The service voucher system as a means to regulate domestic cleaning in Belgium

In 2000, the Belgian government introduced the service voucher system for domestic cleaning with two key objectives: (1) to promote regular employment in the neighbourhood services for groups at risk of social exclusion (2) to formalise undeclared work. Service vouchers are used as a payment system for cleaning services offered by organisations to private persons. Service voucher companies may be profit as well as not-for-profit (public or private) organisations. In the EU FP7 project WALQING - Work and Life Quality in New and Growing Jobs –the effects of this formalisation on the job quality of domestic cleaners were assessed. To this aim, a sector study and an in-depth case study in a not-for-profit service voucher company were carried out. The formalised employment relationship between the service voucher company and the domestic cleaner that is established as a result of the service voucher system may create opportunities for improving the job quality. The analysis shows that this is indeed the outcome in the social profit organisations which use the system in line with its original objectives. These companies offer decent employment conditions (permanent contracts, decent working hours, holidays,...) as well as professional human resources services (training, mediation with the client) for groups of workers that are typically deprived of such benefits. The position of the workers remains, however, at risk in small for-profit cleaning organisations entering the sector. In response to the rapid growth of the number of service voucher companies and in order to tackle these problems, the industrial relations system and the legal framework for the service voucher companies have gradually become more institutionalised and regulated. The system is, however, under threat for a number of reasons. One is the fact that, due to the explosive growth of the system, costs are escalating for the federal budget (while abolishing the system would lead cleaners getting into informality again). Another danger is that regular jobs in adjacent domestic services, such as elderly care, may be driven out by the system.status: publishe