Law on Feasible and Manageable Work - Career savings

The career savings system is a new concept: it enables a private-sector worker to “save up” time for the purpose of using it to take leave later on in his or her career. It is a working time and/or end of career reduction measure…

A choice

Saving up time continues to be optional for workers: they cannot be forced to participate in such a system.

As for employers, they are in no way obliged to implement such a system in their companies either.

The provisions relating to career savings will come into force 6 months after the Law on Feasible and Manageable Work comes into force, i.e. no later than 1 August 2017, unless the Belgian National Labour Council concludes a collective labour agreement relating to career savings within this 6-month period.

A royal decree could, moreover, extend this waiting period by a maximum of 6 months.

What can be saved?

Workers can save “time” or, in more practical terms:

• the 100 (360) voluntary overtime hours per year for which time off in lieu is not required to be given (new Article 25 bis of the Law of 16 March 1971 on Labour);
• the standard leave days provided for in a sectoral or company collective labour agreement that the worker is free to take as he or she sees fit;
• the number of hours worked above the average weekly working hours and which, at the end of the reference period, can be carried over in case of application of the flexible working hours referred to in Article 20 ter of the Law of 16 March 1971 on Labour;
• overtime due to an extraordinary increase in work or an unforeseen need for which the worker chooses not to take time off in lieu in accordance with Article 26 bis (2) of the Law of 16 March 1971 on Labour.

Time off granted to reduce working time cannot be saved, nor can statutory annual leave or standard leave days with fixed dates.

A Royal Decree could also authorise the worker to save cash bonuses (e.g. an end-of-year bonus). It will also be necessary to determine how the cash bonuses will be successively converted into time and wages and what social security regime will apply in this regard.

Implementation

A career savings system may be implemented via a sectoral collective labour agreement.

In the absence of any such agreement, the career savings system may be introduced by a company collective labour agreement in accordance with the following procedure:

• The matter must be referred to the chairman of the competent joint committee, either by a representative organisation within the joint committee or by an individual company.
• A period of 6 months must have elapsed since this referral.

The (sectoral or company) collective labour agreement must regulate three aspects that make up the framework of the career savings system:

• The periods of time to be saved
• The periods during which the time elements can be saved
• The manner in which workers can take up the saved time

Aside from these three points, it must set out:

• An estimate of the time saved.
• Management of the savings and the guarantees offered to workers who save. Management may be done by the employer (with the necessary payment guarantees), by an external institution or by the welfare fund.
• The procedures for management of the career savings when the company is wound up.
• The ability to transfer the time saved between different employers belonging to the same sector when the framework for the career savings system is determined by a sectoral collective labour agreement.

Comment: Workers will be entitled to full payment for their “savings” where the employment contract is terminated and where the sectoral collective labour agreement has made it possible for the savings to be transferred.

Source: Articles 33 to 39 of the Law of 5 March 2017 on Feasible and Manageable Work, Belgian Official Gazette, 15 March 2017.

Author: Brigitte Dendooven

04/04/2017