Insights

After months of negotiations, Belgium’s new federal government has reached an agreement introducing significant changes to labor law, employment flexibility, and social security. These reforms aim to boost employment rates, simplify regulations, and reduce labor costs for employers.  

Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) 32bis applies in Belgium in the event of a transfer of undertakings. It establishes the legal framework that protects employees’ rights during such a transfer.

On 23 October 2024, the European Parliament adopted Directive (EU) 2024/2831 (“the Directive”), aimed at improving conditions for individuals working for digital platforms.  The Directive introduces comprehensive measures to: address the employment status of digital platform workers, ensure transparency and fairness in algorithmic management, and strengthen the protection of personal data. The Directive came into force on 1 December 2024, and Member States are required to adopt the necessary measures for transposition into national law by 2 December 2026.

At the beginning of the year, we brought to your attention that a number of important Belgian and EU legislative changes are likely to have an impact in 2024: there are new laws that have been adopted and proposals that are expected to firm up into law.

A number of important Belgian and EU legislative changes are likely to have an impact in 2024. On the one hand, there are new laws that have been adopted and will start to bite, and, on the other, there are proposals that are expected to firm up into law.

Now more than a year ago, on November 28, 2022, the long-awaited act on the protection of persons who report violations of EU or national law detected within a legal entity in the private sector, the so-called the "Whistleblowing Protection Act", was adopted in Belgium.

By laws of October 7, 2022 Belgium finally transposed the European directive on transparent and predictable working conditions (Directive (EU) 2019/1152), and partially transposed the European directive on work-life balance (Directive (EU) 2019/1158). Here is an overview of some of the most important changes in Belgian law.

More people at work, and a focus on flexibility and a better work-life balance for employees. These are the main objectives of the new Belgian “Labor Deal” announced by the Belgian government on February 15, 2022. Among the most significant measures contained in the agreement are the following:

EU Directive 2014/66/EU (the ICT Permit Directive) introduced a framework for EU Member States to regulate intra-corporate transfers (ICT). With the recent implementation in Belgium of the ICT permit, global employers now have four main options for hiring non-EEA high-profile employees in Belgium (for a period longer than 90 days). The table below provides an overview of the options (types of single permit), depending on the employee’s profile and employment terms.

On Tuesday June 8, 2021, the Belgian Group of Ten (i.e., the consultative body of trade unions and employers, the “social partners”) reached general agreement on four social topics. This agreement follows the government’s conciliation proposal to the social partners of May 2021, whereby the government instructed the social partners to find practical solutions with respect to the following four topics.

As COVID-19 vaccination rates increase globally, governments across the world are developing and discussing COVID-19 vaccine passports or health certificates as a way to enable people to travel safely, for work or tourism, in the coming months. As multinational companies are navigating how to resume some sense of normalcy for employees to travel across borders, governments are beginning to provide a framework in which to facilitate travel. Several legal considerations arise, including around data sharing and privacy (especially cross-border), and employment and anti-discrimination protections. Because both public and private stakeholders have to date adopted largely individualized approaches, an increasingly fragmented global ecosystem for such programs is likely to further complicate data sharing and privacy concerns in particular. How these efforts evolve alongside the arc of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has recently been complicated by the emergence of COVID-19 variants, creates the need for stakeholders to proactively address such challenges in the near-term.

There is currently no legal basis in Belgium to link the performance of work to a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination. Therefore, no matter which sector they are from, employers cannot oblige employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Of course, as part of the company's wellness policy, an employer can encourage employees to be vaccinated (e.g., through an information session).

The Belgian government body responsible for checking that all employment rules are being correctly followed recently announced that only one in five Belgian companies is respecting the current rules on compulsory or recommended teleworking as imposed by the government to help fight COVID-19. Also, many companies still have no telework arrangements in place. In response to this issue, the National Labor Council has now agreed a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA no. 149) that is intended to better stimulate and encourage telework. It will remain in force until December 31, 2021.

The U.K. left the European Union (EU) on January 31, 2020 under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement, an agreement struck by London and Brussels in October 2019. During the standstill post-Brexit transition period, that ran until December 31, 2020, most of the arrangements that were valid during the U.K.’s EU membership were kept in place. As a result, in 2020, virtually nothing changed for employers in relation to cross-border employment and business travel.

Almost one year after the appearance of the novel coronavirus, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to set agendas for countries and multinational companies. More and more countries and jurisdictions have re-introduced lockdowns and restrictions on activities outside the home. Non-essential shops, bars and restaurants are closed again or have limited opening hours. Employees who may have begun the process of returning to the office are obliged to work from home again to the maximum extent.

Click to access a PDF chart detailing different possible situations covered by the scheme.

On October 27, 2020, the National Labor Council (NLC) adopted a new set of recommendations (Advice no. 2.184 – you can find the full text here). These recommendations result from and are in line with the agreement reached by the social partners on December 17, 2019 (see our Alert of January 14, 2020).

In our recent alert How to Determine the Best Work from Home Strategy for Your Company with Belgium Back in COVID-19 Mandatory Telework Mode, you will find a table summarizing the three recognized forms of telework under Belgian law.

Since October 19, 2020, new Belgian rules have once again made it obligatory for most employees  to “telework at home” as much as possible.

Brexit was once the topic of every conversation in the United Kingdom (U.K.), but, overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s not something we hear as much about these days.