social partners

During 2003, the Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (Confédération des Syndicats Chrétiens/Algemeen Christelijk Vakverbond, CSC/ACV) restructured its organisations representing teachers in French-speaking areas. The Federation of Liberal Trade Unions of Belgium (Centrale Générale des Syndicats Libéraux de Belgique/Algemene Centrale der Liberale Vakbonden van België, CGSLB/ACLVB) merged a number of sections (it now has 19 instead of 42) and it concentrated its sectoral activity around 10 departments - the public sector, transport, energy, finance (banks and insurance), textiles and garment manufacture, metalworking, chemicals, non commercial, construction and services (such as child-minding and cleaning).

On the employers' side, the Federation of Belgian Enterprises (Fédération des Entreprises de Belgique/Verbond van Belgische Ondernemingen, FEB/VBO) welcomed a new member from 1 January 2004 - the Belgian Automobile and Bicycle Industries Federation (Fédération belge de l'industrie de l'automobile et du cycle/Belgische federatie van de automobiel en tweewielerindustrie). The Union of Small Firms and Traders (Union des Classes Moyennes, UCM) created a new service in order to facilitate the creation of new enterprises.

Industrial action

Several significant conflicts took place in 2003. These related to:

• a restructuring plan at the Ford plant at Genk (BE0311305F);
• a restructuring plan at Belgian Railways (Société Nationale des chemins de fer belges/Nationale Maatschappij der Belgische Spoorwegen, SNCB/NMBS) (BE0311301N);
• liberalisation-related changes, notably a new system for organising delivery rounds, at the Post Office (La Poste/De Post) (BE0308303F);
• outsourcing in the banking sector (BE0303301N); and
• a closure plan at the Arcelor steel group (BE0302301N).

Employee participation

There were no major developments in the field of employee participation during the course of 2003. In December, the social partners began discussions on implementation of the EU information and consultation Directive (2002/14/EC) (EU0204207F), but there was no significant movement on transposition of the employee involvement Directive (2001/86/EC) linked to the European Company Statute (ECS) (EU0206202F). The royal decree of 15 May 2003 lays down the definition of a 'technical operating unit' in the context of the nationwide 'social elections' of employee representatives to be held in May 2004.

Stress at work

The law of 4 August 1996 on the 'wellbeing of workers during the execution of their duties' for the first time extended the definition of occupational risk beyond traditional areas, notably mentioning prevention of 'psycho-social burdens' that may occur in the workplace. However, the specific issue of stress at work was not regulated until the social partners concluded national collective agreement No. 72 on the management and prevention of work-related stress in the National Labour Council on 30 March 1999, following up an intention expressed in the intersectoral agreement for 1999-2000 (BE9811252F). This agreement provides a definition of stress and places obligations on employers in the private sector with regard to the prevention and the reduction of work-related stress (BE9904269F).

Undeclared work

The share of undeclared work in GDP is estimated as being between 10% and 20%. The fight against illegal working is a major preoccupation for the Belgian authorities. Therefore, they have concluded partnership agreements with the representatives of sectors particularly prone to this kind of work (the construction industry, construction in Antwerp and the cleaning sector). Furthermore, the relaxation of the conditions relating to the issuing of 'service vouchers' is also intended to combat undeclared work (see above under 'Legislative developments'). The debate on undeclared work also revolves around its definition.

From the point of view of the trade unions, CSC/ACV is clearly against undeclared work, since it leads to a reduction in social security revenue, the destruction of regular jobs and unfair competition, and puts at risk the protection of both workers and consumers. Moreover, the confederation states that the notion of undeclared work may also apply to voluntary work or housework. In order to avoid confusion, it is seen as necessary to regularise the ambiguous status of, for example, artists or 'false' self-employed people. In more general terms, CSC/ACV deplores the perceived absence of a real policy of abolishing undeclared work and inadequate coordination between the different participants in the fight against this type of work. Lastly, the negative image of tax should be improved, the confederation believes.

For employers, FEB/VBO also condemns undeclared work, on ethical grounds and for economic reasons (ie distortion of competition and social security funding). It proposes several solutions, such as further reduction in social charges on employment, administrative simplification and even an end to the 'stigmatisation' of employers.

Table 1 below highlights the major share of offences related to undeclared work in the breaches of social security regulations reported by social security inspectors.

Source: Federal Public Social Security Service (Service Public Fédéral Sécurité Sociale/Federale Overheidsdienst Sociale Zekerheid).

New forms of work

On 16 June 2003, the social partners in the temporary agency work sector concluded a collective agreement that deals, amongst other matters, with the following:

• the possibility of creating a specific 'mobile' social fund for agency workers;
• the intention to conclude an agreement with the banks so as to remove discrimination against temporary agency workers when applying for a loan;
• the launch of a study into the workplace safety of agency workers and the launch of safety training for certain agency workers;
• the creation of a fund for training for the temporary agency work sector; and
• an increase in purchasing power for agency workers by granting end-of-year bonuses; and
• the drafting of a 'social peace' clause.

Belgium has seen little in the way of initiatives or legislation with regard to teleworking. However, in 2003 a proposal for a parliamentary resolution was submitted on 9 September (DOC 51 0195/001) relating to introducing experiments with part-time teleworking for staff of the federal administration. The aim to put into application the federal government's coalition agreement which talks of encouraging teleworking and home-working, particularly given the advent of broadband connections, and to establish a legal and judicial status which is adapted to the needs of these employees, ensuring that their workers’ rights are respected.

The share of part-time work continues to increase in Belgium, as shown in the table below. Women work on a part-time basis much more commonly than men.

Source: CNT/NAR.

Outlook

In the political arena, regional and European Parliament elections will be held at the same time in June 2004. These elections will represent a test for the present 'purple' coalition at federal level and this will probably lead to a rebalancing of the strength of the parties in government. The creation of 200,000 jobs promised by the government represents a considerable challenge for the coming years - the latest unemployment figures (published in January 2004) are hardly encouraging, showing that the unemployment rose to 7.4% in December 2003.

A major industrial relations event in 2004 will be the four-yearly 'social elections' of employee representatives on works councils and committees for prevention and protection at the workplace, which will take place in May (BE0309302F). (Alexandre Chaidron, Institut des Sciences du Travail)