Background for Belgium

From 2012 to 2022, Belgium’s gross domestic product increased by 10.6%. For the same period, total unemployment decreased by 2 percentage points, reaching 5.6% in 2022, which is slightly lower than the EU average of 6.2% for the same year. Unemployment figures for young people decreased by 3.6 percentage points over the 10 years and stood at 16.4% in 2022, above the EU average of 14.5%.

Social dialogue in Belgium is rooted in the Law of 5 December 1968 related to collective agreements and joint committees (Loi du 5 décembre 1968 sur les conventions collectives de travail et les commissions paritaires/Wet van 5 december 1968 bretreffende de collectieve arbeidsovereenkomsten en de paritaire comites), among other legislation. While freedom of assembly and association and the right to information, consultation and negotiation are set out in the Belgian Constitution, the Law of 5 December 1968 sets out the representativeness criteria for trade unions and employer organisations (see the section ‘Representativeness’). Labour law includes any legislation on working time, rights and duties of employers and employees and specific measures related to young workers.

In recent years, partly due to austerity measures since the 2007–2008 financial crisis, a series of labour regulation reforms have been implemented in the country. These relate to working time flexibilisation (2012, 2016, 2017, 2022); temporary agency work (2013); flexible jobs in the hotel, restaurant and catering sector, small retail, cinemas, sports, culture and healthcare (2015, 2017, 2022); night work for e-commerce (2015; additional changes in 2017 and 2023); reforms of early retirement and pensions (2012–2015); the career leave system (2015); measures to increase sustainable work (2012–2013 and 2017); and the abolition of the probationary period (2014).

Another major change concerns the introduction of a more unified employment status for blue- and white-collar workers with respect to their notice periods (Law of 26 December 2013).

Since the late 1990s, the state has played an increasing role in collective bargaining (Capron et al, 2013), with several combined functions. It has directly intervened, as in the case of the proposal of the government that took power in October 2014 to remove the next automatic index-linked increase in wages. It argued that the salary gap between Belgium and neighbouring countries is too big, making Belgium uncompetitive. State-led control of inflation and labour costs has also generated strong pressure on collective bargaining. For more information, see Van Gyes et al (2017). In line with this trend, the institutional and political structure of the country has become more federal, with greater power granted to regions and communities. Because of close interaction between public authorities and employer or trade union confederations, regionalisation in the country has led to regional players having greater influence. On the employers’ side, this is particularly the case for the Flemish Chambers of Commerce (_Vlaams netwerk van ondernemingen,_Voka) and the Walloon Business Union (_Union Wallonne des Entreprises,_UWE). On the trade union side, the existing national structures have remained in place. With regard to organisational changes within the trade unions, there is a general trend of transferring competencies among trade union federations to better align with the composition of the workforce within certain sectors and the diminishing divide between blue- and white-collar workers.

In 1970, the Belgian state adopted a federal structure including regions and communities. This federalisation process was strengthened by six major institutional reforms that took place in 1970, 1980, 1988–1989, 1993, 2001 and a final reform in 2013. The latest institutional reform affected the organisation of the labour market by granting greater power to regions in fields where social partners usually play a major role, such as health and safety or employment policies.

The main development from these reforms was that cross-industry social partners could not sign an interprofessional agreement for 2011–2012 and 2013–2014. In the most recent bargaining round, for 2023–2024, the government ultimately took over because, despite long negotiations, the social partners were unable to reach an agreement. A wage margin of 0% was established. The key point here is that wage-setting has often proven to be a conflictual issue in the post-2008 period. Both wage-setting mechanisms and wage levels were central issues in the latest rounds of cross-industry bargaining among the ‘Group of Ten[[1]](file:///C:/Users/ssm/Downloads/EF23067_Belgium_Publication%20(1).docx#_ftn1)’, leading to disputes and sometimes unilateral government intervention.

On 23 January 2022, the Council of Ministers approved a draft of a royal decree with the aim of setting the maximum labour cost evolution for 2023–2024. Given that the social partners were unable to reach an agreement with regard to the wage norm[[2]](file:///C:/Users/ssm/Downloads/EF23067_Belgium_Publication%20(1).docx#_ftn2), the government decided to follow the preparatory report of the Central Business Council and established a wage norm of 0%.

To provide some additional remuneration above the 0%, the government allowed for a one-time premium in the form of a ‘consumption cheque’. Companies that achieved ‘good or exceptional results’ during 2022 had the opportunity to grant their employees a one-off purchasing power premium. This purchasing power premium amounted to a maximum of €500 per employee for companies that had achieved good results. For companies that had achieved exceptionally high profits, this premium amounted to a maximum of €750 per employee.

On 24 January 2023, the National Labour Council issued a divided opinion from both the employee representation and the employer representation on the draft royal decree on the purchasing power premium. Both employee and employer representatives noted that there are currently no definitions in the law or decree of the terms ‘high profit’ and ‘exceptionally high profit’.