Compulsory test for foreign employees

From 21 December 2020 onwards, a new obligation will apply to employers in the construction, cleaning, agriculture, horticulture and meat processing sectors who temporarily call upon an employee or self-employed person residing or living abroad. If these employees or self-employed persons return from a red area, they may only be employed if they can submit a negative test result.

This obligation is in addition to the existing obligations on the registration of foreign employees, which were already discussed in a previous Infoflash.

For whom?

An employee or self-employed person living or residing abroad must provide proof of a negative test result. This test must be carried out at the earliest 48 hours prior to arrival on Belgian territory when travelling to Belgium from a red area.

Employers in the construction, cleaning, agriculture, horticulture and meat processing sectors must check whether their employees can submit a negative test result in this case.

In the absence of a negative result, the employer or user cannot call upon the employee or self-employed person to work in Belgium and the latter must place himself in quarantine until a negative result can be submitted.

Natural persons hiring a third party for work for personal purposes are excluded from this obligation.

The negative test result should be added to the register that these employers have to keep for foreign employees. More information about this register can be found in our previous Infoflash.

These measures enter into force on 21 December 2020.

More information

Source: Ministerial Decree of 19 December 2020 amending the Ministerial Decree of 28 October 2020 on urgent measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19, Belgian Official Gazette of 20 December 2020.