The N-VA wants an asymmetric labour market policy

Valerie Van Peel and Axel Ronse, N-VA labour market specialists, urge Flemish Minister Hilde Crevits to start working on an asymmetric labour market policy very soon. “We are concerned about the federal government’s plans to get the long-term sick working. The Flemish Parliament is asking for a binding process, but what we get is a checklist. Those who flatly refuse to fill it in still retain 97.5% of the benefit. That will not turn the tide. Flanders must be more ambitious.”

Flanders has done its homework

The Flemish Government wants more people to work and is aiming for an 80% employment rate. The number of long-term sick people has increased considerably in recent years. Flanders has done its homework and drawn up a plan with three pillars: prevention and viable work, providing the option of combining the benefit (or part of it) with work and intensive tailor-made supervision. “When we put the federal pieces of the puzzle together, we fear the worst. Filling in a checklist is not intensive supervision. Moreover, those who refuse to complete it will still retain 97.5% of the benefit. We therefore urge the minister to work on an asymmetric policy so that we can draw up a tailor-made approach and achieve the Flemish ambitions,” Axel Ronse says.

Rewarding instead of punishing the best student

The federal government’s plan makes the regions responsible. “That is important, were it not for the fact that the federal government punishes the best students in the class. The texts show that the regions that made less effort to re-integrate the long-term sick in the past will receive more federal funds to make up for the shortfall. If we slow down those who do well, we can hardly speak of empowerment,” Valerie Van Peel says.

Finally, the N-VA is concerned about the concrete implementation of the plans. Valerie Van Peel sees from the budget tables that a limited budget tempers the high expectations. “EUR 15.4 million is earmarked for this measure. Taking into account the cost of EUR 4,000 per process, barely 3,850 processes can be started. That is even less than the doubling by 5,000 extra processes that Flanders wants to achieve in 2022. It is therefore impossible for us to bring about a change,” Valerie Van Peel concludes.