The new law on flexi-jobs in the catering sector has a two-pronged target: enabling more flexible employment contracts and combating fiscal and social fraud.
On 16 November 2015, a new law on flexijobs in the catering sector was approved. This new law enables more flexible employment contracts, as a form of compensation for the implementation of another regulation, the so-called ‘white-cash deck’. This is a measure to combat fiscal fraud – more specifically, fraud on social contributions on working hours. The new law on flexijobs concerns only employers in the Joined Committee 302 Catering and in the Joined Committee 322 Temporary Work (in this committee, only temporary jobs in the catering sector). The overall aim is to combat non-declared work. A flexijob is described as a secondary occupation for retirees and people who have a main occupation that occupies at least 80% of the working hours of a full-time job. A flexijob must pay at least €9.50 per working hour. No fiscal or social contributions need be paid. Each employer must state the conditions of the flexijobs they offer in in a so-called framework agreement, in which the wage, the expected duties and the way of calling up the employee is be described. Employees are allowed to combine flexijobs with several employers. The three trade unions recognised in the sector – CSC-ACV, FGTB-ABVV and CGSLB-ACLVB – do not agree with the new law, and have brought an action against flexijobs at the Constitutional Court.