Draft act workable and flexible work: status
In 2015, Minister of Work Kris Peeters launched the initiative to modernize Belgian employment legislation on different levels. His preliminary work resulted in a draft act Workable Flexible Work (Werkbaar Wendbaar Werk in Dutch), which has been approved by the federal government on Friday October 28, 2016.
The most important measures featured in the draft act are the following:
- Working time defined on an annual basis whereby the average weekly working time will need to be respected on an annual basis
- 100 voluntary hours of paid overtime agreed upon by employer and employee and which do not result in an obligation to grant compensatory resting time
- Increased importance of training and development with an aspiration to have 5 days of training on an average basis for each FTE
- Introduction of occasional telework for unforeseen circumstances in the private life of the employee
- Administrative simplification of part-time work in case of variable working schedules
- Legal framework for the system of flexible working hours
- Extension of the entitlement to palliative care and time credit for reasons of caretaking
Apart from this, there are a couple of measures foreseen in the draft act of the Minister which require further elaboration on industrial sectoral level such as the system of career savings and the offering of days of leave.
The above measures have been approved by the government but will now need to be sent to the Council of State and the National Labour Council for advice before they will be discussed in Parliament.
As soon as the legislative works become definitive, we will inform you hereof.
