In the first of a new feature of legal news updates, we reveal how the Brussels government is getting tougher on Indian expats in the computer software industry.

We would like to share with you the content of two articles on the employment of Indian software engineers that appeared in the Belgian newspapers recently.
 

Both articles were published following the concerns Brussels Employment Minister Benoît Cerexhe raised relating to the employment of Indian software engineers in Belgium.
 
It appears that the employment of Indian software engineers in the Brussels region has risen from 63 in 1999 to almost 350 in 2005. Meanwhile, the number of unemployed Belgian software engineers in the Brussels region has risen to almost 1,800.
 
According to Cerexhe, the Indian employees do not follow Belgian rules regarding "working hours" and they work for less salary than their Belgian colleagues.
 
He has therefore written a letter to Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt to share his concerns.

Cerexhe also urged for an increase in the legal minimum salary for highly qualified Indian software engineers (the minimum for highly qualified foreign employees is now set at EUR 32,261 gross per year).
 
The concerns will inspire the Belgian social inspection services to start investigating even further for compliance of the following rules:

• Compliance with Belgian legislation regarding the employment of foreign nationals (rules such as to work permits),
• Compliance with Belgian overtime legislation,
• Compliance with Belgian rules regarding social documents (i.e. drafting of the required individual accounts/salary slips according to Belgian legislation),
• Existence of the required labour regulations and personnel registers (if applicable),
• Payment of Belgian social security premiums due for the Indian employees who are subject to Belgian social security,
• Verification of the conditions to be considered as 'de facto' seconded employee in case no Belgian social security contributions are paid.

In this respect, a "complaints department" will probably be set up by the inspectorate service to handle anonymous complaints on non-compliance with the above mentioned rules.

Furthermore, Cerexhe announced more inspections in order to control the compliance of Indian software engineers with the Belgian rules regarding working hours, social security status, salary requirements, etc.
 
Please do not hesitate to contact us in case you require further information.

18 November 2005

Lawyers Lynn Bogaert and Matthias Lommers work for Belgian law firm Laga, located at www.laga.be or contactable by phone: 02 800 7000.

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Disclaimer: Although we verify the reliability of the information given, such information is general and neither Laga nor Expatica may be held responsible in any way for any possible error that might occur or for any use or interpretation that could be made of this information without the assistance of Laga.

[Copyright Laga and Expatica 2006]

Subject: Expat news