Government agreement on support measures for the hospitality sector and the most affected sectors

On 21 April 2021, the government decided to allocate a total of 835 million euros in additional support for sectors that can restart soon, such as the hospitality sector.

Other sectors will also receive additional support when they call back workers from temporary unemployment.

The main support measures decided by the government are the following:

• exemption for annual leave in the hospitality sector: employers in the hospitality sector will not have to pay the annual contribution (manual workers) in 2021;
• NSSO reduction in the 3rd quarter 2021 for employers who call back temporarily unemployed workers and/or hire additional workers: the reduction will apply to a maximum of 5 workers per establishment unit and to all sectors of activity (the reduction will be higher for companies that were severely affected or that had to close due to the health measures and that can reopen);
• neutralisation of the period of unemployment due to corona when calculating the reference period taken into account for unemployment benefits for a job-seeker;
• no financial penalty for the temporarily unemployed who have changed jobs and have had to opt for a lower paid job if they lose or have lost this job again;
• extension of the protection premium to workers in the non-medical contact professions sector (including hairdressers);
• stimulate student jobs in sectors that are reopening: the hours worked by a student during the 3rd quarter of 2021 in closed sectors that are allowed to reopen will exceptionally not be counted in his annual quota of 475 hours.

Important! These measures still have to be transposed into legal or regulatory texts. We will keep you updated as soon as we have more details.

Source: www.premier.be.