As we previously reported, on February 2022, the government of Belgium proposed a package of measures to reform the nation’s labour market, aiming to increase flexibility and boost employment, the so-called “labour deal”.

After several months, the draft law implementing the labour deal was approved.

The key changes are the following:

1. Working time: The law provides more flexibility for employees in terms of working time, which should result in a better work–life balance, with the introduction of flexible part-time working schedules and the possibility to work in an alternating full-time week schedule at the request of the employee and after amending the work rules with an individual agreement. Belgium has also become the first country in the European Union and the third in the world, after Iceland and New Zealand, to formally introduce a four-day work week as an option for its workers. It also introduces night work in e-commerce activities through a collective bargaining agreement at the company level. 

2. Platform workers: The legislator introduced a rebuttable presumption of the existence of an employment contract for the platform economy from 1 January 2023. This legal presumption will be the subject of an intermediate evaluation after one year and a final evaluation after two years by the General Management Committee for the Social Status of the Self-Employed and the High Council for the Self-Employed and SMEs. Moreover, digital platforms will also be required to take out accident insurance in the interest of their self-employed workers to protect them from bodily harm resulting from accidents during work and on the way to and from work.

3. Dismissal: The law provides the possibility of a transition path in case of dismissal with a notice period, at the employer’s or employee’s request and after concluding priorly a four-party-agreement of a maximum duration equal to the notice period. These provisions will be subject to review by the NLC by 30 June 2024. In addition, employees who are dismissed with a notice period of at least 30 weeks from 1 January 2023 are entitled to be absent from work during the last third of the notice period to follow upskilling measures while maintaining their remuneration.

4. Training: The labour deal establishes an obligation for employers with 20 or more employees to conclude a yearly training plan, containing some mandatory provisions, no later than 31 March of each year, to be presented to the works council or, in its absence, to the trade union delegation. The training plan must be kept within the company, and the employees and their representatives should have access to it upon simple request. From 1 January 2023, there is also an individual right to training for each employee of 4 training days a year (per FTE) that, from 1 January 2024, becomes five training days a year (per FTE).

5. Right to disconnect: Employers with at least 20 employees are required to introduce and respect the right to disconnection through a collective bargaining agreement at the company level or the work regulations and to consider training for employees and management to promote the right to disconnection.

Employers should review and update as necessary all their regulations, contract, and policies to be compliant with the new law.