Belgium -Division between white and blue collar workers declared unconstitutional -July 8, 2011

On 7 July, the Belgian Constitutional Court has declared the division in terms and conditions between white collar workers (“bedienden”) and blue collar workers (“arbeiders”) unconstitutional. Differences in terms of notice and waiting days in case of sickness allowance are discriminatory, and have to be removed within exactly two years, the Court judged. On its website, the FGTB/ABVV confederation hails this judgement, and says to feel supported in striving towards harmonized and non-discriminatory terms and conditions.

Dutch: http://www.abvv.be/web/guest/news-nl/-/article/306466 ...

French: http://www.abvv.be/web/guest/news-fr/-/article/306079 ...

 

This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2011.