Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1997, published 86th ILC session (1998)

1. The Committee took note of the Government's report for the period ending June 1996. The data provided by the Government, which confirm those published by the OECD, demonstrate the persistent nature of a worrying employment situation owing to the continuing high level of unemployment and the characteristics of its distribution. The modest increase in employment growth in 1995 and 1996 was not sufficient to compensate for the previous reduction and, despite the slight improvement in the situation of the active population, the unemployment rate was still 12.4 per cent in 1996. Regional disparities were maintained with the unemployment rate remaining stable in Wallonia, while in Flanders, where the situation was already more favourable, it decreased. Although they continue to occupy an ever-decreasing share of the active population, young people under the age of 25 continue to be subject to an unemployment rate of over 20 per cent. Long-term unemployment represents more than 60 per cent of all unemployment, and this proportion is among the highest in western Europe.

2. In its report, the Government explains the main policies incorporated in the multi-year employment plan adopted in October 1995, which relate to the reduction in labour costs in order to promote the employment of least skilled workers, the incentive to distribute the jobs available by extending entitlement to a career break and the encouragement of part-time work, a new mechanism for the labour market integration of young people and the search for new sources of employment in the non-commercial services sector. The Committee also notes the provisions of the Inter-Professional Agreement relating to the promotion of the recruitment of young people or the long-term unemployed and to pre-retirement schemes. With reference to its previous observation, the Committee hopes that the Government's next report will contain an initial assessment allowing the effectiveness of the different programmes implemented to be evaluated. In addition, the Committee notes the importance assumed by measures designed to redistribute existing employment or to encourage early retirement from the labour market, in a context where activity rates are already relatively low. The Committee invites the Government to specify the manner in which it envisages the development of such measures in relation to the fundamental aims of the Convention. Finally, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would provide more detailed information on its education and training policy with a view to making workers more employable.

3. The Committee notes that the Government refers, without providing any details, to other aspects of the economic and social policies affecting employment policy, such as the review of the Act relating to competitiveness, entry into European monetary union or the financing of social security. With reference to the requests which it has made in each of its observations over many years, the Committee trusts that in its next report the Government will provide the information required in the report form on the manner in which the main policies are pursued, and in particular monetary and budgetary policies, contribute, "within the framework of a coordinated economic and social policy", to the promotion of full, productive and freely chosen employment, in accordance with Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention. Explanations by the Government of the different aspects of employment policy, as it is defined in the Convention, would be all the more useful since the labour market policy measures which it describes do not in themselves appear to have enabled it to make significant progress in the fight against unemployment.