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Your contact person for this topic:
Marco Wirtz
Lawyer
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Contact:
- +32 11 29 47 01
- m.wirtz@euregio.law
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Further publications on this topic:
- Employment in Belgium - Part 1: Taxes and social security
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More on this topic:
- Personnel
- Labour law
If you are a foreign company looking to hire an employee in Belgium, you will realize that many things are regulated differently here. To make it easier for you to get started, we have put together an overview of the most important aspects you need to consider when hiring an employee in Belgium.
In the first part of this series on employing personnel in Belgium, we looked at the tax consequences and social security regulations of hiring an employee in Belgium. In this second part, we will look at some basic principles of Belgian labour law.
In principle, the parties are free to choose the law applicable to their employment relationship. However, if the employee usually works in Belgium, Belgian labour law is primarily applicable, regardless of the choice of law in the employment contract. To avoid any confusion about the applicable law, it is advisable to specify in the employment contract the labour law of the country in which the employee usually works – in this case, Belgian labour law.
Below you will find an overview of some important basic principles of Belgian labour law.
1. Collective labour agreements
In addition to the statutory provisions of Belgian labour law, which we will cover one by one in this series, various collective labour agreements (Dutch: CAO, French: CCT) apply to every employer in Belgium, both at national and sectoral level. The national collective labour agreements apply to all companies.
As soon as your company employs an employee in Belgium, it automatically becomes a member of a joint labour committee (Dutch: PC, French: CP). Which joint committee is responsible depends on your company’s activities in Belgium. Each sector has a joint committee composed of employee and employer representatives that concludes collective labour agreements for the companies falling within the sector’s remit.
The collective labour agreements regulate a range of working conditions, such as year-end bonuses, working hours, and so on.
2. Working hours
The maximum weekly working time is generally 38 hours. However, the joint committee can set different working hours for each sector.
It is also possible for the employee to work longer – for example, 40 hours per week – but in that case, the employee is entitled to so-called working time reduction days (Dutch: ADV-dagen, French: jours RTT). For instance, if an employee works 40 hours while the 38-hour week applies in their sector, they are entitled to 12 working time reduction days per year. This is comparable to additional days of holiday.
Sunday and night work are generally prohibited, but exceptions exist for sectors in which such work is required. If there is no exception for your sector, you can apply for authorization from the competent authority.
It is also important to note that the working time regulations do not apply to certain employees, such as executives and representatives. These employees can therefore work more than 38 hours without the employer being required to grant working time reduction days or pay overtime premiums.
3. Incapacity for work
If a Belgian employee is unable to work, the employer must, in principle, pay the normal wage for one month. This is known as the guaranteed salary. After this month, the salary is paid by the health insurance fund.
Although the employee is not protected against dismissal during the period of incapacity for work, they may not be dismissed because of it. More on this in the fourth part of this series.
4. Use of language
All social documents (e.g. employment contracts, work regulations, payslips, etc.) relating to employees must be written in the correct language i.e. Dutch or French depending on the language area in which the employer is based.
If your company does not have a branch in Belgium, you may choose the language that the employee understands. Please note, however, that the Belgian authorities require all documents relating to the employment relationship to be drafted in one of the national languages, as part of a social inspection or when submitting the work regulations.
We therefore generally prepare bilingual employment contracts and work regulations for foreign employers, e.g. in English and Dutch, or English and French.
5. Categories of employees in Belgium
There are different categories of employees, depending on their status (white collar employee, blue collar worker, representative, student, temporary worker, civil servant, etc.) and their specific tasks.
The most relevant categories for your company in Belgium are as follows:
Blue collar worker
A blue collar worker is an employee who primarily performs physical labour. The wage for blue collar workers is determined per hour.
White collar employee
A white collar employee is an employee who mainly performs intellectual labour. A monthly salary is set for white collar employees.
Representative
A special group of employees who, in return for payment, undertake to seek out customers in order to negotiate and/or conclude transactions on behalf of, for the account of, and in the name of the employer.
Note: Only the employee’s activity is decisive for classification as a representative, not the designation in the employment contract. Employers often try to circumvent the representative status by giving the employee a different job title (e.g. account manager). However, the actual situation is decisive.
Some special regulations apply to representatives, such as the non-applicability of working time regulations (see above), as well as the possible entitlement to a clientele compensation upon termination of the employment relationship (more on this in part 4 of this series).
Do you have a question or a concern?
If you have any further questions on labour law issues, you are welcome to contact our Belgian specialist lawyer for labour law Marco Wirtz.
