Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2019, published 109th ILC session (2021)

Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention, 1981 (No. 156) - Belgium (Ratification: 2015)

The Committee notes the Government’s first report and requests it to provide information on the following issues.

Article 1 of the Convention. Definitions. Dependent children and other members of the worker’s immediate family who clearly need their care or support. The Committee notes the information provided by the Government that there is no uniformly applied definition of the notion “dependent child” and “other members of the immediate family” in the national legislation. The definition of these terms varies according to the legal matter and system in question but the term “dependent children” generally concerns the people whose maintenance is taken on by another person. The term “other members of the immediate family” under the terms of the social security system, refers to people who benefit from social security through another person who is a beneficiary. Dependent persons can therefore be the spouse of a beneficiary of social security or the worker; the person who lives with the beneficiary of social security or the worker; children under 25 years of age; ancestors of the beneficiary of social security or the worker, or his or her spouse; and, where relevant, their parents-in-law. The Committee notes this information and requests the Government to indicate whether the members of the immediate family of a worker who receive social security in their name but who nonetheless may need care or support that may restrict the possibilities of the worker in preparing for, entering, participating in or advancing in economic activity, may be considered “members of the immediate family” within the meaning of this Convention.

Article 2. Application to all branches of economic activity and all categories of workers. The Committee notes that, according to the Government’s statement, where the legislation provides for measures for women and men workers with family responsibilities in the private sector, equivalent measures are in place for territorial public services (federal, community and regional). It also notes that many of the measures to enable persons with family responsibilities who are engaged or who wish to engage in employment to exercise their right to do so or to acquire work without being subject to discrimination and, to the extent possible, without conflict between their employment and family responsibilities, are implemented through collective agreements. The Committee requests the Government to indicate the measures taken to ensure that private sector workers with family responsibilities, both women and men, who are not covered by collective agreements, are able to exercise their right to engage in employment or to acquire employment without discrimination or conflict between their professional and family life.

Article 3. National policy. The Committee notes that the protection of men and women workers with family responsibilities is ensured at federal, community and regional level through different means, such as maternity and paternity protection or equal treatment for men and women workers in occupation and employment. The Committee notes, however, that the prohibition of discrimination based on family responsibilities is not expressly stated as such in the law. Therefore, for example, the Act on combating certain forms of discrimination of 10 May 2007, which prohibits discrimination based on sex does not contain any provisions against discrimination based on family responsibilities. The Committee notes, however, that in addition to the present Convention, the legislation of the European Union, of which Belgium is a Member, and the European Social Charter, revised in 1996, set forth the principle according to which workers with family responsibilities are entitled to work without being subject to discrimination and, to the extent possible, without conflict between their employment and their family responsibilities. In this regard, it highlights the adoption on 20 June 2019 of the European Union Directive 2019/1158 on work-life balance for parents and carers and repealing Directive 2010/18/UE on parental leave. The Committee therefore encourages the Government to consider including in its national policy a provision formally prohibiting discrimination in employment and occupation based on family responsibilities, in the same vein as discrimination based on sex, pregnancy and maternity. Noting the recent adoption of the European Union Directive 2019/1158 on work-life balance for parents and carers, the Committee requests the Government to provide information on the measures taken to reflect it in its national legislation.

Article 4(b). Equality of opportunity and treatment concerning conditions of employment and social security. The Committee notes with interest that a number of working-time arrangements are guaranteed in national legislation, such as suspending a career (credit-temps), teleworking, accumulating time worked to take as leave (épargne-carrière), flexi-time, floating holidays, part-time work, leave-sharing, leave for providing assistance or care to a member of the household or family who is seriously ill, leave for palliative care, leave for compelling reasons and special leave, also known as “leave of absence”. These measures cover both specific situations for workers with family responsibilities and situations that all workers might face, irrespective of whether they have family responsibilities. In addition to maternity leave (and the right to nursing breaks), the Committee notes that the legislation also provides for more traditional leave granted to men and women workers with family responsibilities, namely paternity or parental leave, adoption leave and leave for foster care. In this respect, it notes that these forms of leave are essentially for men and women workers with responsibilities towards their dependent children and that for other members of their immediate family who clearly need their care or support, working-time arrangements are in place instead. The Committee requests the Government to provide statistical information disaggregated by sex concerning:

• (i) the percentage of men and women respectively who actually use working time arrangements and other leave mentioned above, particularly the percentage of men who use parental and paternity leave, as well as the percentage of men and women who do part-time work and use teleworking arrangements;
• (ii) the number of men and women who have requested and obtained leave to care for dependents, other than dependent children; and
• (iii) the number of cases in which workers with family responsibilities have presented a case to labour inspection or the courts, following their employer’s refusal to grant them any of the above forms of leave.

Article 5. Childcare and family services and facilities. The Committee recalls that Belgian federalism is built at two levels: territorial and linguistic. There are therefore three regions with a territorial base (Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels Capital region) and three language communities (Flemish, French- and German-speaking). The federal State, the communities and the regions each have “exclusive powers” and only the institution invested with an area of action can intervene (including in international relations) and enact legislation. Belgium is thus one of the few federal States to strictly apply the principle of equipollence of standards, which gives federated laws the same hierarchical level as federal laws. In this respect, the Committee notes that measures relating to childcare (nurseries, after-school care and other childcare services) and “assistance for persons” (which includes family policy, social assistance, assistance for persons with disabilities and assistance for older persons) fall within the competence of communities and that, as a result, there may be notable differences between the relevant services provided by the German-speaking, Flemish and French communities. According to a national study conducted between 2016 and 2017 on childcare, mentioned in the Government’s report, the Committee notes that at the national level only 23.7 per cent of children between 3 months and 2 years are placed in a childcare institution for a period of less than 30 hours and 31.4 per cent for 30 hours or more. The scarcity of childcare places for very young children has a greater impact on the Brussels-Capital region, where, between 2016 and 2017, the number of children not placed in nurseries rose from 63.4 to 66 per cent. However, during the same period, the number of children not placed in nurseries in the Flemish region fell from 52.1 to 41.5 per cent. Childcare for children aged 3 and over nevertheless seems much more accessible with, for example, a national average in 2017 of 77.6 per cent for placement of 30 hours or more for children aged 3–5 years. The Government refers to another study on the rate of inactivity or part-time activity of parents, owing to insufficient childcare systems and family responsibilities, that shows that women are clearly the most affected, while a tiny percentage of men are concerned. At the national level, in 2017, only 0.5 per cent of men had no work or were working part-time due to family responsibilities compared with 9.1 per cent of women. Noting that the lack of childcare facilities for very young children constitutes an obstacle to equality of opportunity of men and women workers wishing to reconcile their professional and family lives, the Committee requests the Government to provide information on the measures taken at the regional and national level to: (i) improve the rate of coverage of childcare needs for children between 0 and 3 years (as well as information on the results achieved, particularly with regards to increasing childcare capacity); and (ii) combat territorial inequalities relating to childcare. It also requests the Government to provide detailed statistical information on the availability and accessibility of affordable facilities for childcare and for family services.

Article 6. Information and awareness-raising. The Committee notes that the Government’s first report is silent on this matter. It therefore wishes to recall that the measures taken to implement a national policy under Article 3 of the Convention should be accompanied by a major campaign of sensitization in order to promote widespread acceptance of the notion that the family is the concern of each individual, man and woman, and that society must enable all persons with dependents both to exercise their family responsibilities and to participate fully in the labour force (see General Survey of 1993 on workers with family responsibilities, paragraph 90). The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the measures taken or envisaged to promote, at federal, regional and community levels, an information and education policy which engenders broader public understanding of problems of workers with family responsibilities and the principle of equality of opportunity and treatment for men and women workers with family responsibilities and workers without family responsibilities.

Article 7. Vocational guidance and training. The Committee notes that the implementation of vocational guidance and training measures falls within the competence of the federated entities, and more precisely of the regions. The Committee notes with interest that the regional employment offices (FOREM, VDAB, ORBEM) already provide for integration/reintegration, guidance and training measures for job seekers, and especially for “returning women” who have left the labour market or who never entered it owing to family responsibilities. Further, it notes the adoption at the national level of the Act on feasible and manageable work of 5 March 2017, which reforms and repeals the former training system. Thus, the interoccupational target of allocating 1.9 per cent of total wages to training has been replaced by a new interoccupational target of an average of five days of training per full-time equivalent and per year. The new Act provides for training to be organized, either at sectoral or enterprise level, by creating an individual training account. Where there is no collective sectoral or enterprise agreement, the worker is entitled to two days of training per year and per full-time equivalent. The Committee requests the Government to continue providing information on the practical and legislative measures taken at the various regional and community levels, such as occupational training and employment programmes targeted at workers, particularly “returning men and women” with family responsibilities, with a view to enabling them to become and remain integrated in the labour force, as well as to re-enter the labour force after an absence due to those responsibilities. In this regard, it requests the Government to provide information on the impact of the Act of 5 March 2017 on training for men and women workers with family responsibilities, who are at a particular disadvantage when endeavouring to obtain and maintain a job. It also requests the Government to provide statistical data disaggregated by sex.

Article 11. Cooperation with employers’ and workers’ organizations. The Committee notes the existence of various collective agreements giving effect to the principles and provisions in national law, in particular in the area of special forms of leave and conditions of work. The Committee requests the Government to continue providing information on the manner in which employers’ and workers’ organizations exercise their right to participate in the development and implementation of measures to give effect to the provisions in the Convention, including with regard to reconciliation of workers’ professional and family responsibilities through collective agreements or other means. It also requests the Government to provide information on the programmes implemented at enterprise level, in consultation with the social partners, to promote reconciliation of professional and family responsibilities, as well as the notion of a better work-life balance.

Enforcement. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on legislation enforcement activities to give effect to the Convention, particularly labour inspection, and on all judicial or administrative decisions relating to the application of the Convention. It also requests the Government to provide statistical data disaggregated by sex, studies, surveys and reports which may allow the Committee to examine how the principle enshrined in the Convention is applied in practice, indicating the obstacles faced and the progress achieved with regard to equality of opportunity and treatment between men and women workers with family responsibilities and between the worker and workers without family responsibilities.