Agreement on labour deal: what can you expect?

Four-day working week: 

• does not imply shorter working hours, but the same working hours on 4 days (instead of 5).
• maximum of 9.5 hours per day (to be provided in work regulations) or 10 hours per day (with company collective bargaining agreement).
• initiative lies with employee; employer can refuse, but must justify. 
• request must be made in writing and can be reviewed every 6 months by the employee.

Variable working week: 

• possibility to fill in working hours in a more flexible way, by working more one week and less the next. 
• mainly intended for divorced parents and employees in co-parenthood.
• initiative lies with employee, employer can refuse, but must justify.
• request must be made in writing and can be reviewed by the employee every 6 months.

Right to deconnection or to be offline:

• employees must not be online or read their messages outside working hours.
• agreement to be made with trade unions.
• only applies to companies with 20 employees or more. 

Faster information about part-time variable work schedules:

• employees must be informed of their work schedule 7 working days or more in advance (instead of 5 working days).

Training: 

• entitlement to 3 training days per year from 2022, 4 days from 2023, 5 days from 2024.
• companies with 20 employees or more: drawing up of an individual training plan.

Smoother changing of jobs : 

• possibility to transfer to a new employer after dismissal via a transition route during the notice period. This would be realized by a compensation arrangement between the former and the new employer;
• possibility for older employees to convert 1/3 of the notice period into outplacement or training.

Meal delivery workers: 

• (rebuttable) presumption of employment contract on the basis of 8 criteria (e.g. exclusivity with the platform), for which it is necessary that 3 criteria are met, in line with what Europe proposes in its draft directive on improving working conditions in the platform economy. That proposal starts from a (rebuttable) presumption of an employment contract when a platform checks the execution of the work on the basis of 5 criteria: if 2 out of the 5 criteria are met, there is a presumption of an employment contract.
• workplace accident insurance for all platform workers.

E-commerce: 

• night work (between 8pm and midnight) is possible with the agreement of one trade union and with agreements on premiums/additional wage.
• to be evaluated after two years.

Trial projects over 18 months in which employees can work voluntarily between 8 pm and midnight without permission from a trade union. 

• Monitoring of diversity per sector by FPS WASO. If there is a significant difference between a particular company and the sector, that company will have to draw up an action plan.