What are eco-vouchers?
Eco-vouchers are an electronic benefit that can only be used to buy products and services considered ecological, drawn from a fixed official list. They exist in most Belgian sectors, usually because a sector collective agreement introduced them rather than because an individual employer chose to.
They are funded entirely by the employer. Nothing is deducted from your pay for them.
What can you actually buy with eco-vouchers?
Only what appears on the list, and the list is narrower than the label suggests. It covers things such as energy-efficient appliances, insulation and energy-saving equipment, public transport passes, bicycles and their maintenance, plants and garden supplies, and some second-hand goods and repair services.
What it does not cover is general shopping. Retailers accept eco-vouchers only for eligible items, which is why the vouchers often go unused, and they expire at the end of their validity period rather than rolling over.
How do eco-vouchers differ from meal vouchers?
Three differences, and none of them is cosmetic. Meal vouchers are co-funded by the employee, eco-vouchers are not. Meal vouchers accrue per day actually worked, eco-vouchers are granted as an annual amount tied to a reference period and to your work rate during it. And meal vouchers buy food, while eco-vouchers buy only what the official list allows.
They appear side by side in most offers, which makes them look like variations on one benefit. They are not.
Are eco-vouchers negotiable?
Usually less than the rest of the package. Where a sector agreement imposes them, the amount is set at sector level and an individual employer has limited room to change it. What can vary is whether they are converted into something else, since some sectors allow the value to be exchanged for an equivalent benefit.
That makes them a poor place to spend negotiating effort and a good place to check compliance. If they are missing from an offer in a sector that imposes them, that is worth a question. See extra-legal benefits for where they sit in a package, and compare the roles currently open.
