1 / 12

Labor Inspectorate Seminar in Belgium by Didier HENRARD - Updates on Discrimination Laws

Learn about labor inspection, discrimination acts, and the new situation test law in Belgium from Advisor Didier HENRARD. Understand inspection tasks, discrimination laws, and challenges faced in implementing the new law.

bwhitaker
Download Presentation

Labor Inspectorate Seminar in Belgium by Didier HENRARD - Updates on Discrimination Laws

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Labour Inspectorate

  2. EQUINET SEMINAR SITUATION TEST LAW IN BELGIUM Didier HENRARD, Labour Inspector - Advisor 17th October 2018

  3. WELCOME !

  4. OUR ORGANIZATION • Part of the FPS Employment, Labour and S.D. • Among other administrations • Labour Inspectorate : • What we do : inspecting work and salary conditions • What we don’t do : inspecting technical and medical conditions (devoted to another administration : Well-being Inspectorate) • My tasks : • advisor for general affairs • Supervisor for regional offices (french-speaking) • Coordinator for discrimination matters

  5. DISCRIMINATION ACTS • 10/05/2007 : Gender act : against discrimination between men and women • 10/05/2007 : against other forms of discrimination : based on age, sexual orientation, handicap, religious or philosophical conviction/belief, … • 30/07/1981 : against discrimination based on racism and xenophobia • These are federal acts ; there may be regional acts (ordinances) too, but more restricted (in scope) • Scope : work relationships, i.e. hiring, recruiting (criteria, ...), work conditions (salary, several advantages, ...) and dismissal (criteria, ...)

  6. NEW : SITUATION TEST LAW • Not a new law, but a new article added in the Social Criminal Code (art. 42/1) : in force from April 1st, 2018 • Introduced as « particular investigation powers for labour inspectors in the specific matter of discrimination » • October 2018 : it has not yet been used/applied • Why ?

  7. Strict framework • Definition : the social inspector has the power to introduce himself as a (potential) customer or (potential) employee to check if a discrimination has been or is being committed • Framework : 3 cumulative requirements

  8. 1st requirement • The labour inspectorate must have received objective signs of discrimination, as a result of a complaint or a reporting => no fishing expedition. • We receive these reports or complaints either directly or on behalf of specialized institutes such as Unia and/or the Institute for Equality between Man and Woman

  9. 2nd requirement • The complaints/reportings must be backed by datamining or datamatching results • Problem : the labour inspectorate has no capacity for such testing and must rely on other administrations to perform these analyses (e.g. National Institute for Social Security)

  10. 3rd requirement • The inspector in charge of such an investigation could commit an offence by using a false identity or using forgery • The law requires that, prior to the investigation, a magistrate must give a written agreement to perform this investigation • In order to do so, the college of magistrates had to write up a general and national directive which will give the precise requirements, demands and procedures

  11. When ? • This general directive has not been signed yet • Difficulty with the situation test and mystery calls : they are related to “particular investigation powers” which are generally performed by the police, and not by labour inspectors • This requires a special training • A group of experts is still working on this directive…

  12. To be continued… • Thank you very much for your attention ! • See you maybe next year for the next episode…

More Related