Inter-community dispute on time credit scheme

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A time credit scheme introduced by the Belgian federal government in January 2002, which includes the right for employees to take a career break of at least one year, has become the focus of a dispute between Wallonia and Flanders. The Flemish regional government wants to complement the incentives provided by the federal law with additional benefits, which the Walloon government regards as a move to 'regionalise' competences which should lie with the federal state. The trade union movement is divided on the issue.

Since 1 January 2002, a new 'time credit' scheme has applied in the Belgian private sector (BE0108360F). This scheme was negotiated in December 2000 by the social partners as part of the intersectoral agreement for 2001-2 (BE0101337F) and put on a legal footing in 2001. The scheme involves:

• the right to a time credit. For a maximum total of one year over their entire career, employees may interrupt their work or reduce it to a half-time job, without breaking off the contract of employment and without loss of social security rights. This time credit may be extended to a maximum of five years by agreement in the sectoral joint committee or at company level. During the break, workers with under five years' service qualify for a monthly allowance of EUR 379.28, which this rises to EUR 505.7 for workers with longer service;

• the right to a one-fifth working time reduction. During their career, for a maximum period of five years, each employee also has the right to reduce their working hours by one fifth - in practice generally meaning a four-day working week instead of five days; and

• the right of those aged over 50 to a reduction in working time. Older employees are entitled to reduce their working hours over an unlimited period of time, either by one fifth or one half.

Time credits replace other existing career break measures.

With a view to making the federal measure more attractive, the government of the Flemish region, with backing from the Flemish employers and trade unions, adopted a decree aimed at awarding additional benefits to workers opting for the time credit scheme. The value of these 'additional benefits' ranges from EUR 50 to EUR 150 per month.

On 20 December 2001, the Walloon government decided to call on the Concertation Committee (Comité de concertation/Overlegcomité), a body that includes representatives of the federal government and the federated bodies, to decide on the legality of the Flemish decree. Submitting the matter to the Concertation Committee in this way has had the effect of freezing the Flemish measure for a period of 60 days.

In the view of the President-Minister of the Walloon Region, Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe, the Flemish additional benefits encourage a reduction in working time, and 'this is a federal competence, not a regional one.' Mr Van Cauwenberghe also claims that the Flemish Employment Minister, Renaat Landuyt, 'is trying to create purely Flemish 'ersatz' collective agreements in defiance of collective labour law, which is still federal'. The head of the Walloon government also accuses Flanders of trying to unpick the entire social security system 'with a series of touches''.

Flanders takes the view that the time credit scheme is not a recruitment incentive (unlike the previous career-break system, there is no longer any obligation to replace the worker concerned), but a measure that more effectively reconciles family life (or training) and working life – that is to say areas that are in the remit of regional governments. Mr Landuyt has accused the Walloon government of taking 'Flemish workers hostage'.

This inter-community dispute between the Flemish and Walloon governments has also had repercussions within the trade union movement. Organisations appear divided on the matter, particularly the socialist Belgian General Federation of Labour (Fédération Générale du Travail de Belgique/Algemeen Belgisch Vakverbond, FGTB/ABVV). Urbain Destrée, the president of the Walloon wing of FGTB/ABVV, believes that Flemish time credit benefits have triggered a de facto regionalisation of federal competences (ie labour law and social security), but his Flemish opposite number, Xavier Verboven, countered that a region could not have any restraint placed on its areas of competence. While not wishing to come down on the side of either of the two possible interpretations of the decision taken in Flanders, the FGTB/ABVV federal president, Michel Nollet, has demanded that the Concertation Committee clarify the situation quickly, 'or else it will become untenable'.