Amendments to various employment provisions on 1 June 2026
Amendments to various employment provisions on 1 June 2026
The measures relate to, among other topics, night work, working schedules in work regulations, weekly working hours, legal notice periods, temporary work and overtime. For a detailed explanation of night work and overtime, we would like to refer to our other articles: New regulations on night work & More net overtime in 2026. The other topics mentioned above will be explained more in detail in this article and may have important consequences for employers.
Relaxation of working hours in the work regulations
In the past companies were obliged to include all full-time working schedules which are applied in the company in their work regulations. The fixed part-time schedules which did not completely fit in one of the full-time working schedules also had to be included in the work regulations.
The new legislation provides for a relaxation of the current requirements due to which employers will have more flexibility in adjusting or adding full-time work schedules without consistently having to amend their work regulations. From 1 June 2026, it will be sufficient to include a general framework of the normal working time in the work regulations including the following mandatory information:
- The days of the week on which work can be performed;
- The daily period within which work can be performed;
- The minimum and maximum daily working time;
- The normal and maximum weekly working time.
Aside from the above changes, it remains possible to include full-time work schedules in the work regulations. The applicable legislation for part-time work schedules remains unchanged.
Minimum weekly working time of part-time employees
The new legislation provides for a reduction in the minimum weekly working time of a part-time employee. The minimum weekly working time of part-time employees have to be at least one-tenth of the weekly working time of a full-time employee employed within the same company. If part-time employees are working less hours, they are entitled to the salary equal to one-tenth of a full-time employee with a similar position.
The new law does not change the minimum working time per performance of part-time employees. A working period is still at least three consecutive hours. Some joint committees already allow a derogation from this three hour rule.
Limitation of the maximum length of the legal notice period
The new legislation also provides for a limitation of the maximum duration of the legal notice period for employees whose employment contracts commence as from 1 June 2026. For employment contracts concluded as from 1 June 2026, the legal notice period in the event of termination by the employer for employment is limited to 52 weeks for employees with 17 years or more of seniority. Above this limit, no additional notice period can be accrued by the employee.
For employment contracts that commenced before 1 June 2026, the former notice periods remain applicable and, consequently, there is no upper limit for the legal notice period when the termination is given by the employer.
Temporary agency work
The new regulations abolishes the requirement to submit a prior declaration of intent in the context of temporary agency work. The declaration of intent has become superfluous as it was already included in previous legislation that every employment contract for temporary agency work must be done in writing at the latest when the temporary agency worker commences the work.
Non-recurrent result based bonus (CBA 90)
As of 1 June 2026, the new law requires employers to submit the adhesion act for the non-recurring result-based bonus through the digital application of the FPS Employment, Labour and Social Affairs (www.bonusplannen.be).