what would the neighbours say?
EMU
MODELLING
CLASS
Belgium:
REMUS
anyone under 25 and for household aids and servants. • New regulations allow municipalities to engage the long-term unemployed to do "odd jobs." The unemployed can work up to 45 hours/month for these new Local Employment Agencies, for which they receive a supplementary benefit of 150 BEF/hour ($4.20). Significantly, over 0% of those activated"
under this programme are women. • In the name of equality, the restriction on night work for women has been abolished.
The only good news in this employment fire-sale is the pre-pension scheme, which allows 58+ year old redundant workers to receive benefits until they reach retirement age (65), without being considered as unemployed. Over 90% of those affected by this scheme are men. In fact, the programme dates from the 1970s, when the balance of forces between employer and employee was not as unfavourable as it is today.
Only 40% of jobs 'liberated' under the pre-pension scheme are filled by younger workers. Nevertheless, the pre-pension programme is the most efficient (and most social barrier to the further increase in unemployment.
Of course, economists and right-wing politicians complain that the scheme is too expensive. What basically bothers them is that Belgium has one of the lowest rates of labour market participation in the European Union. Only 50% of Belgians of working age are actually part of the labour force, compared to 58% of Germans and 56% of the French. One way to increase the percentage of Belgians available for work would be, of course, to raise the minimum age for pre-pension deals, or for
EMU retirement itself. This would increase competition between workers, with greater downward pressure on wages and working conditions. The government proposals
Given the failure of its current "employment policy," reducing the working week seems to be the only thing the government has never tried. According to a recent poll by Le Soir newspaper, just over half the population in the Frenchspeaking south of the country claims to be "ready to reduce working hours, even with loss of salary, if this helps create jobs."
A number of the country's key trade union sectors are already arguing for a generalised cut in the working week, without loss of salary, and accompanied by job
But the government coalition of Social-Christian and Socialist parties is determined to avoid this becoming the central axis of the unemployment debate, or even a maior element of employment policy. They say that it can only be one of many measures. alongside reducing company costs, and all kinds of flexibilisation.
Inspired by the Robien law in France, socialist party leaders in Belgium's French and Dutch-speaking regions have proposed a double strategy - "offensive" healthy companies, and "defensive" where the enterprise is in difficulty or restructuring. After long debate, this proposal has finally der ad bordens the overrent.
programme, employers will pay reduced social security contributions for six years for all existing and new workers who shift from a 38 to 32 hour week over a six year period fixed by an enterprise plan. The reduction in employers' contributions is 97,000 BEF for each worker for the first two years, and gradually less in the remaining years. It is conditional on the creation of new jobs from the hours 'saved.' The workplace plan must also fix the level at which the employer compensates the worker for the salary cut which comes with shorter hours. The legislation recomends a monthly increase of 3,250 BEF ($90).
The "defensive" programme is similar, except that the enterprise can benefit as long as it reduces the working week to at 35 hours or less. And there is no obligation to create new jobs from the hours 'saved." And the enterprise can obtain the benefits of this programme as well as any subsidies for pre-pension plans, voluntary redun-
The "offensive" programme is being tested in 20 enterprises - the government is determined that reduction in labour time should not be seen as a general solution to the unemployment problem. This extreme prudence is reinforced by the pressure on the budget — Belgium's public sector debt is 126% of Gross National Product, the highest in the European Union.
Also, the government accepts the OECD argument that if unemployment falls lower than 11%, it will be easier for workers to win wage increases. Belgium has a higher Non-Accelerating Wages Rage of Unemployment (NAWRU) than other industrialised countries because, according to the OECD, there is a high proportion of long-term unemployed workers, and other marginalised groups who do not 'fully' compete in the labour market. Employers will benefit
The original plan was to reduce employers' contributions to social security for the first four years of a programme to reduce the working week. But the employers' organisations lobbied successfully for a six year hand-out. A generous move by the government, considering that, since productivity is increasing 2.5% every year, in six years time, Belgian workers will be producing as much in 32 hours as they do in 38 hours today.
With this level of government support, and the most productive labour force in the world (according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics), it is not surprising that a number of employers are enthusiastic about the reduction in average working hours. provided that it gives them:
• More efficient use of equipment: by increasing the time each machine is used.
• More bodies to juggle with - by treating the 32 hour week not as a rigid agreement, but an average, over a 12 month period, the employer can send people home when there is less work, and mobilise a larger workforce than
* The 35 hour week in Europe before the reduction to 32 hours during moments of maxımum activity. This 1s known as the "annualisation" of hours worked.
• New blood, half price — after 15 years of cuts an restructuring, the core workforce of many companies is old and tired. The government-sponsored programme to cut the working week, and create new jobs from the hours
"saved' allows companies to recruit new workers with flexible contracts, and reduce the size of the "old" workforce. Employers hope this will give them a better qualified, and more highly motivated workforce, with a lower rate of absenteeism. All of which translates into higher productivity.
This is the essence of the new legislation. The state offers a structured programme for those employers who want to reorganise their production through a reduction in individual labour time. The costs of this reorganisation will be carried by the 'community' — the social security system - rather than the enterprise. What way out?
Another worrying factor is the government pledge that wages will not rise faster than in Belgium's three main trading partners, France, Germany and Holland. Since the reduction in individual working hours will increase the hourly average salary, this leaves little space for 'normal' pay increases. There are so many limitations that it seems that individual labour time will be cut where, when and how the bosses decide. Though some employers may accept it in the hope that it will bring
All this creates a difficult situation for the most conscious sections of the trade union movement, which have been struggling for a generalised reduction in individual labour time. They have a choice: scrabble for a few small salary increases, or make a few small steps towards a shorter average working week, hoping to set an example for the rest of the labour movement. This second attitude is the most serious, and the only decent option where jobs are at stake. But once we start negotiating, we fall into the trap of flexible working conditions, wage-restraint, and public compensation of the employers for whatever "concessions" they make.
All this is creating a long-term deficit in the social security system.
Some recent labour struggles have shown the limits of this struggle so far. Workers at the VW-Forest plant won a 35hour week without loss of pay. and with creation of new jobs, but in exchange they agreed to greater flexibility, and increased production at the plant. Their colleagues at the Cockerill-Sambre factory won a 34hour week, with new jobs created to fill all hours "saved,' but only in exchange for a total wages freeze until 2002.
In other workplaces, the results are worse. Threatened with factory closure, 30 International Viewpoint #297 workers at the Uniroyal (Conti) factory in Herstal agreed to a 23 hour week, with loss of salary, and a reduction in the workforce.
The only way out is by going forward! Through a common struggle to break the straight-jacket of wage restraint, and impose a generalised reduction in working hors, without loss of salary, and with creation of new jobs to fill all hours 'saved.' These demands can and should
The unions representing 400,000 non-commercial sector workers are already demanding this. For several months, workers in the (highly profitable) electricity sector have been taking action in favour of a 32 hour week.
Last year's "white" mobilisations see International Viewpoint #285] have created a favourable climate for resolute action which puts human interests before
Unfortunately, the leadership of the trade union confederations are not interested. They know that this kind of struggle is incompatible with their main goal — regaining their place alongside employers and the state in the 'social co-ordination' of past years. They are frightened by the worsening balance of forces between the classes, and overjoyed to realise that capital actually needs the labour bureaucracy to oil the wheels of the Euro (the new European Union currency, which will be introduced in 1998-2002). The leadership of the trade unions is determined not to miss this opportunity to be an indispensable ally of the system, even if the distrust Belgians now feel for "the institutions" inevitably rubs off on the unions. The neighbours, again
So the Belgian establishment was embarrassed and furious on October 10th, when the French government announced a framework law for the introduction of a 35 hour week. Prime Minister J.L. Dehane and Flemish Socialist Party leader L. Tobback have made undiplomatic criticisms of French Prime Minister Leonel Jospin. Walloon Socialist leader Philippe Busquin tried to divert the debate towards the vague goal of a four-day week, with or without a reduction in individual hours, and not in any universal application. Employers too made a few negative
This was enough to convince trade union leaders to remain "reasonable." Their only public reaction was to repeat the call for a four day week, wherever
Many rank-and-file trade unionists, however, recognised the French move as an opportunity to push forward in Belgium too. A broad range of intellectuals, politicians and personalities from the community organising and trade union spheres signed an appeal for "Thirty-five hours in Belgium, too!" The petition had a real impact on the congress of the socialist trade union confederation in early December. Particularly since it was signed by former FGTB/AVBB president George Debunne and famous economist Ricardo Petrella.
The congress reaffirmed its call for coordinated action to implement the 32 hour week without loss of salary, and with full creation of new jobs. This motion was amended to stress that 38 hours should be the maximum working week, and identifying the 35 hour week as "an intermediate stage, to be reached through collective negotiations or, failing that, through
Delegates rejected a more radical call, presented by Karel Gacoms, a delegate from the Renault-Vilvorde factory and the Brussels FGTB confederation, proposing a campaign to fix 35 hours as the legal maximum working week. But the congress was by no means a victory for the federation leadership, which hoped to win support for its own strategy - isolated negotiations in each sector and workplace over a gradual shift to a four day week, and then a gradual reduction in the number
Once again, the trade union leadership has failed to demonstrate its control over the movement. This is the third failed attempt to establish a social pact between unions and the state in the last five years. It seems that the government has now decided to follow a different path. Even before the congress, Prime Minister Dehane called for an increase in the minimum age for pre-pension plans, and the introduction of compulsory "training" programmes for the young unemployed (as recommended by the EU's Luxembourg summit). A clear message to the trade union bureaucrats that the government is ready to implement painful measures, with or without the support of labour "leaders."
Shorter week means more jobs The move to a 35-hour work week could create 40,000 new jobs in Denmark.
A recent study, carried out by the metalworkers union in the city of Horsens, suggests that a two hour per week reduction in working hours will have a much greater job-creating impact than increasing vacation entitlements by a week.
Denmark's national federation of metalworkers (Dansk Metal) is not planning to raise the question of the 35-hour work week in the 1998 round of collective bargaining. But this report will help those in the union movement who want to increase the profile of the 35-hour week. [AF] * Source: Dagbladet Arbejderen, 21 January 1998