No sectoral agreement 2025-2026 for Joint Industrial Committees 209 and 111
In Belgium, social dialogue takes place at three levels: interprofessional/federal, sectoral and company level. In recent months, the wage norm as well as various employment-related measures have been introduced at federal and interprofessional level, thus serving as a basis for sectoral negotiations.
As usual, sectoral negotiations for joint committees 209 and 111 were conducted together. However, these sectoral negotiations did not result in a sectoral agreement for the years 2025-2026, which is highly unusual.
What came before
At the end of last year, it had already become clear that the positions of the social partners within these joint committees differed greatly. After two rounds of negotiations in December 2025, the parties left without reaching an agreement. Shortly afterwards, the trade unions submitted a strike notice, with a start date of 15 January 2026.
Ultimately, it was agreed to resume sectoral negotiations on 23 January 2026. However, even during this new round of negotiations, no agreement could be reached.
What does this mean for the companies within these Joint Industrial Committees?
Since no agreement was reached at the sectoral level, social dialogue must now continue at company level.
These company level negotiations will have to take into account the wage norm (= the maximum wage cost development), which is set at 0% for the period 2025-2026. Within this framework, it is possible to negotiate benefits that fall outside the wage norm.
One example is an increase in meal vouchers. A company can implement such increase at company level, provided that an annex to the employment contract is concluded for each individual employee. For more information on this subject, please consult our newsletters of 20 November 2025 and 19 January 2026.
The non-recurring result-related bonus (“wage bonus CLA 90”) and profit participation bonus are also not taken into account for the wage norm. More information on this subject can be found in our newsletter of 27 January 2026.
What about the social peace?
A sectoral agreement usually includes a clause on social peace in which the social partners commit themselves to not make any additional demands at sectoral or company level on the matters covered by the sectoral agreement.
In the absence of such a clause, it is possible that companies may be confronted with strike notices from trade unions during further negotiations.
