Belgians prepare to negotiate national pay deal

The first steps towards Belgium’s next two-year pay deal will be taken later this month when unions and employers meet for the first time since the summer break in the national labour council, the CNT.

Their first task will be to make proposals to the government on the level of social benefits and charges, but the main business of the autumn will be to agree a national pay deal for 2007 and 2008, which will then be applied with minor variations at industry and company level. Negotiations look set to be difficult: despite high profits, the employers are saying that there is limited room for significant pay increases.

The agreement should also provide for manual and non-manual workers to have common contractual conditions for the first time. But unions will be anxious to avoid a generalisation across the whole economy of the increased flexibility that they have been forced to agree in the motor industry.