In 2021, in the framework of the freedom to provide services (Article 56 TFEU), approximately 255,000 persons (workers + self-employed) were reported in LIMOSA. Every day, there were on average 136,500 posted persons active in Belgium. The group of incoming posted workers amounted to approximately 2.8% of the total group of workers employed in Belgium. Posted workers even represent about one-fifth of total employment in the Belgian construction sector. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions on free movement in 2020, the number of persons sent to Belgium decreased by approximately 6% compared to 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic only had a temporary effect on the number of persons posted to Belgium.
In 2021, about one out of four persons posted to Belgium were third-country nationals. The posted TCNs mainly concerned Ukrainians (38% of the posted TCNs), Belarusians (17% of the posted TCNs), Brazilians (8% of the posted TCNs) and Bosnians and Herzegovinians (4% of the posted TCNs). The relative importance of the number of Ukrainians and Belarusians in the total number of posted workers increased within a very short period. Both nationalities hardly appeared in the LIMOSA statistics before 2018. In 2021, Ukrainian posted workers represented 10% and Belarusian posted workers 5% of the total number of posted workers in Belgium. Six main ‘routes’ of TCNs posted to Belgium can be identified. By far the most important route is that of Ukrainians who are posted to Belgium from Poland.
It is estimated that the gross wages for the persons posted to Belgium amounted to around € 2 billion in 2020. If they had not been posted but had been employed in their sending Member State, their wages would have been approximately € 700 million lower. Consequently, in ‘theory’ their wages have increased by about 50%. The Belgian state does not receive a considerable amount of labour tax revenues because social security contributions for incoming posted workers have to be paid in the sending Member State and not in Belgium. It is estimated that this amounts to more than € 750 million, which is however ‘only’ about 1% of the annual sum of labour tax revenues received by the Belgian State from social security contributions. Between 2017 and 2020, 23% of the Portable Documents A1 issued to workers posted to another Member State were granted retroactively.
About 6% of the inspectors employed within the Belgian labour inspectorates focus on the fight against cross-border social fraud, and thus on the compliance with the posting rules. Only 4% of the inspections carried out by the Belgian labour inspectorates relate to the cross-border dimension of social fraud. In 2021, an infringement was found in two out of three inspections relating to the compliance with the posting rules.
