Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2006, published 96th ILC session (2007)

Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102) - Belgium (Ratification: 1959)

Part IV (Unemployment benefit) of the Convention. The Committee notes that the report contains no information on this part of the Convention. It therefore hopes that in its next report the Government will not fail to provide detailed information on trends in this branch during the period from 2001 to 2007 and the calculations of rates of unemployment benefit, taking into account the comments below.

Part XI (Standards to be complied with by periodical payments). The Committee notes that the reference wage of the standard beneficiary used in calculating the replacement rates of the various benefits varies from one branch of social security to another. For Parts III, VIII, and IX of the Convention, the reference wage is that of a skilled worker in the construction industry (102.752 euros per eight-hour working day at 1 October 2005). For Parts V and X, it is the annual agreed wage of 26,709.66 euros (in 2004) payable to a skilled worker chosen, according to the report, in accordance with the provisions of Article 65(6)(b) of the Convention. For Part VI, it is the basic wage of a “fully skilled mechanical engineer in small-scale industry” chosen in accordance with Article 65(6)(a) of the Convention which at July 2005 amounted to 18,611.19 euros per year or 51.36 euros per calendar day, which equals exactly half the daily reference wage of the skilled worker in the construction industry chosen for Parts III, VIII and IX. Lastly, for Part VII (family benefit), the standard annual wage of an unskilled labourer determined in accordance with Article 66 of the Convention, amounted to 22,927.68 euros in 2002, which is far higher than the reference wage of a skilled worker as determined in Part VI of the Convention. In view of the inconsistency of these figures, the Committee requests the Government to recalculate the replacement rate of these benefits on the basis of the monthly wage of a standard beneficiary for the same reference period, giving the reasons and methodology of the Government’s choice for each branch. Please also include in the calculations the amounts corresponding to family allowances.

[The Government is asked to reply in detail to the present comments in 2007.]