Flexi-jobs hit a fresh record in Liège province — and the CSC union says that is no cause for celebration
The number of flexi-jobs in the province of Liège has climbed to a new high, according to Belgian daily DHnet — but the Christian union CSC argues the milestone masks eroding job quality, thinner social-security financing and a shift of regular hours into a lightly taxed side-work regime that began, back in 2015, as a narrow fix for the hospitality trade.
For Belgian households, flexi-jobs are one of the few ways to earn meaningfully more without a heavier tax deduction, which is why they multiply when energy bills, rent and grocery prices bite. But the CSC's warning has concrete stakes: hours worked this way build thinner pension, sick-pay and unemployment rights, and pay little into the social-security pot that funds healthcare and pensions for everyone — so a record today can mean a weaker safety net and a deferred bill tomorrow.
Flexi-jobs are a Belgian employment regime created in 2015 to let people who already work at least four-fifths of full time elsewhere, or who are pensioners, take on additional paid work that is largely exempt from personal income tax and ordinary social contributions, while employers pay a reduced flat-rate charge. Originally limited to the hospitality (horeca) sector, the scheme has been progressively extended by federal reforms to retail, care, events and other sectors. Key named entities: DHnet (reporting the Liège record); the CSC / ACV-CSC (Christian trade union confederation, French-speaking wing, voicing criticism); the province of Liège in Wallonia; La Libre (reporting on Belgian aviation and a risk over Liège Airport at Bierset).
Background
Flexi-jobs were introduced in Belgium in 2015 as a narrow remedy for the horeca sector, which argued it could not legally staff busy evenings without punitive overtime costs. The design deliberately favoured net take-home pay for the worker and a reduced flat charge for the employer, on the premise that this was supplementary income for people already in full-time-equivalent work or retirement. Successive federal reforms extended eligibility well beyond hospitality into retail and other sectors, steadily enlarging what began as a sectoral exception into a broader parallel track of employment.
Impact
Regional — Liège province, part of a Walloon economy long marked by industrial decline and above-average unemployment, is the epicentre of this record. Local retail, hospitality and care employers benefit from a cheaper way to cover peak hours, while the CSC warns that the province's workers are increasingly relying on lightly protected top-up work to cope with cost-of-living pressure.
Opposing perspectives
- CSC / ACV-CSC (Christian trade union)
The union contends that a record flexi-job count signals a deterioration, not an improvement: hours worked under the regime pay little into social security and build thin pension, sick-pay and unemployment entitlements. It reads the trend as households leaning on precarious, lightly taxed top-up work to survive cost-of-living pressure, while the standard, better-protected employment contract is quietly displaced and the financing of the welfare state is undermined.
- Employers and federal reformers
Employers in hospitality, retail and other sectors, along with the successive federal governments that widened the scheme, argue flexi-jobs legalise otherwise-idle or undeclared labour, drain the grey economy, and let businesses with unpredictable peaks cover demand without prohibitive overtime costs. In a province like Liège, where creating employment has been a persistent struggle, they present any additional legal, taxed activity as a practical gain rather than a threat to the social model.
Sources & evidence
- View sourceDHnetPrimary· dhnet.be· 13 July 2026Retrieved 14 July 2026· 2 days ago· Dated
- View sourceLa Libre· lalibre.be· 9 July 2026Retrieved 14 July 2026· 6 days ago· Dated
