On 26 June Belgium’s chemical sector social partners signed a sector protocol agreement, just weeks after the 2019-2020 AIP (cross-industry agreement) negotiations fell through (c.f. article No. 11099) and a royal decree was implemented setting the salary margin at 1.1%. The CSC (in French), CGSLB (in French), FGTB (in French), and the sector’s employers’ federation, Essenscia (in French), signed an agreement covering 90,000 employees and spanning two years from 01 July 2019. Planet Labor reviews the main points of this agreement along with clarifying commentary from two representatives of the ‘Building-industry and energy’ (BIE) sector, namely (i) Johan Quintelier (CSC - Confederation of Christian Trade Unions) regional CSCBIE secretary and Flanders regional head of the chemical sector and, (ii) Koen De Kinder, Federal CSCBIE secretary and national head of the chemical sector.
Salary increases. The text introduces a progressive increase in workers’ minimum salaries spread over two stages. The first comprises a €0.12 per hour increase from 01 July 2019 and then a €0.08 per hour increase from 01 January 2020. Employees will also receive a two-stage increase with €20.7996 added to the minimum monthly salary from 01 July 2019 and then €13.8664 to be added to the monthly floor from 01 January 2020. Koen Kinder explained, “The effort made to raise minimum hourly salaries r
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