Coalition Agreement: Reforms to SWT and Time Credit Landing Jobs announced by NLC
On 15 July 2025, the National Labour Council (NLC) issued opinion no. 2.455 on end-of-career arrangements, announcing structural reforms to the system of unemployment regime with company supplement (SWT) and time credit landing jobs. In addition, the NLC wishes to extend the collective labour agreement on temporary unemployment for white-collar workers from 1 January 2026. Read the full opinion here.
Why these reforms? The reforms follow a request for advice from the Minister of Employment on 16 April 2025 on preliminary drafts of royal decrees (RD) on adjustments to SWT and landing jobs. The government is therefore effectively taking legislative steps to implement the measures announced in the coalition agreement of 31 January 2025.
SWT: The preliminary draft Royal Decree amending the Royal Decree of 3 May 2007 on SWT takes into account the agreement of the Group of 10 of 13 March 2025 and the coalition agreement. This preliminary draft abolishes both the general SWT and the specific SWT schemes for night work, heavy jobs, long careers and companies in difficulty/restructuring. Only medical SWT will be retained.
As a transitional measure, employees would still be eligible for general SWT if their dismissal was notified before 1 April 2025 and they are at least 62 years old and have 40 years of professional experience by 30 June 2025, but in any case by the end of their employment contract. The NLC rightly points out that this could cause problems in the case of long notice periods. For example, employees who were dismissed before 1 April and meet the other conditions on 30 June would still not be entitled to SWT if their notice period expires after that date.
The NLC therefore requests that the preliminary draft be amended so that employees who meet the seniority requirement at the end of their employment contract are still eligible, even if the end date is after 30 June 2025. In addition, the NLC announces that it will amend collective labour agreement no. 17 to take account of the preliminary draft.
The preliminary draft stipulates that employees dismissed from companies recognised as being in difficulty or undergoing restructuring may enter into SWT if the start date of the recognition is before 31 January 2025 and the application for recognition has been received by the FPS Employment before 1 July 2025. The NLC advocates changing 31 January 2025 to 30 April 2025.
The NLC has announced that it will repeal collective labour agreement no. 143 on the age of access to SWT for heavy jobs and extend medical SWT until 30 June 2029. The new collective agreement no. 173 recently provided for an extension until 31 December 2025.
Landing jobs: The NLC has also reached an agreement on time credit landing jobs. The adjustments in this context are mainly of a legal and technical nature.
The NLC also intends to extend the collective labour agreements for time credit landing jobs regarding long careers, heavy jobs, companies in difficulty/restructuring and disabled persons until 30 June 2029. The recent collective labour agreements nos. 174 and 175 had already extended these schemes until 31 December 2025.
Extension of temporary unemployment: The NLC announces that it will extend the collective labour agreement for temporary unemployment due to economic reasons for white-collar workers until 30 June 2029. The recent collective labour agreement no. 176 had previously extended this scheme until 31 December 2025.
