The Belgian government maintains restrictions on workers from new EU member states, but opens up the door to industries facing labour shortages.

• Borders stay closed to new EU workers
• Indian IT workers remain under spotlight

Borders stay closed to new EU workers

Belgium has decided to maintain restrictions on the free movement of employees from the 10 new EU states for a maximum of three years

Restrictions were introduced in May 2004 by all of the 'old' EU member states, except Ireland, the UK and Sweden on workers from the new EU countries (except Malta and Cyprus).

According to the Accession Agreement which was signed in 2003, EU member states have until 30 April 2006 to decide whether to lift national restrictions on a worker's free movement in the EU.

On 24 February 2006, the Belgian Cabinet announced that Belgian restrictions on the free movement of workers from the new EU states will remain in place.

This is despite the fact that some reports show labour mobility from the new EU member states to the old member states has had mostly positive effects.

Countries that did not apply restrictions after May 2004 have experienced high economic growth, reduced unemployment and a rise in employment.

However, Belgian authorities still fear complete labour mobility will have a negative impact on the Belgian economy and jobs market.

And recent Belgian reports also shed light on unfair competition on wages and working conditions, in which workers from the new EU states are cheaply employed in poor workplace situations.

Reports also show an increase of false self-employment and undeclared work which disturbs the local labour market.

The federal government wants to tackle these problems first before completely opening up the nation's borders to workers from the new EU states.

Therefore, the cabinet decided that workers from the new EU member states will still be required to be in possession of a work permit to enter salaried work in Belgium (unless they are seconded to Belgium in the framework of a service agreement).

The cabinet decided, however, to undertake the following actions in the next few months to facilitate the employment of workers from the new EU states and keep a stricter control on working conditions:

• As of June 2006, employees from the new EU states will obtain a work permit within five days for jobs where there is shortage on the Belgian labour market (this list of jobs still needs to be established and will be updated on a regular basis);
• Obligatory registration of all foreign employees with the Belgian social security authorities;
• Better co-operation between the different social inspection services.

One of Belgium's leading newspapers for financial and economic news, 'De Tijd', recently published a full-page article on the employment of Indian IT personnel in Belgium.

The article quotes a social inspector and the national representative of one of the Belgium's main trade unions, both of which question whether Indian IT employees are being employed in line with regulations on the employment of foreign nationals.

These regulations stipulate that foreign workers must be in possession of a work permit B category and earn a minimum salary of EUR 33,082 on a yearly basis.

The inspector and trades union representative also questions whether the employment of Indian expats is breaching regulations stipulating work hours and social documentation.

Moreover, it is mentioned that the abuse of the rules on business visas has been recorded at several occasions. Several large Indian IT companies are mentioned in the report, as well as their main clients in Belgium.

Consequently, it is expected that the Belgian social inspectorate and the immigration authorities will intensify checks and multiply inspections.

28 February 2006

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

To have your questions answered on Expatica, you can send an email to feedback@expatica.com.

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