Articles

In January 2016, the Joint Committees (JC) for the retail sector (JC n° 201), the retail in nutrition (JC 202), the large retail businesses (JC 311) and the department stores (JC 312) entered into a framework collective bargaining agreement (CBA) organizing night work with regard to e-commerce. In March, a Royal Decree was adopted confirming […]

In our web alert of March 2016, we indicated that a draft bill amending the Social Penal Code had been voted within Belgian Parliament. This bill has now been published in the Belgian Official Gazette and enters into force on May 1, 2016.

The indexation leap was a measure introduced by the government to improve Belgium’s competition position. On 1 April 2015, the government blocked the flattened health index at the level of March 2015. This blocking period would be maintained until an indexation leap of 2% was reached. As a result of the high inflation rate, the […]

In the case presented to the Supreme Court, an employer paid supplementary childcare allowances on top of the legal childcare benefits to employees with children who fulfilled certain conditions with regard to function and seniority. The National Social Security Office argued that these supplementary payments needed to be qualified as salary and were therefore subjected […]

The National Social Security Office (NSSO) accepts certain maximum lump-sum amounts for the reimbursement of specific costs that need to be borne by the employer. As of 1 January 2016, the lump-sum amounts for the purchase and maintenance of working clothes and for meal expenses for mobile workers have been increased.

As of 1 April 2014, a dismissal will be considered as ‘unjustified’ because it is ‘manifestly unreasonable’ if the dismissal: i) has been carried through for reasons unrelated to the worker’s capability or conduct, or the operational requirements of the undertaking, and ii) would never have been decided upon by a normal and reasonable employer. […]

Since 2002, the majority opinion in Belgian case law and amongst legal scholars was that if an employee partially waives his salary, social security contributions remain due on the part of the salary that has been waived. That is until very recently, as the Supreme Court has now ruled that no social security contributions are […]

The Social Penal Code, established in 2010, encompasses all infringements to labor and social security laws and includes four levels of sanctions, depending on the gravity of the violation. On 18 February 2016, a draft bill was voted on within the Belgian Parliament to amend this Social Penal Code, update it with legal developments after […]

Eco vouchers can be issued electronically instead of on paper and be put on the same electronic card as meal vouchers CBA nr. 109 on the motivation of dismissals will also be applicable to the construction, fabrics and carpentry, diamond and port sector. The target group reductions on social security contributions for the first five […]

Besides new rules for the return employers need to guarantee regarding supplementary pension schemes (see our web alert of November 2015), this new Act also foresees the following: i) The employer needs to inform his employees who leave their accumulated pension reserves within the pension scheme of the (ex)employer upon termination of the employment contract […]

As a consequence of the Unified Employment Status Act of 26 December 2013, the notice periods for blue- and white-collar workers were aligned for the seniority accrued after 1 January 2014. Yet, for the seniority accrued before 1 January 2014, blue-collar workers still have shorter notice periods. In order to compensate for these shorter notice […]

In 2011, the Labour Court of Appeal of Antwerp ruled that the decision of the external prevention service (the occupational physician) to declare an employee who had diabetes and who suffered from an insulin dependency, permanently disabled, was discriminatory. On top of the nullity sanction of the decision to declare the employee disabled, an indemnity […]

On the basis of the former article 63 of the Employment Contracts Act, which was applicable at the time of the case, a dismissal that is not based on either the conduct or capability of the employee or the operational requirements of the undertaking could be qualified as a manifestly unreasonable dismissal for which an […]

From 1 January 2016 onwards, 4 weeks of salary is deducted from the indemnity in lieu of notice as compensation to a right to outplacement: An employee who is dismissed with an indemnity of at least 30 weeks of salary is entitled to outplacement. Until 31 December 2015, dismissed employees were entitled to waive their […]

From 1 January 2017 onwards, the LIMOSA notification for self-employed people will only apply to risk sectors. Since 2007, posted self-employed people are required to notify the commencement of their activities in Belgium to the Belgian authorities. Following complaints of the EU Commission pertaining to possible infringements to the right of free movement of services, […]

As previously announced in August of 2015, the Belgian federal government reached an agreement on ‘guidelines’ of a tax shift from labour to other forms of income in August 2015. One of the key reforms is the drop in employer’s social security contribution from 33% to 30% from 1 April 2016 onwards and to 25% […]

A dismissed employee is entitled to a non-compete indemnity when the employer does not renounce its application in due time: In Belgian employment contracts, it is, in principle, mandatory to foresee an indemnity ‘as a compensation for imposing restrictions on the right to execute certain activities’ in the framework of a non-compete clause. Upon termination […]

The federal government has introduced the option for employers and employees to make use of so-called flexi-jobs in the catering industry. In this system, people who carry out at least a 4/5th of a full-time employment in the non-catering industry can be employed in the catering industry under flexible social security conditions (no employee contributions […]

Until recently, the general rule was that an appeal or opposition suspended the execution of a court ruling, unless the ruling was declared “provisionally enforceable” (“uitvoerbaar bij voorraad / exécutoire par provision”), in which case the winning party could immediately force the losing party to execute the sentence even if the latter had lodged an […]

As of 1 April 2014, all workers (blue and white collar) may ask their employer to provide them with the reason(s) for their dismissal. If an employer does not (timely) respond to such a request, it will be required to pay a lump-sum civil fine (indemnity) of two weeks’ salary to the employee, provided that […]

On the basis of the Act on Supplementary Pension Schemes (hereafter ‘SPSA’), employers are obliged to guarantee a certain return on supplementary pension schemes when the employee retires or exits the scheme (i.e. 3,75% on the employee’s contributions to all pension plans and 3,25% on the employer’s contributions to defined contribution plans and cash balance […]

An employer who is not able to prove the actual costs for each individual employee, is not barred from the possibility to apply an equal lump-sum cost allowance for all its employees. The National Social Security Office (NSSO) demanded proof of the employer, of the actual costs of each individual employee as justification for the […]

Since the 1st of January 2014, it is impossible to include a trial period in an employment contract. Yet, in a case presented to the Labour Court of Ghent, an employee entered into service in August 2013 and was dismissed in June 2014. His employment contract included a trial period of six months (which was […]

Upon the dismissal of an employee (without respecting the dismissal procedure for protected employees) a strike broke out in a company. According to the Court of Appeal of Mons, the fact that the right to work and the right to property is hindered by such actions, can be justified when the employer himself abuses his […]

The employer is obliged to pay employees who are willing to work during a strike if it is not completely impossible to perform their tasks. In a recent case, an employer failed to allow employees to work because of a strike. The employer refused to pay the employees who did not participate in the strike, […]

The Belgian Supreme Court renders a long-awaited decision on the motivation of dismissals of employees in the Public Sector. An intense jurisprudential debate has come to an end, with the Supreme Court sentencing on 12 October 2015 that neither the Act of 29 July 1991 on the formal motivation of administrative acts, nor the general […]

When two employment contracts for temporary agency work for the same agency and the same user are only interrupted by one or more bank holidays or compensation days for bank holidays, then the day(s) will also have to be paid to the temporary agency worker. It is therefore no longer possible to circumvent the payment […]

The law on the protection of wages still considered the payment in cash to be the standard form of payment, although in practice, almost all wages are paid via bank transfer. The law has now been modified. From 1 October 2016 onwards, the payment of wages via bank transfer will be the fallback option, and […]

Under Belgian labour law, the 5-year statute of limitation applies to the non-payment of wages. As such, non-payment can be qualified as a criminal offence. According to the Brussels Labour Court of Appeal, the repetitive non-payment of wages constituted a so-called continued criminal offence, meaning that the statute of limitation only commences as of the […]

In 2014, the rules with regard to the notice periods in Belgium were drastically changed as a consequence of the so-called Unified Employment Status Act that aligned the notice periods for blue- and white-collar workers. This Act included a few derogations (i.e. shorter notice periods) to this unification, of which some were temporary in nature. […]

Personal data can be transferred to a third (i.e. non-EU) country, when this third country ensures an adequate level of protection for such data, according to the EU directive on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has now ruled that the ‘Safe Harbor […]

Croats no longer need a work permit to work in Belgium. A person who has been legally residing for more than 5 years in a EU country, no longer needs a work permit after 12 months of continuous employment in a ‘shortage profession’. In light of the current asylum crisis in Belgium and the rest […]

Some employees do not have a fixed working place and visit several places (e.g. customers) during the day. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has now ruled that the time during which an employee travels between his home address and his first and last customer of the day, must, in principle, be regarded as working […]

Employees may be asked to work within a system of ‘standby duty’ in which their physical presence at the workplace or another location appointed by the employer is not required (e.g. waiting time at home with the possibility of being called up). On 18 May 2015, the Belgian Supreme Court ruled that when an employee […]

The government agreement included the intention to install a second month of guaranteed wage, to be paid by the employer to employees who are incapable of working due to illness or accident. This would entail a significant additional cost for employers, but a saving for the social security system. The measure was first postponed to […]

Some of the major new measures, which will be put in place for the coming years and which will need to be further detailed, include: increasing the competitiveness of companies: the employers’ social security contribution on wages will gradually be reduced from 33% to 25% and fiscal incentives will be offered to Small and Medium […]

The Brussels’ Labour Court of Appeal ruled on 13 February 2015 that an employer moving his operating unit to the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium must translate existing labour documents (in the case at hand a yearly bonus plan) into Dutch, even if these documents were valid at the time of their initial drafting, as they […]

The Belgian government has decided to increase the so-called “social and fiscal work bonus”. From 1 August 2015 onwards, workers with a lower income (up to 2,385 EUR gross) will receive a higher net wage due to a reduction of their social security and tax contributions. An Act in this respect has been voted on […]

The Law of 2 June 2015, amending the legislation on social elections, was published in the Belgian Official Gazette on 22 June 2015. This Law entered into force on the date of publication.

The Unified Employment Status Act aligning the notice periods for blue- and white-collar workers obliges the sectors of industry to enter into a CBA, at the latest on 1 January 2019, reducing the notice period or indemnity in lieu of notice for workers that are entitled to a notice period (or indemnity in lieu) of […]

In execution of the new legislation on salary freeze, two Royal Decrees have been issued, allowing, as of 1 January 2016: an increase of the nominal value of meal vouchers from 7 to 8 euro, free of social security contributions if the usual legal conditions are met; an increase of the annual maximum amount (indexed) […]

In December 2014, the age condition for time-credit at the end of an employee’s career has been modified from 55 to 60 years for the basic regime and from 50 to 55 years for some specific categories of workers (such as workers taking up time-credit in the frame of a restructuring, workers carrying out a […]

On June 4, 2015 a draft bill was presented in Parliament including a number of topics with regard to labour and social security law. This draft bill includes, amongst others, the government’s plan to introduce electronic eco-cheques similar to previously introduced electronic meal vouchers. Indeed, as of October 1, 2015 no paper meal vouchers may […]

Within the construction industry, every contractor will be jointly liable with any subcontractor he works with for the latter’s debts towards the social security office and tax authorities (information accessible via a database), unless he deducts 35% for social security debts and 15% for tax debts from the amount of the invoice due to the […]

The Federal Minister of Labour is conducting negotiations with the social partners to create a legal framework for nightwork in the e-commerce sector. The Minister will present a progress report on this proposition in June.

The Federal Minister of Labour is investigating whether the legal framework to ascertain the legal nature of the employment relationship (employment contract or self-employed status) should be altered in order to boost the fight against bogus self-employment.

As a consequence of several strikes in the last few months (notably train strikes), some political parties have suggested to legally define the right to strike and to determine the limits of minimal services in certain sectors, as this is today not legally defined in Belgium.

As regards a hot item in the media, namely the fact that employees on ‘bridging pension’ (unemployment regime with company supplement for older workers) should remain available for work, four drafts of Royal Decrees have been prepared to tone this debate down. These drafts exclude the employees already benefiting from bridging pension of this obligation […]

The Labour Court of Appeals of Antwerp ruled that such prohibition was not discriminatory in the sense of the Belgian anti-discrimination legislation and the EU Directive, since the same prohibition applied to all symbols of any religious, political or philosophical denomination within the company. The case was later brought before the Supreme Court, which now […]

The new laws on indexation leap and salary freeze to improve Belgium’s competition position have been voted and published within the Belgian Official Gazette.

The Labour Court of Appeals of Liège rejected the evidence gathered by a private detective, with respect to an employee who claimed to be entitled to a social security allowance because of his partial disability due to an industrial accident, while he was in fact able to work. The Court ruled that this evidence was […]

Obesity constitutes one of the major public health issues of the 21st century. Its impact on employment related matters can hardly be overestimated. If a person’s obesity is considered a handicap, employers will have to provide reasonable accommodations to enable this person to have access to, participate in, or advance in employment, or to undergo […]

On April 28, 2014, the Acts of February 28, 2014 and of March 28, 2014 and the Royal Decree of April 10, 2014, amending the Belgium legislation with regard to the well-being of workers, were published in the Belgian Official Gazette. The legislator now aims to protect workers not only against acts of violence, moral […]