Rika Coppens shares concerns with socialist party chairwoman

House of HR's CEO Rika Coppens got the chance to convey her views on employment, unemployment benefits and labor migration directly to Melissa Depraetere, the chairwoman of the Flemish socialist party Vooruit. Way to go, Rika!

Flemish entrepreneurs ventilate their concerns

On June 9th in Belgium, there are not only European, but also federal elections (at Belgian level) and regional elections (at Flemish, Brussels, or Walloon level). On that occasion, our CEO Rika Coppens was a guest at De Weetstraat, together with Vooruit chairwoman Melissa Depraetere. De Weetstraat is a video format of the Flemish entrepreneurs' network Voka, in which driver and host Kim Van Oncen picks up a politician and an entrepreneur to talk about some hot economic election topics in her hip VW van. With this initiative, Voka hopes to make it even clearer to Flemish politicians what entrepreneurs are losing sleep over.

As a major player in the world of work – after all, we employ on average 73,000 people every month – House of HR always tries to make its voice heard, including in the political debate. We are therefore very grateful that our CEO was asked by Voka to engage in a dialogue with the chairwoman of the Flemish socialists.

What about unemployment benefits?

What was the conversation about? Among other things, whether unemployment benefits in Belgium – as in the Netherlands, for example – should be limited in time. Melissa Depraetere argued that limiting the benefit over time – for example, after two years – will help few additional people get a job, which will cause many to fall back on a living wage. Which is also not a good thing. Our CEO countered that the Netherlands shows that such a restriction does have a psychological impact and motivates people to look for work more intensively. She added that people still on benefits may not yet be looking at job market offers broadly and flexibly enough. And that those who still found nothing after two years may get that signal by falling back on a living wage.

Both ladies discussed facilitating labor migration as well. Our CEO noted that it’s a sensitive issue that is not treated rationally. And that there is work to be done to properly regulate labor migration in Belgium. Want to know what Melissa Depraetere had to say about