New regulation around night work for Belgian web shops

The various social partners in Belgium have reached an agreement for the development of a framework that regulates night work for Belgian webshops. The federal government hopes the new regulation will lead to more job creation.

Online retailers will soon be able to process their orders overnight on Belgian soil, something that was impossible until now due to the lack of a legal framework. The details of the requested adjustment, which arose in the spring of 2015, have now been hammered out. The resulting agreement should give e-commerce in Belgium a big boost, writes smartbiz.be.

The agreement between employers and unions provides a general global framework, wherein each company is still free to negotiate its own conditions and logistics around night work.

The night work is necessary to keep up with the competition, mainly the online shops of neighbouring countries. The missing framework around night work is considered the main reason for Belgium's current sluggish e-commerce sector, which sees many jobs going abroad.

Trade federation Comeos calculated that Belgium last year missed out on about 8,000 jobs and €2.4 billion in e-commerce.