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On January 31, 2025, the new Belgian federal government, led by Prime Minister De Wever, reached an agreement outlined in the Federal Coalition Agreement. This agreement includes a series of reforms aimed at modernizing and increasing the flexibility of the labor market, with the goal of enhancing flexibility and providing more opportunities for both employees and employers.

It is important to emphasize that most of these measures have not yet been enacted into official legislation. However, some legislative proposals have already been submitted and discussed in parliament. With regard to the registration in the Federal Learning Account (which would in the end be replaced), parliament has already adopted the temporary postponement until 1 September 2025. Additionally, an agreement has already been reached between social partners, amongst others, on the abolishment of the unemployment scheme with company allowance as of 1 July 2025 (instead of 31 January 2025), safe some exceptions.

Below is a brief overview of the most important measures.

• Flexibilisation of working time legislation is expected. For instance, the requirement that part-time employees must work at least one-third of a full-time employee would be abolished. Additionally, the prohibition on night work would be lifted.
• Employees will be allowed to work up to 360 voluntary overtime hours per year (compared to currently max. 120 hours / year), with an exception for the hospitality sector where the limit would be 450 hours. The employer does not need to grant compensatory rest for those voluntary overtime hours. 240 of these hours would not be subject to overtime pay (360 hours in the hospitality sector) and will be exempted from social security contributions and personal income tax, making gross equal to net.
• A new concept is “family creditâ€�, which consists of leave rights for those contributing to the care of a child. The government intends to allocate a "backpack" of leave rights to each child, including new or adjusted modalities, such as allowing grandparents to take family credit.
• Additionally, the government is exploring the concept of “TeleTRAINworkâ€�, where hours worked during public transport could be considered as working time. However, this requires trains to be better equipped with, for example, tablets, power outlets, Wi-Fi, and sufficient 4G coverage.

• The government aims to cap severance pay for newly hired employees at a maximum of 52 weeks, currently corresponding to a maximum seniority of 17 years.
• Employees with at least ten years of effective service would become eligible for unemployment benefits for a maximum of six months when they resign. This duration may be extended once by an additional six months, provided that the employee successfully completes training for a shortage occupation, which must begin in the first trimester of the unemployment period.
• The protection against dismissal for employee representatives who are not re-elected for a second consecutive time in social elections would be reduced from two years to six months.
• Furthermore, the previously abolished probationary period would be reintroduced, by 31 December 2025 at the latest. It will be possible for both the employee and the employer to apply a shortened notice period of one week during the first six months of employment,.
• Finally, the maximum value of meal vouchers, currently 8 euros per working day, would be increased in two phases to 12 euros per working day. In exchange, the government aims to gradually phase out other existing vouchers, such as ecovouchers, culture vouchers, etc.

• The Federal Coalition Agreement also introduces measures for stricter monitoring of incapacitated employees. Specifically, the prevention advisor-occupational physician would be required to take action after one month of incapacity for work. Additionally, employers would be obliged to engage the external prevention service after eight weeks for an evaluation of work potential and possible reintegration.
• The procedure for terminating an employment contract due to medical force majeure may already be initiated after six months of incapacity, instead of nine months.
• Furthermore, in case of relapse, employees will only be entitled to 30 days of guaranteed pay after eight weeks of resuming work, instead of fourteen calendar days.
• Moreover, employees could be absent due to illness without a medical certificate up to twice a year, instead of three times.  

• There is also a strong focus on intensifying controls in areas such as false self-employment, false employment, and undeclared work by fully or partially unemployed individuals.
• Additionally, penalties for social fraud and social dumping will be significantly tightened. In cases of aggravating circumstances, minimum fines would be increased to 50% of the maximum fine, and employers found guilty of social fraud would lose their right to future reductions in social security contributions for multiple quarters.
• Finally, judicial surcharges will be increased from 70 to 90 to adjust fine amounts to price developments. In other words, the amount of the fines in the Social Criminal Code will need to be multiplied by 10 instead of 8. 
• The ÀÖÓ㣨Leyu£©ÌåÓý¹ÙÍø employment law team will closely monitor the implementation of the measures, as well as the adoption of the social law-related measures of the recent Easter agreement and will update its clients on a regular basis.