Ajzen, Michel

Psychosocial risks for workers have become a major issue in Belgium. A high priority for public authorities last year was to develop and improve policies to tackle work-related stress and particularly worker burnout. Many studies into such problems have also been conducted. This article gives an overview of these studies and of the legal background to more recent developments.

Proposed reforms to Belgium's pension system will – along with other changes – extend the retirement age to 67 by 2030. The proposed reforms have attracted strong criticism from the country's trade unions, but support from employer associations.

The fourth quarter of 2014 was particularly turbulent for industrial relations in Belgium following measures brought in by the new federal government which the unions considered unacceptable. Power struggles developed between unions and government, and between unions and employers, over strikes and ways to narrow the salary gap between Belgium and other countries.

New laws in Belgium to combat psychosocial risks in the workplace became effective on 1 September 2014. These laws update previous legislation enacted in 1996 and 2007, introducing a wider definition of ‘psychosocial risks’ that includes violence and harassment at work. It also deals with the development of new ways of ameliorating these risks.

Belgium’s service voucher scheme, introduced in 2001, has many different objectives. It is designed to help reduce undeclared work, create new jobs and give vulnerable workers access to employment. The scheme is defined in Article 2 of the law of 20 July 2001 in favour of ‘proximity services and employment’. It consists of a payment coupon issued by the company Sodexho which allows the users, with the help of a state subsidy, to pay for housework services. The real cost of a voucher is €22.04 for each hour of work.

Various types of temporary work in Belgium have different contractual agreements. These include paid training schemes, student jobs, occasional work, service vouchers, apprenticeships, fixed-term contracts and temporary agency work [1]. Most of these work contracts are partly or fully covered by Collective Agreement 36 of 27 November 1981. [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/industrial-relations-dictionary/temporary-agency-work

The term ‘blue-collar worker’ was introduced at the very beginning of the 20th century to describe manual workers. Two decades later, the term ‘white-collar worker’ appeared, describing employees who were engaged in work requiring predominantly mental, rather than physical, effort. During the last 20 years, establishing equality between these two statuses has been key to Belgian industrial relations. In recent years, technological developments and the evolution of job functions have ‘blurred’ the distinction between blue- and white-collar workers that had previously been clearly defined.

Management at Belgian steel giant ArcelorMittal [1] have been wrestling with the problems of a global decline in demand for a number of years. [1] http://www.arcelormittal.com/corp/

More than 1,200 bankruptcy proceedings were begun in Belgium in October 2012 according to consultancy firm Graydon [1], a leader in commercial and marketing information and credit and debt management. This was an increase of 7.18% compared with October 2011. [1] http://www.graydon.be

On 19 June 2012, 600 people took part in a demonstration in front of the headquarters of Belgium’s National Employment Office (ONEM/RVA [1]) over reforms to the benefits system. The protest was organised jointly by the three Belgian unions, the Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (ACV [2]/CSC [3]), the Belgian General Federation of Labour (ABVV/ [4] FGTB [5]) and the Federation of Liberal Trade Unions of Belgium (ACLVB [6]/CGSLB [7]). [1] http://www.rva.be/home/menufr.htm [2] http://www.acv-online.be/ [3] http://www.csc-en-ligne.be/ [4] http://www.abvv.be/web/guest/home-nl [5] http://www.fgtb.be/web/guest/home-fr [6] http://www.aclvb.be/home [7] http://www.cgslb.be/home/