On 16 July 2016, a pre-draft act concerning workable and flexible working was submitted to the Group of 10. The pre-draft act is intended to modernise employment law in order to improve the competitiveness of our labour market, to make sure employment is "workable" for employees and "flexible" for employers, and to offer people more opportunities to balance their working life with family life, caregiving and education.
On 16 July 2016, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Employment Kris Peeters submitted a pre-draft act concerning workable and flexible working to the Group of 10. According to the Minister's press release, the text of the pre-draft is the result of various working groups of the social partners, parliamentary debates, working visits to companies and governments in Belgium and abroad, proposals of various stakeholders and an evaluation of the existing derogations available to sectors and companies. The pre-draft act is intended to modernise employment law in order to improve the competitiveness of our labour market, to make sure employment is "workable" for employees and "flexible" for employers, and to offer people more opportunities to combine their working life with their family life, caregiving and education. Following the discussions of the Group of 10, the pre-draft act will be submitted to the government, after which the advice of the Council of State will be submitted to the Chamber of Representatives.
The pre-draft act consists of two parts, a "shelf" and a "menu":
The "shelf"
The "shelf" is the general part, which contains measures which will be immediately applicable to companies. However, it is intended that the sectors will have the opportunity to conclude an agreement on these measures before 31 December 2016. After that, the measures will be binding, unless otherwise agreed. Existing collective labour agreements would remain in force.
- Abolition of the 38-hour working week: henceforth, the number of hours worked will be looked at over a period of one year. This would allow working up to a maximum of nine hours per day and 45 hours per week during certain periods, provided that these hours are compensated for during periods when less work is required. The hours worked by an employee may not, however, exceed the average working time by more than 143 hours at any time. In cases where that limit is reached, compensatory rest should be granted.
- 100 hours of paid overtime by voluntary agreement: the employee would be allowed to voluntarily choose to work these hours with the employer's consent. These hours would be paid taking into account the surcharge for overtime.
- Training: the number of training days would be increased to an average of five training days per full-time equivalent per year.
- Occasional teleworking: introduction of a legal framework.
The "menu"
The menu consists of a series of measures which can only be activated by certain sectors, in particular:
- Global reform of working time: the social partners could deviate from the regular limits of working time (maintaining the absolute limits of 11 hours per day and 50 hours per week, if the average of 38 hours per week is observed). The starting point for night work could be shifted from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
- Modification of work schedules: the work regulations could allow for the possibility of changing from one full-time work schedule to another.
- Plus-Minus account: through a collective labour agreement, internationally competitive sectors could decide that the average 38-hours working week can be complied with spread over several years.
- Temporary agency work of indefinite duration: temporary agency work could be used for an indefinite length of time, with a wage being paid in between assignments (provided that there is a sectoral agreement).
- Reform of the system of groups of employers: small companies could jointly employ an employee.
- Simplification of part-time employment: as the result of an administrative simplification, it would no longer be a requirement for all part-time work schedules to be included in the work regulations; certain documents could be stored in electronic form instead of on paper, and the 5-day notice period for employees with a variable work schedule could be increased or decreased under a generally binding collective labour agreement.
- Career savings: employees could accumulate (save up) time. Per sector, decisions could be made to apply this at the company or sector level, which would enable employees to take a career break with their current employer and/or with a future employer.
- Adjustments to the leave systems: palliative care leave would be extended to a maximum of 3 months; time-credit for caregiving reasons would be extended by 3 months.
- Flexible working hours: with the introduction of a legal framework for flexible working hours, the employee himself could decide on the beginning and end of his working hours, provided that certain limits are taken into account.
- Offering of days of leave: this system could be opened up, for instance, for employees with a severely ill child when all systems of leave have already been exhausted; other employees could anonymously offer one or more days of leave (only days of leave in excess of the 20 statutory days).
Increasingly often we are finding in practice that employment law, several basic instruments of which are almost half a century old, is too rigid to meet the needs of the current labour market, for employees as well as for employers. We will continue to follow these developments closely.