Belgian Government further shapes labour market reforms

In February, the Belgian Government reached a political agreement on labour market reforms. This political agreement has been submitted to the social partners, that have not been able to find a consensus on how to implement the reforms. The Government has taken certain concerns expressed by the social partners into account and slightly adjusted certain aspects of the political agreement with a view to its implementation. 

The main adjustments to the initial political agreement can be summarised as follows:

(Re-)training

The (re-)training time employees are entitled to under the reforms, will be computed in hours instead of days. This is to allow to take into account the (re-)trainings that are nowadays often provided on line and in shorter formats than day trainings.

Four days-work week - Overtime prohibited

When employees ask to perform their full-time job over 4 days instead of 5, by increasing the amount of hours worked on these days, or to alternate their volume of weekly working hours, i.e. work more one week and less the other week, it will not be allowed to require them to perform overtime. 

E-commerce

The company trade union delegation would be involved, not only in case of implementation of a regime of working time between 20.00 and 24.00, but also if the employer wants to implement a 18-months trial period of such regime.   

Platform economy

Platform economy workers could be either self-employed or employee, depending on the concrete circumstances of the relationship with the platform. The  Administrative Commission for the assessment of the Employment Relationship (Commission Administrative de règlement de la Relation de Travail /  Administratieve Commissie ter regeling van de Arbeidsrelatie) would become competent to take binding decisions on the nature of the employment relationship of platform economy workers. 

A draft law is intended to be filed with the Parliament before the summer holidays.