Unified status: new developments for companies in difficulty or undergoing restructuring

On 4 April, the Council of Ministers has passed a draft royal decree improving the harmonization of the status manual workers - intellectual workers. This draft includes two points:

• The period of notice notified with a view to the unemployment scheme with company supplement in a company in difficulty or undergoing restructuring;
• The partial reimbursement of the outplacement compensation.

If the employment contract is terminated by a company which is recognised as being in difficulty or undergoing restructuring, the period of notice can be reduced to 26 weeks. To this date, this possibility only exists for intellectual workers. Currently, it will be extended to the manual workers.

The outplacement compensation is the compensation payable by the employer to the worker who is registered with an employment cell.

The employer can obtain a reimbursement from the ONEm (National Employment Office) of the difference between the outplacement compensation and the compensatory indemnity in lieu of period of notice which would normally have been due.  At present, this arrangement only applies to manual workers who are registered with an employment cell.

For the dismissals notified as from 2014.1.1, the possibility of the reimbursement shall henceforth be extended to the dismissal of intellectual workers who are registered with an employment cell.

Source: Draft royal decree amending the royal decree of 7 December 1992 with regard to the granting of employment benefits in the case of bridging pension, the royal decree of 3 May 2007 regulating the unemployment scheme with company supplement and the royal decree of 9 March 2006 with regard to the active management of restructuring operations – Council of Ministers of 4 April 2014.

Author: Anne Beckers

20/08/2015