On Sunday, Het Nieuwsblad reported on ONSS figures that show the introduction of smart tills for the catering business has helped to create up to 22,000 new jobs. The director of Horeca Vlaanderen, Danny Van Assche, has said that smart tills are filling their role, but the new jobs are “mostly those that were filled on the black before”. The vast majority are flexi-jobs.
All catering establishments have to have smart tills that monitor their input since the 1st of January 2016. The idea is to make it more transparent.
The National Social Security Office (ONSS) says the catering sector had nearly 22,000 more jobs in the third trimester 2016 than the same time the previous year. The amount paid in salaries has also gone up by 45.9 million euros. “That doesn’t mean these new jobs are actually new: they are jobs that were filled on the black before”, says Danny Van Assche.
However, most of these jobs are not full-time positions. The number of flexi-jobs has gone up the most: in the third trimester of 2016, there were 18,276. The number of student jobs also went up by nearly 10,000.
“These are often black market jobs that have been made official. That doesn’t mean things are going better for the catering business and business is booming”, warns Danny Van Assche. The catering sector has been asking for another decrease in salary charges for a long time. The Economy and Employment Minister Kris Peeters (CD&V) wants to get the opinion of social partners first. The Vice-Prime Minister has also reminded them that the taxshift will include a general 25% decrease in salary charges.
(Source: Belga)
