From 1 June 1993 workers accepting an involuntary part-time job are subject to new regulations and have the status of "involuntary part-time worker with continued entitlement" (to unemployment insurance).
Workers taking up an involuntary part-time job prior to 1 June 1993 continue to benefit from the previous regulations until 31 December 1995. Their supplementary allocations (allocation complémentaire) will gradually decline, however, reaching zero on 1 January 1996. Such workers can, at any time, opt to adopt the new status.
This article describes the most important characteristics of the new status for "part-time worker with continued entitlement".
6.1.1.1. Conditions of access
To be considered as a part-time worker with continued entitlement an employee must meet the following conditions:
- on entering part-time employment the worker must fulfil all the conditions of entitlement for unemployment benefits as a full-time worker;
- on entering the part-time working regime, the worker must be involuntarily unemployed; the new status does not apply to workers who voluntarily leave full-time employment in order to take on a part-time job, unless, that is, he or she moves to a part-time job with the same employer within the framework of a restructuring plan;
- the part-time job must correspond to at least a third of normal working hours;
- the application for the status of a part-time worker with continued entitlement must be made within two months from the day after starting the part-time job.
6.1.1.2. Status
The difference between the new status and the previous status of "involuntary part-time worker" lies in the fact that part-time workers are no longer entitled to supplementary unemployment support benefits (allocations complémentaires).
Yet in order to guarantee that the income of such workers exceeds the level of unemployment benefit, the new status allows such workers to make an application for an income-guarantee allowance (allocation de garantie de revenu). The involuntary part-time worker with continued entitlement can, for the duration of his/her employment on a part-time basis claim this allowance provided he/she meets the following conditions:
he/she
- must notify the regional employment service that he/she is employed on a part-time basis; this must be done within two months of starting work;
- must register as a job-seeker for full-time employment, and must remain so registered;
- be available to the labour market on a full-time basis;
- must be entitled on average to gross monthly pay below the reference wage (FB 40,843 as of 1.7.1993);
- be employed on a working-time regime which does not exceed 3/4 of a regular full-time job;
- must have applied to his/her employer for a vacant full-time job;
- must, where necessary, apply for an adjustment to his/her working time in accordance with collective agreement No. 35 if overtime is worked.
If the conditions mentioned above are fulfilled, the income-guarantee allowance is equal to the difference between net earned income for the month in question and the level of unemployment benefit to which the worker would otherwise have been entitled, plus
- FB 5,000 if the worker is head of a family
- FB 3,000 if the worker is single
- FB 3,000 if the worker is a household member.
The net value of the income-guarantee allowance may not exceed two thirds of the level of unemployment benefit to which the worker would have been entitled had he/she been unemployed in the month in question.
If the part-time job is for the same employer for which the worker previously worked full time, part-time workers with continued entitlement are not entitled to the income-guarantee allowance for a period of three months starting from the day after the period of notice (or the period covered by redundancy payments). This three-month waiting period does not apply if the reduction in working time is part of a restructuring plan agreed with the Ministry of Employment and Labour.
A final point is that the unemployment-benefit entitlements of part-time workers with the new status can no longer be suspended due to long-term unemployment during the period of part-time work with continued entitlement. However, in the case of subsequent unemployment the period of part-time employment covered by a guarantee allowance will be taken into account when determining the duration of such a worker's unemployment and the level of his/her unemployment benefit. If no guarantee allowance was paid, the period of part-time working does not affect the calculation of the duration of unemployment.
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