During the first six months of this year, 45 companies announced their intention to make collective redundancies in Belgium.
In doing so, the jobs of 3,924 employees were put at risk, statistics from the Ministry Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue showed on Thursday.
After just six months, the number of threatened jobs is thus already higher than across the whole of 2022, when 3,705 dismissals were announced at 61 companies. The ministry does however point out that 2022 was a "very calm" year, with the lowest number of collective redundancies announced in at least a decade. "It remains to be seen whether 2023 will be a busy or a very busy year in terms of collective redundancies," the ministry said.
The petrochemical sector was the hardest hit sector in the first half of 2023, with 969 jobs threatened. There were also redundancy announcements at rubber producer Arlanxeo in Zwijndrecht (278 redundancies announced), chemical group 3M Belgium in Zwijndrecht (250) and pharmaceutical company Janssen Pharmaceutica in Beerse (201), among others.
In the textile sector, 642 jobs were put at risk in the first half of the year due to collective redundancies, and in the metalworking industry there were 508.
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The announcement of the intention to make collective redundancies is the first step in consultations between company management and unions, followed by the information and consultation procedure. The number of redundancies can often be reduced during consultations.
In April, for example, there was an intention to make 192 workers collectively redundant at Colruyt brands Dreamland and Dreambaby. The draft agreement reached by unions and management reduced the number of redundancies to 119, however.
In the first six months of 2023, the information and consultation process was completed in 38 companies. Of the 2,903 jobs initially at stake, 2,559 were lost, statistics show. On average, therefore, 12% of the jobs at risk could still be saved.
