Also cap for student job: ACV trade union wants students better …

The Christian trade union ACV asks that job students be entitled to unemployment benefits and holiday pay. “We want to protect the students who really need that income.” But competent minister Maggie De Block (Open VLD) thinks that is a bad idea.

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“Student labor was once created to replace employees who went on vacation in the summer,” says ACV spokesperson David Van Bellingen. “Today students are allowed to work all year round and are deployed flexibly. This is an interesting extra for employers, because they do not pay any social security contributions. But the downside is that the student is hardly protected. ”

According to the union, the latter has become very tangible during the corona period. It is estimated that a quarter of student jobs have been lost in recent months. “About two thousand students have contacted us about this,” says Samuel Bootsman of Jong ACV. “It was usually young people who worked in a restaurant that was temporarily closed, or at a summer event that was canceled. We noticed that many students said they were dependent on that wage to pay for their room and food. ”

This is now prompting the union to demand better protection for students. “We propose to levy the same social charges on student work as on normal work,” says Van Bellingen. “That would allow the students to build up social rights. Not only pension rights, but also the right to unemployment benefit and to vacation pay. During corona, for example, they could have applied for temporary unemployment. ”

ACV has calculated that the wages for the student, thanks to the extra holiday pay, would remain about the same net. Employers, on the other hand, would have to pay up to a few hundred euros more per month. But according to ACV, that does not outweigh the benefits. “Not only would the student be better protected, there would also be less unfair competition with low-skilled jobs, which are subject to social security charges, and that means extra income for social security.”

“Other safety nets”

Minister of Social Affairs, Maggie De Block, is not enthusiastic about the proposal. She emphasizes that student work is intended as a bonus. “A student should never depend on his student job for a living. There are other safety nets for this, such as the OCMW. In the first place, we have to look at where those safety nets might be insufficient and fix them. ”

Moreover, the minister fears that this would reduce student vacancies, because it will become too expensive and too complex for employers. “That wouldn’t be to the students’ advantage either,” says De Block.

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