The Belgian government has been summoned by the European Commission before the European Court of Justice for not implementing the information and consultation Directive. Continued disagreement between the social partners is the main cause of the delay in the Directive’s implementation.
European court procedure underway
Directive 2002/14/EC of 11 March 2002 compels the EU Member States to introduce minimal employee information and consultation rights. The countries were given three years to implement the provisions into their national labour law. Member States had the choice of implementing the information and consultation rules either in all companies with at least 50 employees or in all establishments with at least 20 workers.
However, the Belgian government has not yet formally transposed the Directive into national legislation. Some progress has been made and several propositions for new legislation have been considered in parliament (BE0603019I).
The Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (Confédération des Syndicats Chrétiens/Algemeen Christelijk Vakverbond, CSC/ACV) filed an official complaint on 20 April 2006 with the European Commission in order to bring Belgium before the European Court of Justice for not implementing the Directive. The Commission duly summoned the Belgian government, and a European court procedure has started.
Disagreement between social partners
Disagreement between the social partners is the main cause of the delay in transposing the EU directive into Belgian law.
CSC/ACV proposes a specific system of information and consultation in enterprises without a works council. In Belgian legislation, the works council is the main body for information and consultation on financial matters; however, alternative rules do, to a certain extent, exist for enterprises without a works council.
For small enterprises, CSC/ACV recommends a flexible system to keep the administrative burden to a minimum (see Belgian contribution (99Kb MS Word doc) to 2005 EIRO comparative study on employment relations in small and medium-sized enterprises, and Belgian contribution (23Kb MS Word doc) to 1999 EIRO comparative study on industrial relations in small and medium-sized enterprises). Without the need for elections, a formally structured social dialogue body would be responsible for basic union delegation tasks and would provide employees with information on safety-related matters as well as financial information on the company. A limited number of delegates would be protected against dismissal.
Meanwhile, the Belgian Federation of Employers (Fédération des Entreprises de Belgique/Verbond van Belgische Ondernemingen, VBO/FEB) is convinced that Belgian law is 99% in line with the European directive and its provisions on information and consultation of employees. Therefore, the government would not need to change much in the existing legislation to prevent a conviction by the European Court of Justice.
VBO/FEB blames CSC/ACV for misusing the Directive. The trade unions are demanding the introduction of a legally backed union representation in all establishments/companies with at least 20 workers, based, VBO/FEB claims, on a misinterpretation of the directive. According to the employer organisation, Belgium need only make small amendments to its legislation to compel companies with between 50 and 100 employees to provide financial information to the available employee representation. The employers fear that the union proposals will increase the number of employee representatives protected by special dismissal procedures.
The Belgian Minister of Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue, Peter Vanvelthoven, has promised to take political action in response to the judicial move by the European Commission.
Commentary
The challenge of the ongoing debate is to reach a solution to which all the social partners can agree, in order to bring the Belgian situation in line with European legislation. The remaining matters under dispute are:
- the definition of an enterprise and the applicable threshold (20 or 50 employees) to adopt;
- the status and size of the employee representation that will hold the information and consultation rights.
Guy Van Gyes, Higher Institute for Labour Studies (HIVA), Catholic University of Leuven