By deciding to freeze pay (outside indexation and scale increases), the government thought it had effectively prepared the ground to put together the notorious “competitiveness pact” the Federal State wants to sign to restore Belgium’s competitive position and try to curb the erosion of market shares abroad. Yet, according to recent Eurostat figures, regarding the evolutions of hourly wage costs, the gap is even wider than before compared with Germany, France and the Netherlands. This is why the Federation of Enterprises of Belgium (FEB) made a plea to the government, to launch a debate on a linear reduction of contributions, a more flexible wage system, and a new debate on the automatic indexation of pay. Unions refuse to get stuck in a “fake” debate and even filed a complaint with the ILO because the Belgian government violated the freedom of wage negotiations established in international law, and the FGTB (metalworkers’ federation) and CNE (white-collar section of the CSC) rejected the pay freeze before the State Council. (Ref. 130551)
Belgian wages soaring in the face of competition. Recent Eurostat figures on wage costs show that Belgian wages still aren’t under control. While hourly wage cost in the eurozone only increased by 0.9 percent per annum in the second 2013 quarter (the lowest growth in years), in Belgium, it increase by 2.2 percent. In the three neighboring countries, Germany did +1.8 percent, France +0.5 percent, and the Netherlands only +0.3 percent. Based on these figures, the FEB believes that the measures
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