The week in business: 7 August

Air • Brussels Airport
Unions representing security staff at Brussels Airport have called off further industrial action after “constructive talks” with airport management about new automatic security doors. The unions claim the doors are unreliable, leading to a work to rule last week, which had little effect on passenger traffic. The airport said it had no plans to outsource its security operations to a private company.

Employment • VDAB
The Flemish training and employment agency has denied criticism that it is failing to work well with its counterparts in other regions in trying to fill long-standing vacancies in “bottleneck jobs”. Political party CD&V said the number of Flemish vacancies advertised in Brussels and Wallonia had dropped by 20% in three years. But VDAB pointed out the drop in number was a result of the economy. Co-operation with the two other regional agencies was working “very well,” VDAB said.

IT • CoScale
The Ghent-based IT start-up has raised €2 million in venture capital from Gimv and Qbic (€750,000 each) and Sofi (€500,000). CoScale provides tools to analyse and remedy the problems causing web pages to perform too slowly. The company said the funding would allow development of the platform, as well as market development at home and abroad.

Property • Bpost
Bpost has put 60 buildings across Belgium up for sale, the largest in Antwerp’s Groenplaats, with an asking price of €30 million. The buildings are part of the national post’s programme of selling off real estate that it no longer needs or has become outdated and too expensive to maintain. Some of the buildings, such as the Oud Postkantoor in the centre of Ghent, are historical gems with towers and glass fronts. There are plans for Ghent’s building to house an Albert Heijn below and a hotel above.