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The government must act to find a third way and allow new agreements on wages between social partners.
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The negotiations of the next salary agreement (AIP) will only start in 15 months … And yet, they are already agitating the union world. This Friday, the FGTB will also be pounding the pavement to recall its opposition to the law governing the evolution of wages in the private sector.
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According to Jean-François Tamellini, the Walloon boss of the union, the revision of this text in 2017 resulted in an “ultraliberal version“, which locks the social partners in a straitjacket and prevents reaching the slightest compromise.
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On the management side, we do not hear it that way. For employers, on the contrary, this law is the only way to prevent Belgium from becoming “the lame duck of Europe” again., understand the only guarantee that it preserves its competitiveness compared to its neighbors. This competitiveness, they insist, is already burdened by automatic wage indexation, a mechanism to which we are almost the only ones to use on the Old Continent. As long as it remains on the agenda, no question of touching the law on wages, argue the bosses.
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As often, there are elements that hold water on both sides. To say that this law hinders bargaining is defended, as is ensuring that doing without it would have devastating consequences for employment. In order to break the deadlock, a third way is therefore needed, which will preserve the purchasing power of households, without however harming the competitiveness of our businesses.
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What we need is not yet another reform, but rather a rethinking of everything related to wage formation in Belgium.
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And to achieve this, the government will have to assume its responsibilities. Attention, what we need is not yet another reform, but a rethinking of everything related to wage formation in Belgium. And yes, that will involve touching the law on wages which today mortgages almost all the chances of future agreements between employers and unions.
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This is not provided for in the coalition agreement, retort the liberals and the CD&V. That’s right, but constantly taking refuge behind this sacrosanct text only risks accelerating the race to the precipice of the Vivaldi hitch. If the right wing of the executive has to move at one point, so will the left. Because touching the wage law will not be enough! Socialists and environmentalists will also have to accept to address without taboos the question of maintaining automatic indexation.
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In any case, remaining a spectator and waiting for a clash in early 2023 constitutes a risky bet for the parties. Because, one year from the end of the legislature, some could see in a new blockage the ideal “casus belli” to bring down the government. Not to act is to accept that this file could become the tomb of the Vivaldi …
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