Trial period revisited - shorter notice periods at the start of employment
The coalition agreement had already announced that the trial period would be reintroduced.
The draft bill of 23 February 2026 amending Article 37/2 of the Act of 3 July 1978 on employment contracts, as regards notice periods where the employee has no more than six months’ seniority, now translates this into legislation. Parliament approved the draft bill last week.
No real revival of the "truak clause"
There is no reintroduction of the trial clause as we knew it before 2014. Under the former regime, the trial clause could be included in the employment contract if the employer and the employee so wished, and it had to comply with certain validity and formal requirements.
This time, the legislator has chosen to shorten notice periods at the beginning of the employment relationship. In that way, the start of the employment relationship is automatically regarded (the parties have no choice) as a kind of trial period.
Shorter notice perdiods
The table below gives an overview of the current and the new notice periods at the start of employment, to be observed by both employee and employer.
| Seniority (incl. seniority as temporary agency worker, max. 12 months) |
Current notice period for employer (weeks) | Current notice period for employee (weeks) | New notice period for employer (weeks) | New notice period for employee (weeks) |
| 0 to less than 3 months | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| From 3 months to less than 46 months | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| From 4 months to lees than 5 months | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| From 5 months to lees than 6 months | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| From 6 months to lees than 9 months | 6 | 3 | 6 | 3 |
| From 9 months to lees than 12 months | 7 | 3 | 7 | 3 |
The employee’s counter-notice with less than 6 months’ seniority is also reduced to 1 week (instead of 1 week for employees with less than 3 months’ seniority and 2 weeks for employees with between 3 months and less than 6 months’ seniority).
Entry into force
This Act enters into force on the first day of the second month following publication of the Act in the Belgian Official Gazette. However, the new notice periods apply exclusively to employment contracts whose performance commences on or after the date on which the Act enters into force. Existing employment contracts are therefore not affected.
Action point
Employment contracts do not, in principle, need to be amended, as there is no longer any question of a trial clause that, as was previously the case, had to meet certain validity requirements.
If an employment contract or work regulations were to set out the applicable notice periods, those documents will of course need to be amended, but in most cases, reference is simply made to the applicable statutory provisions, so that no amendment will likely be required.
Employers whose recruitment policy relies on temporary employment contracts (temporary agency work, (successive) fixed-term contracts) before offering an open-ended contract would do well to reconsider their policy.
The new shorter notice periods provide greater flexibility: where there is no match between the two parties, the shorter notice periods allow the employment relationship to be terminated more quickly. This may prove financially more advantageous than resorting to temporary agency work and/or (successive) fixed-term contracts.
