New in January

Sick leave

A series of significant changes to the rules on sick leave came into force on 1 Jan 2026:

1. Extension of the relapse period for guaranteed salary

It rises from 14 days to 8 weeks i.e. if an employee is sick, comes back to work and then falls sick for the same reason/illness within 8 weeks of the first sick leave then the employee will be on the mutuelle and not on the employer’s cost.

If the second incapacity is for a different reason then the 30 days start again. Also if the employee is sick, returns to work and then falls sick again with the same illness and there are still some of the 30 days left then these will be used before the mutuelle support kicks in.  

The new rules apply to new periods of incapacity from 1 January. They do not apply to employees who were already on sick leave prior to 1 Jan 2026.

2. No guaranteed salary paid by employer during part time medical leave

The requirement for the employer to pay the guaranteed salary for periods of sickness during the first twenty weeks of partial return to work (medical part time) has been removed. This applies to employees who return to work on a part-time basis with the authorisation of the mutuelle’s medical adviser.

From now on, the employer will not be required to pay any salary for the entire duration of the partial return to work in the event of incapacity due to illness (excluding occupational illness) or accident (excluding accidents at work or accidents on the way to or from work). The employee will rely immediately on the mutuelle.

This measure applies to incapacities for work occurring on or after 1 January 2026. An ongoing period of guaranteed salary will therefore need to be continued if it started before 1 Jan 2026.

3. Contract termination for medical incapacity

This can now be implemented after 6 months (was 9 months).

Source: https://emploi.belgique.be/fr

4. New requirement to keep in touch with employees on long term sick leave

From now on, a procedure for maintaining contact with employees who are unable to work must be included in the company's work regulations.

What provisions should you include in your work regulations?

You must include at least the following provisions:

1. the person in your organisation who will contact the employee who is unable to work;

2. the frequency of contact.

You CANNOT use this procedure to verify whether absence for health reasons is justified in your opinion.

What to do next

To incorporate these new provisions into your work regulations, you must follow the full legal procedure for amending work regulations.

This means that if you have a works council, it must approve the proposed changes.

If there is no works council, you must give each employee a copy of the proposed changes and display a register of comments in a clearly visible place in the company for 15 days, allowing employees to submit their comments.

In addition, you must give each employee a copy of the final changes and send a copy (by uploading to the relevant website) to the regional directorate of the Social Law Inspectorate within eight days.

Source: Group S

Minimum working week

Some of you may know that if you want to employ someone for less than one third of a full time contract you have to seek approval from the local inspection authorities. This has now been reduced to 1/10 of a full time. So if your regular working week is 38 hours, you can employ someone for as little as 3.8 hours per week or 3 hours 48 minutes per week. You can notify your local inspectorate by email to meet the reporting requirements ( no reply on their part is necessary).  

Lunch voucher increases

From 1 January 2026 the maximum lunch voucher face value is €10. The employee contribution can remain the same at €1.09 making it an even more attractive proposition for employees and employers alike.

Note however that there is NO obligation to implement an increase in the face value of the lunch vouchers. You can also leave them where they are.