Newsletter - February 2025

• Employees who started in 2024 within DCO Beerse vzw must provide their holiday certificate from their previous employer to the office as soon as possible.
• Without this holiday certificate, the Social Secretariat cannot calculate the number of statutory holiday hours to which the employee is entitled in 2025!
• Please deliver this document as soon as possible to the office or via mail to HR@dcobeerse.be by 15 February 2025.

• Several employees make use of the Time Credit, Attendance Allowance as well as Medical Assistance schemes throughout the year.
• The use of these schemes has a negative impact on your statutory holiday hours for the following year.
• This means that by using these schemes, you accrue less statutory holiday hours for the following year!

With a view to your well-being, we have the following procedure around return after long-term illness:

• After an extended absence due to illness or occupational accident, a medical examination by the occupational doctor is sometimes recommended and free of charge for the employee.
• This examination ensures that you can return to work safely and healthily.
• Inform the office about your return to work in good time. We will then make an assessment at the office as to whether or not the employee needs to visit the occupational doctor for a check-up.

We want to ensure that you can return to work fit and well after a period of absence, with all the necessary guidance and care.

• Social negotiations between employer organisations and trade unions at the Flemish level are in full swing in our sector.  
• Since January 2025, the purchase price of the service cheque has been increased from €9 to €10 for the customer. The ‘1 euro ‘ associated with this increase should go towards increasing the purchasing power of household helpers. The latter is also the wish of Minister Demir.
• The form in which this ‘1 euro‘  will be granted is currently part of discussion.
  • The unions' demand is that wages increase by 1 euro gross per hour. However, the latter is not 1 euro for the employer but 1.8 euro given that the employer has to pay numerous social contributions on the gross hourly wage.
  • For employers, it is important that, the budget, that 1 euro is not exceeded. The latest proposal is an increase in the clothing allowance and the launch of a pension plan for employees. Unions do not agree with this proposal because it does not give a direct increase in purchasing power to employees.

Conclusion:

• There is currently no agreement between employers and trade unions at the Flemish level on how to spend ’this 1 euro.‘
• As soon as to agreement we will do the necessary within DCO Beerse vzw to put this into practice together with the trade unions.

• Do you get pleasure and job satisfaction from working with different clients every day ?
• Are you a fan of change and not knowing where the working week will take you?
• Conditions to be able to do the job:  flexibility,  have your own car,  have a sufficient command of the Dutch language
• Interested: apply and let us know to hr@dcobeerse.be before Sunday 16 February 2025.

• If an employee makes a change to the fixed schedule, such as moving a block, starting earlier or later,…  this will be recorded by the office in the Deviation Register. 
• No later than 14 days after the change in schedule, the employee must come and sign the deviation register at the office.
• It is very important that this 14-day period is respected! Not signing on time will have consequences for the company.
• Our employees must take responsibility for this themselves: If the deviation register is not signed and the employee wishes to make another shift in the schedule then this will not be approved by the office until the deviation register is signed.

It can always happen that you accidentally cause damage while working (lamp broken, spots of product on kitchen worktop/stairs,… ). It is important that you always report the damage honestly to the office and the client. As a company, we have a specific insurance policy in place to compensate clients for these damages. The damage should not be paid by our employee to the client! So you should not have any ‘fear/scare‘ that this will be deducted from your salary.

• In case the employer is temporarily unable to employ an employee for certain reasons, temporary unemployment is invoked.
• To receive benefits for the days when the employee cannot work, the employee must enter this electronically each day (eControl card C3.2). At the end of the month, the employee must then forward this electronically to the payout institution. 
• The employee does this through an application and no longer through the paper control card. This with effect from 1 January 2025.
• More info: see download ‘Article 26: Temporary Unemployment‘

CO the silent killer, ventilate, monitor and alarm, The risk of CO (carbon monoxide poisoning) is indeed still present, especially in the colder months when people use heating. CO poisoning remains a serious danger because:

• People are still using heating systems, geysers and other gas appliances.
• The gas is colourless and odourless, so you cannot detect it.
• The symptoms (headache, nausea, dizziness) are often mistaken for flu symptoms.
• More info: see download Safety Instruction Card

• From 3 February, our employees can consult their planning digitally via the app ‘Alundi DC‘.
• In addition to having your planning up–to–date at hand, working with the app also offers the following benefits:
• Actual overview of leave counter and leave requests via the app
• Always communicate in your native language
• Up to 14 languages for the app to set
• Up to 70 languages that can be set for translation with the office
• Download the manual for installing the Alundi DC app here. (see download)
• For questions: always welcome in the office! Our office staff will be happy to help you.

Follow DCO Beerse vzw closely on Instagram and Facebook!