Background information

The federal government announced an additional premium of €985 to employees within the care sector to reward them for the services during the current crisis. In total the measure will cost around €200 million to the federal government. Minister of Health Vandenbroucke (SP.a) stated that the care personnel did not specifically request the measure, but deserve it because of their ongoing (and continuing) efforts during this crisis.

Content of measure

The measure is quite straightforward and provides a gross premium of €985 to all care personnel. The measure should have been paid out relatively quickly before the 31 December 2020. People that do not perform a fulltime job in the sector receive a percentage of the amount. The premium goes hand in hand with the recent extension of the consumption cheque to the entire care sector. In addition, a large social agreement was signed providing €600 million to the care sector for the future in order to fund structural and sustainable investments in the sector. This includes a re-evaluation of care jobs via increased wages and better working conditions.

Use of measure

The entire care sector is eligible. At the end of the year it became clear that after taxes relatively little remained of the €985, which was heavily criticised by the sector.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Workers in care facilities	Does not apply to businesses	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government	National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Consulted	Consulted
Form	Consultation through tripartite or bipartite social dialogue bodies	Consultation through tripartite or bipartite social dialogue bodies

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Social partners jointly
• Main level of involvement: Sectoral or branch level

Involvement

The social partners were involved and an additional important agreement granting €600 million to the sector was signed as well.

Views and reactions

Social partners were proponents of the measure. However trade unions in flanking sectors (cleaning and laboratories) were critical of it, as these sectors were not included.

Sectors and occupations

This case is not occupation-specific.

Sources

• 15 November 2020: RIZIV (www.riziv.fgov.be)