2024-10-08 17:13:00
The Dutch buyer of Van Hool’s activities ensures that the leave system in Belgium harms the competitiveness of its activities. What is it really?
The paving stone will not have fallen into the pond without making a sound. Willem Van der Leegte, CEO of the Dutch group VDL – which took over in Belgium 240 former workers of the Van Hool industrial group which had fallen into bankruptcy – assured this Tuesday to our colleagues at Gazet Van Antwerpen losing “many working days due to schemes such as paternity and maternity leave, and part-time work“.
The leader’s comments should be put in a broader context, in which he is concerned about “the lead that Belgium and the Netherlands have over other countries in terms of productivity”, an lead which continues to grow. shrink, according to him. “Of course, we grant these benefits (leave, Editor’s note) to our employees, but we must ask ourselves an important question: to what extent are we still competitive compared to the rest of the world?
The burden on different leave schemes is there – too many, they would reduce the competitiveness of companies. Is this charge justified? Attempt to answer in five questions.
“There has been no change in the last five years that would allow us to say that Belgium has become a paradise in terms of legal leave.”
1/ Are there more legal and public holidays in Belgium than elsewhere?
No. If our country can be considered “rather well off” for its legal (and public holidays) days off in the different international comparisons that exist, the differences in regimes from one country to another (and within the same country, between employees, self-employed, public and private sector, etc.) make these comparisons difficult.
In Belgium alone, the collection of leave figures depends on different organizations (ONSS, ONEM, SPF Employment, etc.) depending on their nature. Drawing up a complete and quantified panorama is a matter of goldsmithing.
Still, with 20 days of legal leave in the private sector, and ten public holidays per year, Belgium cannot be considered a promised land of legal leave. “There has been no change in the last five years that would allow us to say that Belgium has become a paradise in terms of legal leave”confirms Thierry Dock, professor at UCLouvain, specialist in social matters and employment.
2/ Are paternity and maternity leaves more generous in Belgium than elsewhere?
Here too, the answer is nodespite paternity leave (or for the co-parent) which increased from ten to 15, then to 20 days in 2023. “For leave, both maternity and paternity leave and parental leave, Belgium is in the average European“, believes Jean-Christophe Dehalu, skills director at Akt for Wallonia (ex-UWE).
With 15 weeks of maternity leave, Belgium is indeed far behind Sweden and its 480 days to be divided between the two parentsand rather in the average of European countries. In addition to the duration, the question of distribution between parents and that of compensation or not, make comparisons complicated. But Belgium is in no case an El Dorado for childbirth leave..
“We want a global reflection on the issue of leave, not to diminish workers’ rights, but to rationalize it.”
3/ What about time credits and other “thematic” leave?
In addition to parental leave, three other so-called “thematic” holidays exist in Belgium (the leave for medical assistance, palliative care and caregivers) just like the system of time credits. These cases are considered career interruptions, aimed at reconciling professional and private life.
Thierry Dock specifies that Belgium has rather implemented a turn of the screw than a lax relaxation with regard to these measures in recent years. “There have been a series of restrictions made in Belgium, to reduce the possibility of taking time credits, now reserved for specific situations, linked to the age of the child or an elderly parent. We can no longer take time credit just to carry out a personal project,” believes the professor.
On the side of the Union of Middle Classeswe remind you that a certain number of time credits are not accessible only with the agreement of the employer in companies with fewer than ten workers. “It’s crucial, we cannot abandon this threshold, because in small structures, there is no backup. An absence can hinder the smooth running of the day, or even lead to the cessation of the activity in extreme cases,” explains Matthieu Dewèvre, advisor to the UCM studies department.
Generally speaking, on leave“our concern mainly concerns the readability of this system, there are many different leaves, with different conditions of application, compensation and lengths”, further believes Matthieu Dewèvre. “We want a global reflection on the issue of leave, not to diminish workers’ rights, but to rationalize it.”
4/ Is part-time work more widespread in Belgium than abroad?
In 202326.0% of salaried workers in Belgium worked part-timea figure that remained roughly stable compared to the previous year. It is mainly women who work part-time – 40.2% of female employees, compared to 12.1% of male employees.
As the buyer of the ex-Van Hool workers includes the Netherlands in its observation that leave “loses working days”, it must be recognized that our Dutch neighbors are considered the European part-time championsahead of Austria, Germany, and… Belgium.
“A crucial and often misunderstood point is that the overwhelming majority of part-timers are wanted“, and not suffered, estimates Matthieu Dewèvre for the UCM. “The cases forced by the employer are rather a minority.” A minority, which, in Belgium, still weighs around 20%. The reason for part-time given by the worker is that he “cannot find full-time employment or employment is not offered full-time” – for 17% of women and 19.9% of men part-time.
“The problem lies in the hours worked per week.”
5/ Do days off negatively affect worker productivity and the competitiveness of businesses in Belgium?
A figure that proves the Dutch buyer right is that of hours worked in the industry. In Belgium, weekly working hours are lower than the average for European Union and eurozone countries. “With 34.6 hours actually provided, we are rather at the bottom of the ranking“, locates Jean-Christophe Dehalu. “That’s where the problem lies, in terms of overall working time.” A figure which could be explained by a higher sickness absence rate than elsewhere, and a part-time work more present in Belgium than in some of its neighbors.
It remains that if the considerations of the CEO of the VDL group on labor costs are perfectly legitimatereducing the number of (possible) days of leave in Belgium at a cost that affects the competitiveness of a company is a bit short.
First, because the calculation of a worker’s productivity cannot be limited to a number of hours worked – unless we consider workers as a resource needing neither rest nor balance between private and professional life. Many studies also conclude that days off have – under certain conditions – a clearly positive effect on productivity. American workers, for example, work on average 26 days more per year than French workers, but their annual production (average, again) is… lower.
With regard to Belgium, “the reports of the Central Economic Council (joint body) do not no evidence of lower productivity than in neighboring countries”, estimates Thierry Dock. “It is for its high level of wages that our country is sometimes singled out in terms of competitiveness, not for its holidays”, recalls the economist.
Then, because skill is an essential factor in productivity. Ensure that the labor cost per bus produced is between 65,000 and 130,000 euros higher in Belgium than in Macedonia is one thing. This does not prevent the Dutch CEO from recognizing that former Van Hool employees master “specific knowledge” and are “specialists”both on the design side by engineers, as well as on the production and supply chain side. Skill has a cost, of course, but without it, there is no productivity.
“What is needed is an improvement in the overall framework in which our manufacturers operate. This is what should allow our industry to grow and repopulate.”
A global reflection
Wage differential compared to neighboring countries, labor law, technological investments, attractiveness for foreign investments… so many other parameters to take into account for an overall reflection on the competitiveness of companies.
“What is needed is an improvement in the overall framework in which our manufacturers operate. This is what should allow our industry to grow and repopulate. This is what a real industrial policy is: a combination of a set of parameters to make you attractive with a view to developing the industry,” concludes Jean-Christophe Dehalu.
However, at a time when many employers are reporting difficulties in recruitingat a time when the number of long-term sick people is increasing in our country – mainly for mental health reasons – considering work-related leave in the sole light of its cost, actually seems to come at the wrong time.
The words of Willem Van der Leegte, CEO of the Dutch group VDL, “in any case come to impact a trend which consists of wanting to better combine life times. There is a search for balance that must be taken into consideration, otherwise we do not create any bridges between job seekers on one side and job offers on the other”, concludes Thierry Dock.
Are there too many holidays in Belgium? A system that would harm the competitiveness of businesses? LThe employers’ federations contacted by us did not rush to the gate to comment in any case the words of the Dutch CEO – perhaps a sign that reducing the number of leaves is a fight they do not wish to fight – not now, nor frontally, anyway.
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