Telework 98: European Commission Report

At the European Telework Online website

"Telework 1998":
Annual Report from the European Commission

3.3 Belgium and Luxembourg

3.3.1 Summary

Belgium has a well-established national telework association with strong representation of major employers, particularly in the IT and telecommunications sectors, which has recently restructured to enhance its activities. In Luxembourg a telework association iss in the process of being created, with support from the Belgian Telework Association.

3.3.2 Telework background and take-up of ICTs

General background:

Relative to its GDP and economic structure, Belgium has a relatively low level of investment and use of IT:

	Comparable economies, different levels of IT investment?
	Population (millions)	GDP per capita ($)	IT per capita (ECU)	PCs per 100 white collars	Internet users per 1000 population
Belgium	10.1	24,747	548	51	47
Netherlands	15.4	23,966	642	66	90

In contrast to this, Belgium is a pacesetter in at least one Information Society application, namely online banking services: telephone banking is in use by some 70,000 enterprises and 1.5 million citizens. From 1997 a new common Internet-based network, ISABEL (http://www.isabel.be) links banks with some 20,000 corporate customers, and provides email and business information services as well as banking services.

Belgium is also a leader in the deployment of cable TV networks, with some 95% of TV-equipped households having access by cable to more than 30 TV channels. Cable companies have started offering Internet access at speeds up to 2 Megabits per second, providing an important platform for early trials of broad band services to the home.

The three Federal Regions (Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels) are installing optical fibre backbone networks with the aim of connecting all public establishments to the Internet by early in the next decade - eg administrations, schools, hospitals, public information points etc.

Belgium has relatively high unemployment and also a relatively low level of participation in the workforce, with low levels of part time working:

	Employment % of total population	Part time work (% of total employment)	Unemployment %
Belgium	57	22	10
Netherlands	66	37	6

This may to some extent account for the lower rates of IT investment and Internet use. Another influencing factor may be the fact that Belgium has three official languages - French, Dutch and German, reducing the opportunity and demand for centralised or "national language" online and other information based activities - for example "national" newspapers and TV channels are either French or Dutch language.

Many public and private sector organisations at all levels have representative offices in or near Brussels, providing a source of employment and local trade, but with a strong perceived need to be "on the spot" rather than working "at a distance". Some 40% of the Brussels population are "non-Belgian".

Driving factors:

The active Telework Association (Belgian Teleworking Association, http://www.bta.be) was restructured towards the end of 1997, stimulating a higher level of activity.

Belgium is the host country for many European Union activities, including events in the European Telework Agenda.

Traffic congestion (and regularly visible resultant pollution) in and around Brussels provides motivation to reduce the use of cars and unnecessary travel.

There is quite high public interest in telework, with a substantial range of activities and events.

Belgium is becoming a centre for new telework-based enterprises and operations such as call centres, capitalising on its language skills, its location and its large non-Belgian population.

Constraints:

The strongly individualistic regions, with different languages and cultures, inhibit people from one region from teleworking for companies in the other, except for the general "pull" of the capital (and third region), Brussels.
A high proportion of city centre employment is in relatively small representative offices and in small headquarter operations of European federations and associations; the nature of the work and the small scale are not conducive to either intensive ICT use or teleworking. This may change as the use of online methods becomes more pervasive across directorates of the European Commission and especially if the Commission itself becomes an exemplar of teleworking.
Extra costs and perceived difficulties in managing at a distance are still strong inhibitors (see IWERF study below).

Telework activities and results

The Belgian Teleworking Association (BTA), founded in 1994, restructured towards the end of 1997, has professionalised its administrative and management activities and is extending its membership. The approximately 85 members include many major corporates, including household name non-ICT companies (for example ABB, Dow Corning) as well as local and multinational ICT players (Belgacom, Mobistar, IBM, Philips etc) and De Finacieel-Economische Tijd (the leading Flemish business and finance newspaper).

A new law on Home Working came into force in March 1997. Although the text doesn't explicitly use the term telework, and the law affects "old style" as well as new forms of home-based working, its provisions do apply to employed teleworkers. An English language summary will be placed online at the BTA website. The law's provisions were strongly influenced by experiences in an early pioneer telework experiment undertaken by ABB Insurances from 1992.

Another long-standing Belgian telework programme (see panel) gained a European Telework Award in 1997, by when a small initial (and largely informal) activity had become firmly embedded in the overall company working environment.

Innotek, a Belgian member of the European network of Business Innovation Centres, having opened a single telecentre during 1996, has now committed to one of Europe's largest telecentre deployment programmes, with plans for 20 centres across Belgium (http://www.innotek.be ).

At least 20 significant telework promotional, education, training or research activities and projects were recorded during the year.

A study by the Institut Wallon d'Études de Récherches en Formation (IWERF) found that most people know about and have some clear perspective on telework, and 70% of those interviewed regarded the idea of telework as attractive, but that very few companies have any plans to introduce it.

A University of Liège study, Télétravail et handicap: étude exploratoire - rapport de recherche, made strong recommendations for the establishment of a pilot project supporting telework as a means to integrate people with disabilities into the jobs market.

A not-for-profit membership organisation for individual teleworkers and home based workers, Home Based Business (HBB, http://www.kmonet.be/homebasedbusiness), was formed in 1997.

3.3.3 Conclusions

Further research and analysis seems appropriate to better understand Belgium's comparative position in Information Society development. Some aspects such as online banking are apparently highly advanced, but the overall investment in and use of IT, PCs and Internet is lower than might be expected for a highly industrialised economy with a high proportion of information-based work.

Belgium has been one of Europe's first countries to introduce new laws specific to home based working in the beginning of the information age. Belgium's experience, particularly employer and worker views on the usefulness and effectiveness of this law, will be of great interest in other countries and in the European policy debate.

The presence of two language/culture communities within one geographically small state makes the Belgian experience and outcomes also of great interest to assist in understanding telework in a multi-country, multi-culture environment – i.e. for the European Union as a whole.

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