Labour laws

Belgian employment legislation is relatively complex, with unexpected and sometimes confusing rules.  The following is an overview of some of the situations that newcomers may face on arrival.

Labour laws are organised on several levels, with general regulations defined at federal and regional level. These regulations are completed by sectorial agreements negotiated between employers and representatives of workers (trade unions) and also by company-level regulations. Ask your HR manager which Convention Collective de Travail (in French-speaking companies), or Collectieve Arbeidsovereenkomst (in Dutch-speaking companies), is applicable to your company.

Official working languages

Belgium’s three official languages are French, Dutch and German. One of these three languages must be used in all employer-employee relations in this country. So if your employer’s head office is in a Dutch-, French- or German-speaking region, then Dutch, French or German respectively are the languages that must be used in all documents and contracts relating to your employment there. However, if the company has its headquarters in the officially bilingual Brussels-Capital Region, documents are drawn up in either Dutch or French. Translations into another language may accompany the original documents, but they will have no validity in law.

Social security

Social security coverage is fairly comprehensive in Belgium. Payments are deducted at source from salaries and contributions are paid by employers into the social security fund for their employees. This money is used to finance the different areas of social security (unemployment, pensions, child benefit, health insurance, accidents at work and work-related illnesses).

As an employee, your contribution will correspond to 13.07 percent of your gross salary, and will be paid directly by your employer to the Office National de Sécurité Sociale (ONSS)/ Rijksdienst voor Sociale Zekerheid (RSZ). The employer pays an additional 35 percent on top of the amount you are paying.

Work and illness

All workers must register with and pay membership fees to a mutual health insurance company (mutuelle/mutualiteit) of their choice. The mutuelle/mutualiteit pays sickness benefits to employees after one month’s incapacity and also reimburses a percentage of ordinary healthcare and medication costs.

If you are too ill to work, you must provide your employer with a medical certificate justifying your illness or accident. If this occurs during the first month of your trial period or if your illness lasts for more than one month, the mutuelle/mutualiteit to which you are affiliated will pay your sickness benefits.

If you are injured at work or on your way to or from work, then a special insurance, which your employer is legally obliged to provide. This pays for medical expenses and loss of salary.

Paid holidays

To be entitled to paid holiday, you must have worked as a salaried employee in Belgium for the calendar year preceding the year during which the holiday is being taken. In other words, you must have worked in Belgium in 2009 to be able to take paid leave in 2010. This can come as quite an unpleasant surprise for new arrivals to Belgium.

The length of your paid holiday will depend on the number of months during which you were paid in Belgium in the preceding year. If you worked a full calendar year on a full-time contract, for example, you are entitled to four weeks’ legal holiday the following year. The legal minimum amount of holiday entitlement in Belgium for people working full-time is 20 days, but some companies offer extra holidays.

If you are entitled to paid holiday leave, you will be paid your normal salary plus a complement of 92 percent of your gross salary (this advantage is known as the double pécule de vacances/dubbel vakantiegeld).

Unpaid leave is possible if your employer agrees, but this has an impact on your social rights.

Taxation

Taxes are deducted at source every month which, in concrete terms, means you are paying as you earn and the sum accrued acts as a deposit on your annual tax bill. The amount deducted depends largely on your family situation, dependents and the tax band where your salary falls. Bonuses are also subject to taxation. 

Work contracts: what type? 

Belgian labour law differentiates between different categories of workers – blue- and white-collar workers, part-timers, temporary staff, domestic and home-workers and students. The labour regulations are not the same for all categories, but contracts should always be signed by both parties on the first day of employment. 

Trial periods

The minimum and maximum duration of a trial period depends on your employee status: in other words whether you are a blue- or white-collar worker. For white-collar workers, it will depend on your annual salary with a maximum of 12 months, but generally it runs to six months. If you or your employer wants to give notice during your trial period, the legal period of notice is seven calendar days for both parties.

Breaking a work contract

Employment contracts may be terminated by employers or employees by mutual agreement or by a unilateral decision by either party. A series of rules protects employees in case of dismissal. The duration of notice depends on the annual gross salary of the employee, number of years worked at the company and age category.

Unemployment benefit

If you lose your job or are made redun¬dant and are a fully paid-up member of a trade union, the union will advise you on the procedure to follow to get your unemploy¬ment benefit (allocations de chômage/werkloosheidsuitkeringen). If you are not affiliated to a union, you will need to register at your local unemployment benefit office, the Caisse Auxiliaire de Paiement des Allocations de Chômage/Hulpkas voor Werkloosheidsuitkeringen. Entitlement to this is conditional on having worked in Belgium for a given length of time preceding the loss of employment. To receive your unem¬ployment benefit you also have to be registered at your local employment agency (Actiris in Brussels, VDAB in Flanders and Forem in Wallonia). The monthly unemployment benefit amounts to a maximum of €1,394.4 gross. 

www.employment.belgium.be website of the Belgian Federal Public Service Employment

www.rva.fgov.be national employment office

www.socialsecurity.be useful information about working in Belgium as a self-employed person, or employing someone