The social partners reached an agreement yesterday to equalize the days of corona unemployment for the accrual of holiday rights for 2021. The next step is to see this intention translated into a regulatory framework. With this newsletter, we wish to highlight the rules of accrual, taking and carrying over holidays in general and more specifically in these special times based on the actual state of the law.

Accrual of annual leave. What are the basic rules?

According to the Belgian legislation on holidays, an employee accrues holiday rights based on her/his professional performance in the preceding calendar year. The calendar year during which the employee takes her/his holidays is referred to as the holiday year. The preceding calendar year, during which the entitlement is accrued, is referred to as the holiday reference year.

The same rules determine that an employee needs to take her/his legal holidays before the end of the holiday year. In other words, the employee is obliged to take all her/his legal holiday accrued in 2019, by December 31, 2020.

… but what about holiday rights for next year taking into account the COVID-19 crisis?

Many employees already would like to know the impact of temporary unemployment days on the holiday rights they accrue in holiday reference year 2020 for holiday year 2021.

The days of temporary unemployment due to force majeure corona (corona unemployment) used by many employers, have to be equalized to worked days for the accrual of holidays. This assimilation is limited to the period of 01.02.2020 – 30.06.2020. In other words: employees do not lose holiday rights due to corona unemployment days in that period.

Unfortunately, it is not clear yet if this assimilation will be extended as from 01.07.2020. We will of course keep you informed. Self-evidently, employers can always voluntarily assimilate all corona unemployment days to worked days.

Days of economic unemployment are entirely assimilated to worked days.

As a consequence of the COVID-19 crisis, my employee asks if (s)he can carry over holidays to the next year. Is that allowed?

The law states that carrying over leave is not allowed and that an employee who does not take all of her/his holidays consequently loses the non-taken days. A white collar worker can therefore not ask her/his employer to pay these days. These rules did not change as a consequence of the COVID-19 crisis: the legislator did not (yet) introduce an amendment to allow employees to carry over statutory holidays to 2021. We will of course keep you informed if this would change in the course of this year.

For blue collar workers the rules are different: they receive their holiday pay directly from the National Holiday Fund and this holiday pay remains acquired, whether or not they take all their holidays.

Please note that in practice, a lot of Belgian companies allow for a limited number of legal holidays to be carried over and to be taken within a limited timeframe.

What are the possible consequences for me as an employer if not all the holidays are taken?

As an employer, you have the obligation to ensure that your employees take their holidays. Not meeting that legal obligation can be sanctioned with an administrative and even a criminal fine.

In practice, you need to make sure to inform your employees sufficiently about the fact that they need to take their outstanding holidays. If your employee, notwithstanding your efforts to warn her/him, decides not to take the days (s)he is entitled to, then you will not risk any of the aforementioned sanctions.

What if it is not possible for my employee to take her/his holidays?

If the employment agreement of your employee was suspended, e.g. because of a long absence due to illness or if your employee could not take her/his holidays because of a force majeure, you need to pay the employee the balance of the outstanding legal holidays. The fact that the employee was on long-term temporary unemployment, is not considered as force majeure.

My company grants the employees extra-legal holidays on top of their legal holidays. What does the law state with regard to those days?

The Belgian legislation does not provide for a legal framework when it comes to extra-legal holidays. The practical consequence is that you as an employer can determine the playing field and can consequently state that extra-legal holidays can be carried over. We recommend to set forth the rules in the working regulations of the company.

How can I keep an overview of the outstanding holidays of my employees?

If your HR department does not have an own calendar to keep track of the holiday entitlement of the employees, Pro-Pay can assist with a practical tool. Your Easy Absence Planner (YEAP) can assist you in the management of all types of absences, including all sorts of leave. It is of the greatest importance to report all the absences of your employees in view of your legal obligations as an employer and the entitlement of the employee to certain social benefits.

With YEAP, the management and tracking of the holiday counters of your employees is really straightforward.

Action!

• Provide your employees with an overview of their outstanding legal holidays.
• Remind them of the rules regarding taking and carrying over holidays.
• If this has not yet been dealt with: Determine the rules regarding taking and carrying over extra-legal holidays, preferably in the working regulations.

In the scope of the current COVID-19 crisis, the Belgian government approved some new support measures in July.

In view of the frequency of these governmental decisions, we wish to emphasize that this newsletter reflects the state of affairs on August 6, 2020.
We will of course inform you when further measures are taken.

Simplification of the recognition as company in difficulty or in restructuring

Companies can more easily obtain a recognition as a company in difficulty or in restructuring. With this recognition, companies can obtain additional support measures like reduction of working time, corona time credit and corona landing position (see below).

The motivated application for this request must be submitted to the Federal Public Service Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue.

! Only companies who file their annual accounts with the National Bank of Belgium can apply for the recognition as a company in difficulty.

If you want to be recognized as a company in difficulty in order to apply for one of the measures below, you can contact our legal department via legal@pro-pay.be.

Reduction of working time

As of July 1, 2020, companies that are recognized as a company in difficulty or in restructuring, have the possibility to temporarily reduce the working time of their employees.

The working hours must be reduced with one fourth or one fifth through the procedure of a modification of the working regulations / conclusion of a collective labour agreement in the company. The employer can also introduce a four-day working week.

Employers that are using this measure can benefit from a flat-rate reduction of social security contributions. The precise amount depends on the percentage of the adjustment of the working time.

Employees are entitled to a partial salary compensation to be borne by the employer during this temporary working time reduction.

Full-time employees whose working time is reduced, remain full-time employees in view of employment law and social security rights.

Corona time credit and corona landing position

Employees who are employed by a company that is recognized as a company in difficulty or in restructuring, can:

• Take corona time credit. This is a new form of time credit which exists in addition to the regular time credit. Periods of this corona time credit will therefore not be deducted from the maximum duration of the regular time credit. The concerned employees can reduce their working time by half or by 20%.
• Take a corona landing position provided that they are at least 55 years old and have a professional career of at least 25 years. This way, older employees can reduce their working time by half or by 20%.

Employees will receive the normal allowances for time credit or landing position provided they meet all the conditions. Therefore, there is no increased benefit such as for the corona parental leave.

In our newsletter of June 19, 2020, we informed you that the current system of temporary unemployment due to force majeure corona is applicable until August 31, 2020.

Under certain conditions, temporary unemployment due to force majeure corona can be continued as from September 1, 2020. Companies that are no longer eligible can use an adapted form of economic unemployment, i.e. “transitional” economic unemployment.

We will discuss both systems in this newsletter, as well as the case of temporary unemployment due to force majeure in specific cases.

This newsletter reflects the state of affairs on August 6, 2020.

Continuation simplified system of temporary unemployment corona under certain conditions: “corona unemployment 2.0”

The simplified temporary unemployment due to force majeure corona (hereinafter: corona unemployment) may continue to be applied by companies that were severely impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, or by companies in a severely impacted sector. As the Secretary of Work has not yet defined these severely impacted sectors, the Unemployment Office recommends all companies concerned to use the criterion ‘severely impacted company’.

Companies with at least 20% of temporary unemployment in the second quarter of 2020 are considered to be severely impacted. If you’re in doubt whether or not you meet this condition, please contact your Payroll Business Partner.

The employer has to introduce the application for this corona unemployment 2.0 upfront, via a new form C106A-CORONA-HGO (Dutch) / C106A-CORONA-EPT (French) with the Temporary Unemployment department of the Unemployment Office competent for the company. The Unemployment Office does not provide a deadline for this, but recommends to do this as quickly as possible. As soon as the employer receives a positive reply, he can continue to apply corona unemployment.

Aside from this new form, the employer has to inform the employee(s) in advance about the period and the number of days of corona unemployment as described in our newsletter of July 16, 2020.

The other modalities of corona unemployment remain the same as described in our previous newsletter of April 8, 2020. Please inform Pro-Pay in due time if you wish to start this procedure.

New type of temporary unemployment: “transitional” economic unemployment

A number of employers will not be able to use the extended corona unemployment, but have been economically impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. As from September 1, 2020, they can use the system of economic unemployment, adapted to the current crisis.

If this system is used, the employer cannot delegate the work that is usually performed by the unemployed employees to third parties (same as for corona unemployment).

The conditions for economic unemployment are different for blue and white-collar employees.

Blue-collar workers

For blue-collar workers, the previous (fairly simple) procedure for economic unemployment continues to apply. This system is different than that of corona unemployment.

There are 3 ways to introduce economic unemployment for blue-collar workers:

• Complete suspension: not a single working day is performed. The maximum duration of this system is temporarily increased from 4 weeks to 8 weeks.
• Partial employment big suspension: less than 3 working days are provided, or less than one working week every 2 weeks. The maximum duration of this system is temporarily increased from 3 months to 18 weeks.
• Partial employment small suspension: at least 3 working days per week are provided, or at least 1 working week every 2 weeks. This can be used for maximum 12 months.

When the maximum duration of the suspension is obtained, the employer has to introduce a full working week before applying the suspensions again. You are therefore not limited to the above maximum duration, as long as the employees work for an entire working week in between two suspension systems.

In contrast to the corona unemployment, the blue-collar worker must first use all his compensatory rest days before he can be put in temporary unemployment. It concerns among others compensatory rest for overtime and work on Sundays and public holidays. It does not concern compensatory rest in the framework of working time reduction (working time reduction days).

The employer should pay the economically unemployed blue-collar worker a daily supplement on top of the unemployment allowances. The minimum amount depends on the competent joint industrial committee.

Aside from that, employers have to comply – among others – with the following formalities:

• Inform the blue-collar workers at least 7 calendar days before the start of the unemployment by posting this in the company or via individual notification;
• Deliver a C3.2A-form to every blue-collar worker who is economically unemployed. The blue-collar worker requires this form to apply for temporary unemployment allowances with his payment institution;
• Complete a validation book (on paper or electronically);
• Introduce an electronic declaration ASR-scenario 2 and an ASR-scenario 5.

Pro-Pay can assist you with these formalities.

! Attention: it is possible that specific and/or additional modalities related to economic unemployment are provided on a sector level via a sector CLA.

White-collar workers

The economic unemployment for white-collar workers is less flexible than corona unemployment.

Two types of economic unemployment are possible for white-collar workers:

• Complete unemployment: not a single working day is performed. The maximum duration is temporarily increased from 16 weeks to 24 weeks.
• Partial unemployment: at least 2 working days per week are performed. Contrary to corona unemployment it is therefore not possible that a white-collar employee is temporarily unemployed only 1 day per working week. The maximum duration is temporarily increased from 26 to 34 weeks.

The employer also has to draft a company plan with the following mandatory mentions:

• Proof of a substantial decrease in turnover or production of minimum 10% in comparison to the same quarter in 2019;
• The employer offers the white-collar worker two training days per month.
  The employee is not obligated to take this training. The training can be planned on an unemployment day (covered by the unemployment allowance) or on a working day (paid by the employer).
• The amount of the daily supplement the employer is obligated to pay to the employees. The minimum amount is determined on a sector level.

This plan has to be deposited with the registry of the General Direction of Collective Labour Relations.

! Unlike with corona unemployment, the white-collar worker must first use all his compensatory rest days before he can be put in temporary unemployment. It concerns among others compensatory rest for overtime and work on Sundays and public holidays. It does not concern compensatory rest in the framework of working time reduction (working time reduction days).

The employer also has to comply among others with the following formalities:

• Send the form C106A-CORONA-OVERGANGSSTELSEL (Dutch) / C106A-CORONA-REGIME TRANSITOIRE (French) to the department of temporary unemployment of the competent Unemployment Office. The Unemployment Office will check whether the employer meets the conditions. The employees can be informed at the earliest 14 days after the C106A-form has been sent;
• Inform the white-collar workers at least 7 calendar days before the first unemployment day about the planned economic unemployment by way of posting in the company or via an individual notification;
• Deliver a C3.2A-form to every white-collar worker that is economically unemployed. The white-collar worker requires this form to apply for temporary unemployment allowances with his payment institution;
• Complete a validation book (on paper or electronically);
• Introduce an electronic declaration ASR-scenario 2 and an ASR-scenario 5.

Pro-Pay can assist you with these formalities.

! Attention: it is possible that specific and/or additional modalities related to economic unemployment are provided on a sector level in a sector CLA.

Other specific cases of temporary unemployment due to force majeure

If the employer is not a company that was severely impacted, but wishes to apply for temporary unemployment due to force majeure for a different reason, the employer will have to comply with more formalities than before:

• Notify the reason for force majeure via the electronic application on www.socialsecurity.be;
• Deliver a C3.2A-form to the employee concerned;
• Introduce an electronic declaration ASR-scenario 2 and an ASR-scenario 5.

Pro-Pay can assist you with these formalities.

An employee could for example be temporarily unemployed due to force majeure because he has a quarantine certificate from a doctor and is unable to work from home.

! According to the most recent instructions of the Unemployment Office, employees who travel to an area with code red upon departure and who are subsequently obligated to go into quarantine upon their return and who cannot work from home, are not entitled to temporary unemployment allowances due to force majeure. As such a trip is prohibited by the government, the Unemployment Office does not accept this as force majeure. The employee will not receive any salary, nor an unemployment allowance in that case.

Point of attention: Verify which system may apply to your company if you wish to continue to use the system of temporary unemployment for your employees as from September 1, 2020, and start your preparations on time.

Employees who are temporarily sent to work in another EU member state by their employer, are subject to the stipulations of the European Posting of Workers Directive. This directive determines that a set of “hard core” minimum terms of employment conditions of the host country is applicable on top of the law of the sending country. Upon transposing the directive in local legislation (the act of 5 March 2002), Belgium already went further than what the directive imposed.

Mid 2018 this directive was amended, making more local legislation applicable than the hard core of the host country. Additional obligations regarding the posting of temporary agency workers were introduced as well. Member states were supposed to transpose this directive into local legislation by 30 July 2020. The concerned Belgian legislation has recently been amended.

These modifications take effect on 30 July 2020.

1. Amendment act concerning working and remuneration conditions in the event of posting of employees to Belgium

The key changes of the amended act are the following:

• If the secondment lasts less than 12 months, the employer must comply with all working and remuneration conditions that are criminally sanctioned and result from legal provisions and collective bargaining agreements made compulsory by Royal Decree with the exception of supplementary occupational pension schemes;
  
• After the period of 12 months (! renewable up to 18 months with a motivated notification to the Federal Public Service for Employment), posted workers are furthermore entitled to all statutory working and remuneration conditions that are not criminally sanctioned (such as for example guaranteed salary) excluding:
• The rules regarding the conclusion and termination of the employment contract;
• Supplementary occupational pension schemes.

• Taking into account that many labour law provisions were already criminally sanctioned in Belgium, this does not change much in practice.
  
  ! If the employer replaces a posted worker with another posted worker performing the same task at the same place, the duration of the posting will be calculated by adding up the duration of the posting periods of the individual posted workers concerned in order to determine the period of 12 months.
• Allowances for travel, meal or accommodation costs for employees who are abroad for professional purposes and that result from collective bargaining agreements made compulsory by Royal Decree, should only be granted to workers who are posted to Belgium for travel to and from their regular place of work in Belgium or when these workers are temporarily sent by the employer from that regular place of work to another regular place of work.
• Allowances directly related to the posting are considered as a part of the remuneration to the extent that these are not paid as a reimbursement of actual expenses (such as travel, meal or accommodation costs).
  
  If it cannot be determined which elements of the allowance cover actual expenses and which elements are actual salary, the entire amount of the allowance will be considered as a reimbursement of expenses. In that case, the allowance will not be taken into account in order to determine whether the required salary has been paid.

The above changes are temporarily not yet applicable to the road transport sector.

2. New rules specific to the use of temporary agency workers

The Posting of Workers Directive also changed the Act of 24 July 1987 concerning temporary work, temporary agency work and lease of personnel. If you use foreign temporary agency workers, you have the following obligations as from 30 July:

• If a temporary agency worker is posted to Belgium from another country, the Belgian user company must inform the temporary employment agency in writing (in paper or electronically) about the applicable employment and working conditions in the company (working time, overtime, breaks, resting times, night work, holidays, public holidays, salary, protection of certain categories of employees, equal treatment and discrimination).
• The Belgian user company of the temporary agency workers must give the (Belgian or foreign) temporary employment office prior written notice if the temporary agency worker will work in another EEA state or Switzerland. This change is temporarily not yet applicable to the road transport sector.

3. Criminal sanctions

Non-compliance with the working and remuneration conditions was of course already sanctioned in the Social Criminal Code.

Non-compliance with the new information obligation concerning temporary agency workers is sanctioned with a sanction of level 2 (criminal fine of 400 to 4.000 EUR or an administrative fine of 200 to 2.000 EUR per employee with a maximum of 100 employees) as from 30 July 2020.

Also new is that, in the event of an infringement, a foreign service provider will be able to invoke extenuating circumstances if the relevant working and remuneration conditions are not mentioned on the FPS Employment’s website.

In view of the Covid-19 crisis and up to 4 May, non-essential companies were obliged by the government to let their employees work from home if their function allowed this. Teleworking like this was possible without the employer having to agree upon a formal telework agreement with the employee.

Since 4 May, employees are allowed to work again at the company’s premises, even though telework is still the standard. If you consider letting your employees continue to telework on a structural basis, there are a number of points of attention to take into account. In addition, in a recent circular letter, the tax authorities announced the details of the conditions to grant a lump sum indemnity to cover the costs related to the telework. In this newsletter, we briefly explain the formalities for telework as well as the new rules regarding the lump sum indemnity.

Formalities structural telework

As explained in the introduction, telework is no longer imposed by the government, but it is still the standard. When mandatory telework was the rule, there was a certain tolerance of the government concerning the legal provisions with regard to telework. However, as employers continue to apply structural telework, one can wonder whether the legislative framework regarding telework should not be taken into account in the meantime.

The Law defines a teleworker as an employee who, in the framework of an employment contract, regularly works outside the company premises using information technology, whereas this work could also be carried out at the company offices. Certain categories of employees are explicitly excluded from telework such as e.g. sales representatives and employees working at the employer’s satellite office. It is important to note that telework is performed voluntarily both by the employee and the employer.

For teleworkers, a written agreement should be drafted, as a rule when the employee starts the telework. In this agreement, specific mandatory provisions are included such as the frequency of the telework, the place where the telework will be performed and how the costs will be reimbursed.

Furthermore, the employer should provide the teleworker with the required equipment and needs to maintain that equipment unless it is agreed that the employee will use his own tools.

Reimbursement of costs

The employer is obliged to reimburse the employee for the costs of connections and communications.

Apart from these costs, the employer can also decide to reimburse the employee for other costs related to the telework. Examples are the costs for electricity and heating, small office supplies, printing material etc.

There are several possibilities to organize this reimbursement of which granting a lump sum office indemnity is one. For more details about this indemnity, we refer to our newsletter of 15 April 2020: Increase indemnity for office costs.

The tax authorities, contrary to the social security authorities, did not apply a lump sum indemnity for office costs. This changed after the circular letter of 14 July 2020. In case of regular and structural telework, the employer can grant a lump sum indemnity of €129,48 EUR per month without having to apply for a ruling. Please note: the tax authorities stipulate as a condition for this indemnity that all employees, without distinction in function, should receive the same indemnity.

On top of the maximum amount of € 129,48 per month, the employer can reimburse the following:

• € 20 per month if the employee uses his/her own computer for professional purposes;
• € 20 per month if the employee uses his/her own internet connection for professional purposes.

The lump sum amounts can of course only be granted if the office and internet costs are not yet reimbursed to the employee in another way.

Points of attention

We recommend you to verify if there is structural telework in your company and if you are complying with the required formalities and have made the necessary arrangements regarding the reimbursement of costs related to the telework.

In the present newsletter, we will discuss a new and one-off type of remuneration for employees that can be granted free from social security contributions and taxes, i.e. the consumption voucher. The Belgian government introduced this voucher in order to support some sectors of industry that were hit hard by the crisis.

Conditions

As you undoubtedly know, the ongoing COVID-19 crisis has a severe impact on the hospitality-, culture- and sport sector as well as small businesses that had to close longer than one month. In order to support these sectors, the Belgian government introduces a new voucher that can be granted only once, until 31 December 2020, for use in the aforementioned sectors.

The voucher can be granted free of social security contributions and taxes provided that the following conditions are met:

• The voucher cannot be given in order to replace or convert salary, premiums or other benefits, whether or not subject to social security contributions;
• The granting of the voucher must be included in a collective labour agreement on sector or company level or for the companies without a trade union delegation, in an individual agreement with the employees;
• The maximum value of a voucher is € 10 and the employer can grant a maximum of € 300 in these vouchers.
• The voucher can never be (completely or partially) exchanged for money;
• The voucher is issued in the name of the employee.
• The voucher is valid until 7 June 2021.

The consumption voucher can be issued through one of the accredited providers that already issue other types of vouchers (such as meal vouchers) but can also be issued by the employer. At this moment, it is not yet possible to grant the voucher electronically, but further legislation about this could be in the making.

Points of attention

If you wish to grant the consumption voucher to your employees, take into account the conditions above so that you can grant the voucher free of social security contributions and taxes. Pro-Pay can provide you with a template agreement that includes the modalities of the granting of the consumption voucher.

As communicated in our newsletter of June 19, the special regime of temporary unemployment corona force majeure (hereinafter referred to as ‘corona unemployment’) will continue to exist until August 31, 2020. There is no news yet concerning a possible general extension.

However, a decision from the government has recently introduced new formalities concerning the information to be provided to employees about corona unemployment. These formalities are applicable as from July 13, 2020.

New formalities

As from July 13, 2020, the employer has to inform the employee individually, at the latest on the day before the start of the partial or complete corona unemployment (and in any event before the employee goes to work) about:

• The period of corona unemployment;
• The number of days during which the employee will be temporarily unemployed and in the event of partial corona unemployment, the number of days the employee is expected to work.

Provided that every employee is clearly informed about the working regime applicable to him, this notification can also be done collectively, if the corona unemployment concerns multiple people.

The employer must also inform the employees about the formalities they have to complete in order to obtain an unemployment allowance.

If the employer has a works council, or in absence thereof, a trade union delegation, he must inform them about the decision concerning corona unemployment.

For employees who were already in the system of corona unemployment before July 13, no new notification has to be done. However, every time an employer increases the foreseen number of unemployment days, or when he goes from a regime of partial unemployment to a complete suspension of the employment contract, he must fulfil the above formalities.

If the employer wants the employee to work despite a notification of corona unemployment, the corona unemployment can be withdrawn or suspended.

The employer who does not comply with the notification formalities, is obliged to pay the employee his usual salary for the entire period preceding the fulfillment of these formalities.

Prohibition employment of students or third parties to replace a temporarily unemployed person

If an employer applies corona unemployment for his employees, he cannot let third parties or students perform the usual work of the employee. There is one exception: namely when corona unemployment is invoked for an employee because he is placed in a mandatory quarantine. In that case the employer can let third parties or students perform the work instead.

Please note that a specific medical certificate can be issued for an employee who is placed in quarantine.

If the employer does not comply with this prohibition, he is obliged to pay the employee his usual salary for the days on which he has let third parties / students do the work of the employee.

Transitional measure from corona unemployment to economic unemployment

As the system of temporary unemployment corona as a rule ends on August 31, 2020 for most companies, the government has provided a transitional regime: companies will no longer be able to use temporary unemployment force majeure as from September, but they will be able to use a simplified form of economic unemployment instead.

We will inform you soon about this ‘transitional’ economic unemployment.

As you know, due to the COVID-19 crisis, a lot of employers have been forced to apply temporary unemployment corona force majeure (hereafter referred to as ‘corona unemployment’) for their employees. This type of suspension of the employment agreement can however result in substantial effects on certain salary elements. To counter these effects, some sectors of industry have taken the initiative to conclude collective labour agreements on the matter. This is also the case in joint industrial committee 226. This newsletter aims to inform you about the measures taken by collective labour agreement in order to limit the negative impact on certain salary elements.

Year-end bonus

In joint industrial committee 226, the employees are entitled to a year-end bonus if they are in service when the bonus is paid and if they have been employed by the company for a full calendar year.

Certain absences that lead to a suspension of the employment agreement are assimilated to actual days worked. As far as corona unemployment is concerned, this was initially not the case, resulting in the need to reduce the amount of the year-end bonus by deducting the days of temporary unemployment. In order to prevent this from happening, a collective labour agreement provides that the days of corona unemployment between March 13 and June 30, 2020 are assimilated to actual days worked. Days of temporary unemployment that occurred in the aforementioned period will therefore have no effect on the amount of the year-end bonus.

The employer bears the cost for these assimilated days due to corona unemployment, but he can benefit from a contribution from the Social Fund of the sector. This contribution will be paid in the first semester of 2021, given the following conditions:

• The contribution of the Social Fund is limited to €10 per day of corona unemployment;
• The application for the Social Funds’ support needs to be filed by means of a form created by the Social Fund. In order to be valid, the form must be sent to the Fund by e-mail, by July 31, 2020 at the latest.

The application forms are available in French and Dutch and can be downloaded from the website of the Social Fund: Sociaal-fonds/aanvraag-forfaitaire-tussenkomst-jaarpremie

Do not hesitate to contact your Payroll Business Partner in case you need assistance in filling out the form.

Eco vouchers

December is also the month when employers in JIC 226 grant eco vouchers to their staff. In order to determine whether an employee is entitled to the full amount of eco vouchers (€250), one needs to take into account the employee’s days of work between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020 (reference period). Certain absences of the employee are assimilated to actual days of work, whereas other absences are not. Initially, the period of corona unemployment was not assimilated with days of work for the calculation of the amount of eco vouchers, resulting in a negative impact on the calculation.

Here as well, the joint industrial committee intervened by collective labour agreement. This agreement provides that the days of corona unemployment in the period from March 13, 2020 until June 30, 2020, are assimilated to actual days of work. The impact of the corona employment on the amount of the eco vouchers is therefore limited during that period.

Sector holidays

Finally, a collective labour agreement provides that sector holidays falling in a period of corona unemployment, are postponed. These days are postponed to a later date which is determined according to the custom in the company and, failing that, in mutual agreement between employer and employee.

The days currently concerned are April 2 (Good Friday) and July 11 in the Dutch-speaking part of the country, as the corona unemployment measure has been extended until August 31, 2020. If it turns out that the system of corona unemployment is extended beyond that date, September 27 in the French-speaking part of the country, as well as November 2 (All Souls’ Day) could be concerned. We draw your attention to the fact that there is currently no confirmation yet that the system of corona unemployment will again be extended. It is therefore not certain yet which additional sector holidays possibly have to be postponed to a later date.

When an employee uses his own car to travel for professional purposes, the employer can reimburse him for the costs incurred.

It is not necessary to be able to prove the exact amount of these costs as the authorities have fixed a maximum lump sum per kilometre that is accepted as a cost proper to the employer. It follows that no taxes and social security contributions are payable for the mileage allowance if the maximum is not exceeded.

This amount is adjusted every year.

The new amount applicable from July 1, 2020 until June 30, 2021 equals €0,3542 per kilometre.

As a reminder: the amount that was applicable from July 1, 2019 until June 30, 2020 was €0,3653 per kilometre. Note that there is a decrease compared to the previous amount.

An additional condition is that the number of kilometres per year should not be abnormally high (max. 24.000 kilometres per year). If the number of kilometres is higher, proof must be furnished.

This amount is a maximum amount. Employers can reimburse the driven kilometres at a lower rate without any discussion. A higher reimbursement is also possible, but in that case the burden of proof lies with the employer and the employee. They should be able to prove that the allowance granted is in line with the actual cost.

In our newsletter of May 13 we informed you that a proposition of law had been accepted, resulting in the notice period being suspended during a period of temporary unemployment force majeure corona (hereafter referred to as corona unemployment).

On Monday, June 22, the law on the suspension of the notice period has been published in the Belgian State Gazette and it has entered into force the same day.

Notice period and suspension

The new law determines the following:

• The notice period given by the employer is suspended during corona unemployment, which entails that the notice period will be extended with the days of temporary unemployment of the employee.
• Notice periods that already started before June 22 are not suspended for the period preceding June 22, but will be as from that date onwards. There is in other words no retroactive effect of the new legislation, unlike initially foreseen.
• There is one exception to the aforementioned rule: for notice periods that have already started before March 1, 2020, there is no change. These notice periods are not suspended during corona unemployment, not even if the Corona unemployment lasts after June 22.

Points of action

• For employees in temporary unemployment for whom you have given notice, verify when the notice period started and whether you need to take into account a period of suspension.
• For new dismissals of employees in temporary unemployment, on the initiative of the employer and where a notice period needs to be performed, you will need to take into account that the days of corona unemployment will suspend the notice period.