On the representative status of Belgian employers' organizations for the purpose of collective bargaining

Abstract

In this paper, some legal characteristics of the Belgian system of collective bargaining (in the private sector) are highlighted for an Italian audience. The procedures identifying the representative employers’ organizations at the various bargaining levels concerned are analysed. It goes without saying that employers are per se representative for collective bargaining taking place at the level of the enterprises. Hence, the levels concerned are solely the branch and intersectoral levels. For a better understanding of this procedure, en filigrane, a comparison is drawn with the procedure applied for the identification of the representative trade unions. This paper concludes with some comparative observations dealing with the representative status of trade unions and employers and with an assessment of the conformity of the Belgian system for identifying representative employers’ organizations with the ILO standards.