Historic agreement on working time cuts in private healthcare blocked

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Some 13,000 employees of Belgian not-for-profit private healthcare institutions demonstrated in Brussels on 24 April 2001 to demand the application of a collective agreement that would implement an accord reached on 1 March 2000 between the federal government and the sector's social partners. The March 2000 deal, which was called historic at the time of signature, is now blocked over the section relating to the reduction of working hours for employees aged over 45 years.

On 1 March 2000, the Belgian federal government signed an agreement with the representatives of employers and workers in the not-for-profit private healthcare sector (hospitals, nursing homes, rest homes, home care centres etc)(BE0003305F). Covering a period of five years, this agreement - described as "historic" at the time - provides for a set of measures financed by the federal state to the tune of BEF 13.4 billion on an annual basis. These measures relate in particular to the harmonisation of pay scales, a salary increase, stabilisation of the situation of those in precarious employment, and combating the shortage of nursing staff. The most high-profile measure was the granting, as of 1 July 2001, of a progressive reduction in working hours for nursing staff, auxiliary nursing staff, and "equivalent" staff (people working irregular hours) from the age of 45 years. This reduction in working hours was granted without loss of salary and with recruitment of new staff to make up for the reduced hours.

On 7 December 2000, employers and trade unions concluded a collective agreement in joint committee No. 305 to implement the 1 March agreement. This collective agreement was, however, quickly denounced by two of the sector's employers' organisations, the independent Belgian Confederation of Private Healthcare Establishments (Confédération belge des établissements de soins privés (Cobéprivé) and the socialist-oriented French-speaking Association of Healthcare Institutions (Association francophone des institutions de santé, AFIS). The reason cited was the inclusion of "equivalent" staff, alongside nursing and auxiliary nursing staff, in the 1 March agreement. The two employers' organisations argued that after publication of the relevant financing orders, the budgetary resources allocated to the social partners by the federal government in order to support the reduction in working hours provided for by the March agreement (BEF 2.5 billion) had turned to be insufficient.

The two employers' organisations thus said that they were prepared to conclude a new collective agreement with the unions on condition that the measure was limited to nursing staff and auxiliary nursing staff. The unions refused. All of the trade union organisations in the sector demanded a collective agreement covering all the personnel in the private healthcare sector, including all non-nursing staff (administrative and technical staff etc). In their eyes, everyone should be placed on an equal footing. The unions involved are the Belgian Union of White-Collar Staff, Technicians and Managers (Syndicat des Employés, Techniciens et Cadres de Belgique/Bedienden, Technicien Kaders van België, SETCa/BBTK) affiliated to the Belgian General Federation of Labour (Fédération Générale du Travail de Belgique/Algemeen Belgisch Vakverbond, FGTB/ABVV), the National Federation of White-Collar Workers (Centrale Nationale des Employés/Landelijke Bedienden Centrale, CNE/LBC) affiliated to the Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (Confédération des Syndicats Chrétiens/Algemeen Christelijk Vakverbond, CSC/ACV), and the Federation of Liberal Trade Unions of Belgium (Algemene Centrale der Liberale Vakbonden van België/Centrale Générale des Syndicaux Libéraux de Belgique, ACLVB/CGSLB).

The employers, like the federal government, stated that it had been agreed to favour the two categories of staff who are most exposed (in terms of stress, working hours etc) and among whom there is an increasing shortage of qualified labour.

In order to reinforce the call for the implementation of the collective agreement bringing into effect the March 2000 agreement, close to 13,000 employees from private healthcare institutions demonstrated in Brussels on 24 April 2001.

On the eve of the demonstration, the three federal ministers responsible for the matter (Frank Vandenbroucke, Laurette Onkelinx and Magda Aelvoet) stated in joint committee No. 305 that increasing the budget allocation set in spring 2000 was out of the question. According to Mr Vandenbroucke, the Minister of Social Affairs, the application of the March 2000 agreement was the responsibility of the employers and unions. "Our job stops there," he declared. However, the Minister of Employment and Labour, Laurette Onkelinx, offered the possibility of private healthcare workers benefiting from the overall federal plan which provides working time reductions according to the criterion of age or years of service (BE0005312F). This overture was directly disputed by the employers' organisations: according to them, the financial incentives linked to the "Onkelinx plan" would be largely insufficient to finance all of the measures linked to reducing working hours.

At a meeting of the joint committee on 25 April, the unions unanimously refused to sign a draft collective agreement submitted by all the employers' organisations. This draft provided end-of-career working time reductions only for nursing staff and auxiliary nursing staff, with the employers arguing that this was in order to comply with the requirements set by the three federal ministers responsible for the matter.

Following this new difficulty, Cobéprivé sent a letter to the Minister of Social Affairs asking him to take the necessary measures to finance the hours reductions for the nursing staff and auxiliary nursing staff as of 1 July 2001, as stipulated in the agreement of 1 March 2000, outside the scope of a collective agreement signed in the joint committee. The social partners were nevertheless due to meet again in the near future to attempt to find common ground.