The Vooruit party wants automatic indexation for salaries in all sectors of activity, according to parliamentarians Melissa Depraetere and Anja Vanrobaeys, who have tabled a bill to this effect in Belgium's parliament.
Wage indexation is established by law in the public sector and for social benefits. In the private sector, the social partners are free to choose the method of indexation through collective agreements.
Among the 200 existing joint committees, there are seven where indexation does not take place automatically. In 17 subsectors, only the minimum wage is indexed. In total, some 200,000 workers are affected, including taxi drivers, fishermen, secretaries and staff at power stations and energy providers.
The Flemish socialists find this situation incomprehensible.
“Several studies show that automatic wage indexation offers the best protection of purchasing power," they said. "It is inexplicable that the wages of a large group of workers do not increase at the same time as the bills."
"The energy giants are recording indecent gains at the moment. but workers in this sector cannot even count on automatic indexation,” the parliamentarians pointed out.
