The Social Intelligence and Investigation Service (SIOD / SIRS) announced that the inspection services will hold ‘flash checks’ in the meat sector (Joint Committee 118) in the upcoming month of September 2021.
The flash checks are mainly informative and preventive in nature, but in the event of serious and/or repeated infringements there will be an official report made by the concerned inspectorate service(s). Furthermore, flash checks are primarily intended for traditionally more “fraud-inceptive” sectors such as the building sector, the car wash sector and in this case the meat sector. The purpose of these flash checks is to alert employers to adhere with the legal obligations at hand in their sector.
The dates of these flash checks are announced beforehand to the social partners in scope and published on the website of the SIOD / SIRS (https://www.siod.belgie.be/nl).
Scope of the flash checks
When a flash check is held by a inspectorate service, several points of attention are in scope, including:
- Proof of registration as an undertaking with the Crossroad Banks for Enterprises;
Proof of registration as an employer with the National Social Security Office;
Illegal employment (single-permit, work-permits, residence permits, LIMOSA-registrations, A1-certificates etc.);
(for self-employed individuals) Proof of affiliation with a social insurance fund;
Sham-self employment;
Performance and salary data of the employees (individual accounts, pay slips, performance lists, payment receipts etc.);
The well-being of the employees on the workplace;
The work-regulations (incl. Work schedules and by law mandatory appendixes);
Employment agreements and appendixes (blue- and white-collar workers, students, part-time employees etc.);
The agreement for temporary work between the user (employer) and the temporary employment agency;
DIMONA- and DmFa-declarations;
The work accident insurance of the employer;
Control card (C3.2A) for temporary or fully unemployed employees;
Etc.
For the meat sector in specific, the inspectorate services will also focus on:
Proof of daily electronic attendance registration for everyone employed in a slaughterhouse, a cutting workshop or in a company of meat preparations and/or meat products who have obtained a recognition certificate from the Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (FAVV) (although this obligation does not apply to administrative employees and visitors).
For the sake of completeness, the inspectorate services will still check the compliance with the currently still applicable COVID-19 prevention regulations. The SIOD / SIRS provides a checklist to prepare for these flash checks.
Conclusion - what to do as an employer
As an employer in general, it is to your own advantage to prepare a potential flash check or dawn-raid by the inspectorate services in your industry. This can be done in a simple way by collecting all the relevant social documents that can be requested and to check whether all legal requirements are met. The checklists provided by the SIOD / SIRS enable employers to prepare are a handy tool to prepare.
Furthermore, our newest book, written by Bart Elias and Stefanie van de Perre, contains a full overview of all possible (labour) inspectorate services in our country, the possible scenarios you could encounter as an employer and at last a full checklist to take into account when dealing with social inspectorate services.
Of course our employment law team can assist you with a more thorough and comprehensive approach or check-up.
