Belgium: Eliminating age discrimination in pay agreements

Around 778,000 Belgian employees work in sectors in which collective agreements contain age-based wages systems, contrary to Belgian and EU anti-discrimination legislation. The government is aware of this problem and has urged the social partners to adapt existing age-related pay schemes, although Peter Vanvelthoven, the employment minister, has granted a transitional period during which age may still influence pay, if it can be demonstrated that an interim arrangement is necessary.