Government draws up National Action Plan on employment without social partners
Published: 27 April 1998
The Belgian Government has drawn up on its own the National Action Plan [1] (NAP) on employment which it will submit to the European Council summit meeting in Cardiff in June 1998. It did not succeed in reaching agreement on the plan with the social partners. All EU Member States were required to draw up NAPs based on the EU Guidelines for Member States' employment policies 1998 [2], following the Luxembourg"Employment Summit" in November 1997 (EU9711168F [3]).[1] http://www.europa.eu.int/en/comm/dg05/elm/naps/be_en.pdf[2] http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/elm/summit/en/papers/guide2.htm[3] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/undefined/employment-summit-agrees-limited-package-of-measures-to-combat-unemployment
The Belgian Government has failed in its attempt to agree with the social partners a National Action Plan in response to the EU employment guidelines, prior to the Cardiff European Council summit meeting in June 1998.
The Belgian Government has drawn up on its own the National Action Plan (NAP) on employment which it will submit to the European Council summit meeting in Cardiff in June 1998. It did not succeed in reaching agreement on the plan with the social partners. All EU Member States were required to draw up NAPs based on the EU Guidelines for Member States' employment policies 1998, following the Luxembourg"Employment Summit" in November 1997 (EU9711168F).
Discussions in Belgium failed over the reduction of employers' social security contributions and on the impact of such a reduction on job creation. The employers' approach was to ask for a general, overall reduction whilst the trade unions wanted to link cuts to the redistribution of work.
The NAP now provides for a reduction in employers' contributions of some BEF 36 billion over two years (1999-2000). The initial BEF 18 billion will be granted with no conditions on employers other than the extension of the right to career breaks, certain benefits for part-timers, the development of training and the revision of certain job classifications which are unfair to women. Employers rejected the chance to negotiate collective reductions of working time at company level, which the Government had wanted to put on the "menu" of employment measures. As a last-minute addition, however, the plan also provides for a reduction in social security contributions for a limited number of companies that accept a four-day week without an automatic reduction of working time but on condition that they recruit new workers.
The remaining BEF 18 billion will be earmarked for those sectors and companies that take employment initiatives in a framework to be set by intersectoral negotiations starting in autumn 1998. In those negotiations, the social partners will try to find common cause, but at the moment they seem rather pessimistic about the possibility of reaching agreement.
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
Eurofound (1998), Government draws up National Action Plan on employment without social partners, article.
