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The law of 7.10.2022 transposing the European directive on work-life balance into Belgian law reinforces the protection of the rights of employees who benefit from certain types of leave.
The law takes effect on 10.11.2022.
At the employee's request, the employer is obliged to inform him of the reasons for his dismissal in writing.
The employer who cannot reverse the presumption will have to pay a lump-sum indemnity equivalent to 3 months' pay.
A pregnant employee is protected against dismissal from the moment she informs her employer of her pregnancy or childbirth. The protection ends one month after the end of the leave.
In order to avoid the 6-month protection indemnity, the employer must prove that the dismissal of the employee, which took place at the end of the protection period against dismissal but which was prepared during this period, is not related to the pregnancy or childbirth. At the employee’s request, the employer is obliged to inform her of the reasons for her dismissal in writing.
Non-renewal of a temporary or fixed-term contract is presumed to be related to the pregnancy or childbirth.
The employer who cannot prove that the non-renewal is unrelated to the pregnancy or childbirth will have to pay the employee a lump sum indemnity equal to 3 months' pay.
To bring the terminology in line with the current societal and legal context, the law replaces the notion of paternity leave with the notion of “birth leave”.
The employee has the right to be absent from work for 15 days on the occasion of the birth of a child whose parentage is established with regard to him. These 15 days must be taken by the employee within 4 months from the date of childbirth. For births occurring on or after 1 January 2023, the entitlement is extended to 20 days.
An employee who has requested birth leave is protected against dismissal from the date of notification to the employer and at the latest on the first day of birth leave until 5 months from the date of childbirth.
Acts preparatory to dismissal are considered as dismissal during the protection period.
Non-renewal of a temporary or fixed-term contract is presumed to be related to the childbirth.
The employer who cannot prove that the non-renewal is unrelated to the birth of the child will have to pay the employee a lump sum indemnity equal to 3 months' pay.
An employee who has made use of his right to adoption leave is protected against dismissal from two months before the start of the leave until one month after the end of the leave.
The protection indemnity due by the employer if he cannot prove that the dismissal is not related to the adoption leave is now also equivalent to 6 months’ pay.
In the case of both time credit and thematic leave, when the employment contract is terminated during a period of reduced working time, provided that the reduction was not agreed for an indefinite period, the compensation in lieu of notice must be calculated in relation to the remuneration to which the employee would have been entitled under his employment contract if he had not reduced his working time.
This method of calculation already existed for parental leave but is now extended to all regimes of working time reduction by virtue of time credit or thematic leave, unless the working time reduction was concluded for an indefinite period.
The employee who requests thematic leave is protected against dismissal from the day of the agreement or the day of the request if it is a right. The protection ends 3 months after the end of the suspension of the performance of the employment contract or the working time reduction. If the suspension of the performance of the employment contract or the working time reduction has not started, the prohibition shall end one month after the requested start date.
The protection indemnity due by the employer if he cannot prove that the dismissal is not related to thematic leave is equivalent to 6 months’ pay.
The employee who has requested a time credit is also protected against dismissal on the basis of the CLA n°103, nothing changes in this respect.
Source: Law of 7.10.2022 transposing the European directive of 20 June 2019 on work-life balance, Belgian Official Gazette 2022 31.10.2022.
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