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For many years, Belgian trade unions have been seeking the establishment of social dialogue structures in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are not covered by union representation or statutory employee participation structures. The intersectoral agreement for 2001-2, signed in December 2000, calls on sectoral negotiators to set up external structures to enable social dialogue in SMEs (ie "pooled" dialogue structures for a number of SMEs in a particular area). A recent report from the bipartite National Labour Council examines existing experiments in such external regional consultation in a number of sectors.
As in other European economies, small and medium-sized enterprises (SME s) have increased their share of the Belgian economy over the past three decades, currently representing more than 95% of all companies in the private sector - ie more than 200,000 companies. These SMEs are responsible for around 45% of private employment (against 36% at the start of the 1980s). This type of firm is not covered by statutory employee representation structures and trade union representation is rare.
In negotiating the new intersectoral agreement for 2001-2, signed in December 2000 (BE0101337F), central trade union and employers' organisations could not reach any real consensus on the issue of "SMEs and social dialogue". The union confederations - the Belgian General Federation of Labour (Fédération Générale du Travail de Belgique/Algemeen Belgisch Vakverbond, FGTB/ABVV), the Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (Confédération des Syndicats Chrétiens/Algemeen Christelijk Vakverbond, CSC/ACV) and the Federation of Liberal Trade Unions of Belgium (Centrale Générale des Syndicaux Libéraux de Belgique/Algemene Centrale der Liberale Vakbonden van België, CGSLB/ACLVB) - regarded lack of significant agreement on this point as one of the weak points of the intersectoral agreement, placing the blame on the two SME employers' organisations, the Union of Small Firms and Traders (Union des classes moyennes, UCM) and Union of Independents (Unie van Zelfstandige Ondernemers, UNIZO). However, the 2001-2 intersectoral agreement has at least opened a small breach, in that it states that "the social partners request the sectors to organise an external consultation body, in the framework of sectoral agreements and taking into account their own specific requirements". The idea is for "pooled" dialogue structures to be created beyond the company level - eg at regional level - to provide the employees of SMEs with the information, consultation and representation which they do not receive at company level.
The sectoral negotiations to implement the 2001-2 intersectoral agreement are due to start in early 2001. The plan is for the bipartite National Labour Council (Conseil National du Travail/Nationale Arbeidsraad, CNT/NAR) to evaluate by the end of 2001 the extent to which the sectoral social partners have responded to the intersectoral partners' request for action on SME social dialogue. A similar request was made two years previously at the time of signing the 1999-2000 intersectoral agreement (BE9811252F). In an internal report, adopted in October 2000, the National Labour Council has drawn up a first assessment of some experiments aimed at setting up "regional consultation bodies" (organes régionaux de concertation).
A survey conducted by the Collective Labour Relations Department of the Federal Ministry of Employment and Labour found that two sectoral joint committees have set up such regional consultation bodies (BE9710219F):
- joint committee No. 201, covering independent retail; and
- joint committee No. 202, group C, covering food retail.
In both cases, the new structures cover companies which employ fewer than 20 people. Hearings organised by the National Labour Council have also revealed the existence of similar bodies in the textiles, furniture and woodworking sectors. Moreover, CSC/ACV and FGTB/ABVV have recently announced the conclusion of a three-year agreement in the food industry aimed at establishing the principle of external social dialogue for companies that do not have union delegation s (essentially companies with fewer than 50 employees).
In its assessment (not made public), the National Labour Council notes that: "a regional consultative body can contribute constructively to the resolution of problems in companies regarding the observance of collective agreements and labour law."
Such bodies have been set up for the abovementioned sectors in the three regions of the country (Wallonia, Brussels and Flanders). Taking the case of independent retail, a sector largely dominated by SMEs, the relevant consultation bodies met in Brussels and in Wallonia on 13 occasions between December 1998 and April 2000, while in Flanders there were only two meetings. The meetings dealt with subjects relating to individual and collective disputes (non-observance of working time legislation, non-payment of wages within the specified deadlines etc) and the organisation of employee information.
The existence of these regional consultative bodies is evaluated very differently on the trade union and employer sides. For employers, they are a relatively effective solution. In particular, such structures have the major advantage of not changing the current situation within SMEs. Fundamentally opposed to any union presence in these companies, the president of UCM, Roger Mené, believes that "regional consultation bodies" are "the only type of industrial relations that can be envisaged" in SMEs.
For the unions, on the other hand, these structures are only a first step towards greater economic and social democracy in SMEs. CSC/ACV and FGTB/ABVV do not intend giving up their long-standing claim for a lowering of the workforce-size thresholds set by law and collective agreement for the creation of union delegations and for the organisation of "social elections" of employee representatives (BE0006316F). These elections are currently held only in companies with at least 50 workers for elections to committees for prevention and protection at the workplace (comités pour la prévention et protection au travail/comités voor preventie en bescherming op het werk) and at least 100 workers for elections to works council s (conseils d'entreprise/ondernemingsraden).
The unions nevertheless accept the need to find appropriate formulae for the specific requirements of small companies. They argue in particular for strengthening and extending the regional consultative body model, and also for mechanisms for "itinerant" union delegations (for example, one delegate for a given geographic zone). Some observers expect that the forthcoming sectoral agreements (in principle applicable to the period 2001-2), will adopt such formulae.