High time for fair and better wages! – The EESC Workers' Group supports Belgian workers and their unions in their demands

The Workers' Group of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) expresses its solidarity with the thousands of Belgian workers taking to the streets of Brussels and taking industrial action across Belgium today to demand better wages and purchasing power. While the cost of living and inflation are soaring, wages are not keeping up and workers are struggling to make ends meet. In the meantime, the profit margins of Belgian companies have notably increased in past years.

This is why the three Belgian confederations ACV-CSC, ABVV-FGTB and ACLVB-CGSLB have organised a national mobilisation around three demands to the Belgian government:

• restoration of the right to free collective bargaining on gross wages at all levels
• revision of the wage standard law to restore a freely negotiated indicative margin for wage increases, and
• preservation of the automatic indexation of wages and allowances linked to inflation, and the preservation of wage scale increases.

Workers´ Group President Oliver Röpke declares the full support for the actions of the Belgian Trade Union movement:

“The Workers' Group stands with them and workers all over Europe who are feeling the squeeze and worrying about how to pay housing, heating, food and fuel bills. The recent political agreement between European Member States and the European Parliament on the draft directive on minimum wages, and crucially minimum standards to support collective bargaining is a welcome step. The EU institutions must now move quickly to adoption of the final directive, followed by swift and effective implementation in the Member States. Workers deserve fair pay for their labour and poverty wages must become a thing of the past.” 

The press release is available in EN, FR and NL in the links below