Language:

Belgium

Scores (out of 10)

Impacts

In consultation with the Fairwork team, the following platforms agreed to implement changes to their policies or practices:

Fair Pay

1.1: Ring Twice raised the minimum pay for babysitters and pet sitters, which are the job categories with the lowest minimum pay on the platform.

Fair Management

4.1: Ring Twice formalised an appeal process for workers on their website and adapted the emails sent to workers in case of deactivation. These emails now contain clear information about the deactivation policy and appeal process.

4.2: Ring Twice formalised an anti-discrimination policy on their website and notified workers of this new policy.

The Fairwork project in Belgium

The growth of the platform economy in Belgium, although less rapid than in its neighbouring countries, has triggered heated debates around workers’ legal classification and their protection. The structures for collective employment regulations and strong trade unions under the Ghent system provide some protections for workers, but in the specific context of the platform economy, they do not always translate into fairer working conditions. The lack of guaranteed minimum wage and social security coverage for self-employed workers in the platform economy results in underpaid and unpaid labour. Falling outside the scope of collective sectoral agreements, platform work is also linked to lack of job protection and lack of collective voice.

The first round of Fairwork Belgium ratings for 2022 sheds light on the working conditions of platform workers and makes practical suggestions for improving them. This report establishes a baseline for the country’s platform economy that will be updated on a yearly basis. Five platforms in the food delivery, care, and domestic services sectors were evaluated against five Principles of Fairwork, and given a score out of ten.

 

Related blogs

Videos:

Webinar: Fairwork Belgium Ratings 2021 Report Launch

Catch up with the Belgium Teams report launch below. Following a brief presentation of key findings, our panelists discuss the the Belgium 2022 Report.

Panelists:

  • Prof. Valeria Pulignano, KU Leuven
  • Milena Franke, KU Leuven
  • Claudia Marà, KU Leuven,
  • Anna Banczyk, European Commission,
  • Kurt Vandaele, ETUI,
  • Martin Willems, United Freelancers – ACV/CSC
  • Marc Botenga, European Parliament, Ptb/Pvda.