Belgium: Struggle for a collective reduction in working time

By Céline Moreau et Alexandre Govaerts (FGTB)

The redistribution of wealth between labour and capital involves two main channels: the increase of wages (direct and indirect) and the collective reduction of working time. While trying to unblock the first one, it is good to keep the habit of borrowing the second one as well.

In order to "restore the competitiveness" of companies, Belgian wages have been subject to what is called a "wage freeze" for several years now. In a nutshell: if the automatic wage indexation (link between wages and inflation) survives as best it can and salary increases are still possible, the negotiation of gross wage increases at national, sectoral and company level is corseted to the point of becoming ridiculous. Thus, the 0 (zero) % negotiable in 2015 rose to 0.5% in 2016, then to 1.1% over two years for 2017 and 2018.

While continuing to act to revive the distribution of wealth on this side, many organizations are thinking, negotiating and applying another mechanism for redistributing the value produced: the collective reduction of working time.
And they have to fight for it: employer reactions are almost always stereotypical ("how to ensure production? "," and our competitiveness? You will only manage to increase the workload ", etc.) and difficult negotiations. Activists are strongly advised to add a good deal of patience to their extreme motivation...

But sometimes you can count on a quick victory
This has been the case for the Oleon chemical plant in East Flanders. Faced with an increasing workload and the immobility of employers, the employees decided to go on strike in mid-September 2017. After 3 days of production stoppage, the management accepted the workers’ requests. One of these is a collective reduction in working time, with salary maintenance and compensatory hiring to prevent the pace of work from slowing down.

It is only a small drop in the ocean of labour market deregulation and the "flexibilisation" of working hours...

However, it proves that it is possible that a determined collective of employees could revive the civilizing trend towards a general reduction in working time. And this will be a great motivation for activists and unionists in other European countries who are struggling in this direction.