Collective relations institutionalised in not-for-profit sector

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Recent years have seen the development of collective industrial relations in Belgium's not-for-profit sector, which accounts for a sizeable 10.5% of total employment. Industrial relations in this sector, made up of the socio-cultural and healthcare subsectors, are much more complex than in the profit sector, owing to the diversity and fragmentation that characterise the parties. In March 2000, an innovative agreement was concluded in the healthcare sector that binds the social partners and the government until 2005.

The Belgian not-for-profit sector, which accounts for some 10.5% of total employment, covers two large categories of activities: the socio-cultural sector and the (private and public) healthcare sector. Collective relations between employers and employees in both these areas have emerged and become institutionalised only quite recently, prompted to a large extent by the need to regulate and control the creation of new jobs fostered by the "social Maribel" scheme (BE0001303N). Under this scheme, since 1 January 1997, employers in the not-for-profit sector can benefit from reduced employers' social security contributions, on condition that they adhere to a collective agreement that promotes employment (in the private sector) or to a similar framework agreement (in the public sector) (BE9901259N).

Representation in the socio-cultural sector

The socio-cultural sector has had great difficulties in becoming organised, on both the employers and trade union sides of the negotiating table. It consists of units of very small size, for which the workforce-size threshold for trade union representation rights is an issue. It is moreover a highly fragmented sector, characterised by a bewildering variety of enterprise forms.

From the trade unions' point of view, the organisation of workers' representation has been hampered by the fact that employees are often hired on the basis of precarious employment contracts, under one or the other of the various unemployment absorption schemes. In addition, these employees are often totally devoted to the social or cultural ends of their association, which makes industrial conflict difficult to envisage.

On the employers' side, the division of roles and responsibilities is unclear because socio-cultural associations are largely or even completely dependent on subsidies granted by the federal, community or regional authorities. Moreover, employers' representatives often come from among the ranks of personnel.

Since 1996, a joint committee (JC 329) entitled to conclude collective agreements in the socio-cultural sector has been recognised by the Federal Ministry for Employment (BE9711118F). The trade union representatives on the committee come from the three major union confederations:

• the Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (Confédération des Syndicats Chrétiens/Algemeen Christelijk Vakverbond, CSC/ACV);

• the Belgian General Federation of Labour (Fédération Générale du Travail de Belgique/Algemeen Belgisch Vakverbond,FGTB/ABVV); 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).

The employers' representatives, traditionally split between the socialist and christian tendencies that dominate Belgian social political life, are in this case grouped on the basis of the linguistic community they belong to:

• on the French-speaking side, the Confederation of Employers in the Sports and Socio-cultural Sectors (Confédération des Employeurs des Secteurs sportif et socioculturel, CESSOC); and

• on the Flemish-speaking side, the Federation of Employers in Socio-cultural Enterprises (Federatie van Werkgevers van Sociaal-Cultureel Werk, FWSCW).

JC 329 has already produced collective agreements pertaining mainly to the various "social Maribel" plans (BE0001303N) and to the accreditation of trade union delegations outside the framework of workforce "social elections".

Representation in the healthcare sector

The representation of employees in the healthcare sector is recent but is now recognised. Hired mainly on the basis of white-collar employment contracts, the sector's workers are represented as follows:

• on the christian side, by the CSC/ACV-affiliated National Federation of White-Collar Workers (Centrale Nationale des Employés/Landelijke Bedienden Centrale, CNE/LBC); and

• on the socialist side, by the FGTB/ABVV-affiliated Belgian Union of White-Collar Staff, Technicians and Managers (Syndicat des Employés, Techniciens et Cadres de Belgique/Bond van de Bedienden, Technicien Kaders van België, SETCa/BBTK).

The main representative organisations on the employers' side in the healthcare sector are divided between the christian and socialist tendencies:

• on the christian side, Caritas Catholica regroups two associations (one Flemish, the other French-speaking). The Christian Confederation of Social and Healthcare Institutions (Confédération Chrétienne d'Institutions Sociales et de Santé) represents the mutual hospital institutions stemming from the Christian Workers' Movement (Mouvement Ouvrier Chrétien/Algemeen Christelijk Werknemersverbond,MOC/ACW); and

• on the socialist side, the employers' federations are those belonging to the Union of Socialist Mutual Societies (Union des Mutualités Socialistes). They are grouped in the Socialist Association of Healthcare Institutions (Association socialiste des Institutions de Santé, ASIS), which is in turn split into French-speaking and Flemish chapters (Association Francophone des Institutions de Santé, AFIS and Socialistische Vereneging van Vlaamse Gezondheid, SOVERVLAG).

Trade union demands

During a first phase, the unions' major demands in the not-for-profit sector concerned accompanying measures for the creation of jobs via the "social Maribel" (BE9804233F). Currently, their demands are centred on the revaluation of salaries and harmonisation of pay scales among federal, community and regional levels, as well as a call for tripartite dialogue (rather than merely bipartite) involving subsidising authorities as well as employers and trade unions. The authorities are indeed the major source of funds for the sector.

The not-for-profit sector has been marked by unrest since the winter of 1999, with repeated demonstrations to demand the negotiation of new collective agreements. In the wake of several demonstrations and requests directed at the authorities, negotiations finally got underway between the trade union organisations (CSC/ACV, FGTB/ABVV and CGSLB/ACLVB) and the relevant federal government Ministers: Laurette Onkelinx (the socialist Minister for Employment), Frank Vandenbroucke (the socialist Minister for Social Affairs) and Magda Aelvoet (the environmentalist Minister for Public Health). The negotiations resulted in an agreement on 3 March 2000. The agreement pertains only to the healthcare sector, to the exclusion of the socio-cultural sector, and this is already a source of some dissatisfaction.

Innovative agreement in the healthcare sector

The key points of the new healthcare agreement include the following.

• Revision of pay scales. As of October 2001, employees in the federal healthcare sector will be awarded a pay increase of the order of 1%.

• Harmonisation of pay scales. Currently, pay for the same job can be higher in hospitals than in nursing homes. The government and the social partners have committed themselves to solving the problem of divergent compensation for identical jobs by 2005.

• Elimination of precarious status. Close to 6,000 persons employed in the sector have been hired on the basis of a precarious contract renewed every two years. Their contract will now be upgraded to an open-ended employment contract.

• Working time reduction and career end. As regards the reduction and management of working time, the non-profit sector will be a pilot sector for the implementation of experiments financed through the "social Maribel" unemployment absorption fund. The agreement goes further in offering to healthcare and nursing personnel aged 45 or more either extra free time with no reduction in wages or, for those who choose not to cut their working hours, additional income. Concretely, the working week will be cut to 36 hours for workers aged 45-49, 34 hours for those aged 50-54 and 32 hours for those aged 55 or more. Minister for Employment Laurette Onkelinx justifies this measure as compensation for the unpleasant working conditions prevailing in the healthcare sector.

• Training and accompaniment. Given the manifest shortage of personnel that plagues the sector, Minister for Public Health Magda Aelvoet proposes, among other measures: better accompanying measures for new recruits and employees who resume their career after an interruption; the creation of a "gateway" between licensed nurse and graduate nurse status; and a continuing training programme to take into account technological developments in the area of healthcare.

By 1 October 2000 at the latest, the social partners are committed to translating these principles into collective agreements. The agreement, which covers the 2000-2005 period, will cost in total BEF 14 billion.

Approved by FGTB/ABVV and the Flemish wing of CSC/ACV, the agreement was rejected by the French-speaking christian white-collar trade union, CNE. The latter's reservations focus on the exclusion of the socio-cultural sector. Last, the Federation of Belgian Enterprises (Fédération des Entreprises de Belgique/Verbond van Belgische Ondernemingen, FEB/VBO) has expressed its disapproval of an agreement whose BEF 14 billion price tag, it fears, will most likely be picked up by the for-profit sector.

Commentary

The principle of creating employer representation has thus been asserted within the not-for-profit sector. After years of doubts, the trade union organisations have finally recognised the advantage of dealing with a counterpart, in terms of allocating responsibilities and of negotiating. The unions hence participated in the efforts to provide a structure for the representation of employers in the not-for-profit sector.

The agreement in the healthcare sector has just been signed, but new tensions are already in the making. The agreement was concluded at the federal level: to be complete and to take effect, it should logically be followed by agreements at the community level. The trade unions have already stepped up the pressure on the government of the French-speaking community and on the Flemish government. This raises fears within the former, which unlike the latter, faces major budgetary constraints. Furthermore, the unions in the socio-cultural sector are not likely to remain passive for long in the face of what they consider their abandonment. In any case, the greater weight of the healthcare sector in comparison with the socio-cultural sector has been yet again underscored, pointing to the extreme heterogeneity of the not-for-profit sector and the weakness of its socio-cultural component. (Pascal Fenaux, agence Alter)