Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1994, published 81st ILC session (1994)

Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122) - Belgium (Ratification: 1969)

1. The Committee notes the Government's documented report for the period ending June 1992. In its report, the Government states that, in a situation which is characterized by lower economic growth, the employment situation has deteriorated rapidly. Despite a very slight increase in the active population, the unemployment rate, which was 9.7 per cent in 1990, rose to 10.3 per cent in 1991. The rise was more rapid in 1992, and it reached 11.7 per cent in July 1992. The Government had hoped to be able to stabilize unemployment in 1993, but supplied additional information in January 1994 to confirm the acceleration in the rise in the number of jobseekers (the unemployment rate rose to 12.2 per cent in June 1993). Furthermore, the characteristics governing the distribution of unemployment in the various regions and categories of the population which the Committee had noted in its previous comments have persisted. In particular, the proportion of long-term unemployment is especially significant. According to the Government, nearly 50 per cent of the unemployed have been without employment for more than two years.

2. The Government states in its report that it is less the level than the structure of unemployment which is a matter of concern, and that particular attention is being paid to training and reintegrating the long-term unemployed. With reference to the conclusion in November 1990 of the inter-occupational agreement for the period 1991-92, it notes that the parties to the agreement stated that they were in favour of overall measures to combat unemployment, rather than isolated activities for specific categories. In the framework of this agreement, the concept of high-risk categories was extended and training and employment measures took the form of both new initiatives and the renewal of the measures taken under the previous inter-occupational agreement.

3. In this respect, the report gives a detailed and updated description of each of the measures adopted to increase job offers and decrease the demand for employment, to which the Government referred in its previous reports. The Committee would have preferred this description to be supplemented, in addition to the provision of gross data on the number of beneficiaries, by an evaluation of the overall and lasting effect of these measures on employment and it believes that it can discern a trend for a decline in the number of beneficiaries of measures to find work for the unemployed (including vocational integration courses for young persons and measures known as "the third work circuit"), as well as an increase in the number of beneficiaries of incentives to withdraw temporarily from the labour market (career breaks). It would be grateful if the Government would indicate whether these trends are a result of a modification in the measures adopted in the context of its labour market policy. The Committee notes the importance of measures which have the effect of decreasing the demand for jobs, in a context in which activity rates are already relatively low and, more generally, the emphasis which is placed on social measures for the unemployed, in a context in which maintaining the level of competitiveness of the economy appears to be vital.

4. The Committee notes that by placing emphasis on describing the measures adopted in the context of labour market policies, the Government's report does not permit a full evaluation to be made of the effect given to the Convention. It recalls in this respect that the scope of an "active" employment policy in the sense set out in the Convention goes beyond the adoption of measures to seek a balance between the supply of jobs and demand on the labour market, and that it has to be pursued "as a major goal", "within the framework of a coordinated economic and social policy". With reference in particular to the questions contained in the report form, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would state in its next report the manner in which the principal measures taken in fields such as fiscal and monetary policies, prices, incomes and wages policies, and measures related to social security, contribute to the pursuance of the objective of "full, productive and freely chosen employment".