Suche 
In a judgment of 20 February 2018, the Brussels Labour Court decided that the consequences of cancer can constitute a disability for employment law purposes. This ruling has important implications for employers, as failing to adapt working conditions for employees with cancer can now be considered discrimination. Background The worker, employed as a full-time salesperson, had reported to her employer that she had been diagnosed…
This article sets out the steps organisations should take in dealing with a breach of data privacy from an employment law perspective, based on recent regulatory guidance in Belgium. What should you do if your company is affected by a cyber-attack and hackers purchase your employees’ personal data, or one of your employees loses a USB stick or laptop containing personal data? Guidance issued by…
From 1 October 2017, the obligations on foreign employers posting workers to Belgium have been extended to include the appointment of a liaison officer to act as a single contact point for the local employment inspectorate. A Belgian Royal Decree that entered into force on 1 October 2017 stipulates that the appointment of this liaison officer must be made through the LIMOSA declaration that all foreign…
Provisions on the tax and social security treatment of the benefit in kind (BIK) for the use of a smartphone, PC, tablet and/or internet are not always clear. Moreover, they are often treated differently for tax and social security purposes. To enhance legal certainty, a modification to the legal provisions is expected to come into force on 1 January 2018, particularly by determining a fixed…
On 29 September 2017, as proposed by the Minister of Finance, the Council of Ministers approved a preliminary draft bill allowing employees who wish to do so, to exchange their company car for a mobility allowance; provided, however, that the employer has set up such a system within the company. The mobility allowance consists in a cash amount that the employee would receive in lieu…
The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (‘ECHR’) – composed of 17 judges – has released its judgment in Bărbulescu – v – Romania (5 September 2017). The case concerned the balance between two rights: the employee’s right to respect for private life and correspondence under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the employer’s right to take measures…
The Directive amends the so-called Shareholders’ Rights Directive (EU Directive 2007/36 as regards the encouragement of long-term shareholder engagement). The stated objective is to overcome certain corporate governance shortcomings in European listed companies and to promote the long-term engagement of shareholders. The Directive deals with a wide range of corporate law and governance issues, such as identifying shareholders, providing information about shareholders, facilitating voting, making…
Belgium has introduced some new legislation on agile and flexi-working as well as wage moderation. Below you will find the most important aspects. Agile and Flexi-working The long-awaited Act on agile and flexible work was published on 15 March 2017 and it provides a legal framework that meets employers’ requests for more flexibility in the organisation of work and working time while it is also…
In line with earlier announcements in the framework of the Workable and Agile Work project of Secretary of Employment Kris Peeters, the legislator – in view of more flexibility for certain part-time employees – has increased the so-called “credit of additional hours”. An RD of 23 March 2017 (Belgian State Gazette of 5 April 2017) provides the necessary amendments to the RD of 25 June 1990…
The Supreme Court ruled in a judgment of 6 March 2017 that the organiser of a pension promise must cover deficits of the vested reserves, as well as deficits regarding the minimum guaranteed return, no matter the causes of the deficits. Article 30 of the Act of 28 April 2003 on Occupational Pensions (“AOP”) states that an organiser must cover deficits of the vested reserves,…