Belgium Working Time: A Guide for Employers

Belgian working time law has been amended often, but the spine remains the 1971 Loi sur le travail (Working Time Act). The 2017 Loi Peeters (workable, manageable work) added flexibility in exchange for occasional longer days; the 2022 Labour Deal (Loi du 3 octobre 2022) added the right to compress the workweek into four days. The result is one of Europe's most flexibility-friendly working time regimes, sitting atop a tight 38-hour standard.

This post walks through what Belgian employers track, what flexibilities exist, and what the FPS Employment inspectorate checks during an audit.

#Quick Reference

#The Core Rules

#Standard Weekly Working Time: 38 Hours

The 38-hour week has been the Belgian standard since 2003. CBAs can reduce it (38 is the maximum the law allows for full-time work), and some sector agreements set shorter weeks.

Hours above the contractual normal time count as overtime (heures supplémentaires / overuren). Accumulated overtime is capped by the internal limit (limite interne / interne grens): at no point in the reference period may hours worked exceed the permitted average by more than 143 hours (Art. 26bis), and a CBA made binding by royal decree can raise this. Separately, a worker can choose not to take compensatory rest for up to 91 overtime hours per calendar year.

#Daily Maximum

8 hours per day is the normal limit. Flexibility provisions push this higher:

• 9 hours per day under the petite flexibilité (small flexibility, Art. 20bis), introduced by the law of 22 January 1985 and set in the work rules or a CBA
• 11 hours per day under exceptional circumstances (defined sectors, emergencies)

#Weekly Maximum

40 hours per single week under standard rules (38 on average over the year). Even when several derogations are combined, working time may not exceed 11 hours a day or 50 hours a week (Art. 27), apart from a few cases such as work to deal with an accident. Art. 27 also states that the derogations do not override the EU Working Time Directive, which caps average weekly working time at 48 hours.

#The Reference Period

Since the Loi Peeters (2017), flexible schedules under Art. 20bis are averaged over a reference period of one calendar year (or another 12-month period). This allows an employer to operate 40 or 42 hours in some weeks if compensated by shorter weeks elsewhere in the 12-month window. For other overtime, the default reference period is a quarter, which a royal decree, a CBA or the work rules can extend to one year (Art. 26bis).

#Loi Peeters: Workable, Manageable Work (2017)

The Loi sur le travail faisable et maniable introduced several flexibility tools:

• Annualization of working time: 1-year reference period for averaging the 38-hour week
• Voluntary overtime (heures supplémentaires volontaires): originally up to 100 hours per year per worker. Since 1 April 2026 (law of 18 May 2026), the cap is 360 hours per calendar year (450 in hospitality), 240 of them (360 in hospitality) without overtime premium, and these hours do not count toward the internal limit
• Plus-minus account: workers can bank hours over 38 in good weeks and take them off later, with safeguards

The trade-off was higher flexibility for employers in exchange for stronger work-life balance protections elsewhere (training rights, telework framework, occasional homework).

#The Four-Day Week (Labour Deal 2022)

Workers can request a compressed four-day working week, with the same total hours spread across four days instead of five. The daily cap raises from 8 to 9.5 hours for these workers.

Employer can refuse only with written reasons. Take-up has stayed low: in mid-2024, about 0.75 percent of full-time private-sector employees on permanent contracts worked a four-day week, according to Acerta.

#Rest Periods

#Daily Rest (Article 38ter)

11 consecutive hours between two workdays. Hard floor.

#Weekly Rest (Articles 11 and 38ter)

35 consecutive hours per 7-day period: the 11-hour daily rest is added to the Sunday rest (Art. 11) or to the compensatory rest day (Art. 38ter §3). Sunday is the default rest day, with sectoral exceptions for retail, hospitality, healthcare, and transport.

#Breaks (Article 38quater)

Workers may not work more than 6 hours without interruption, and a break is due once working time exceeds 6 hours. A CBA (or, for employers outside the CBA system, a royal decree) sets its length and terms. Where none applies, the Labour Act requires:

• at least 15 minutes of break, granted at the latest when work reaches 6 hours

#Annual Leave: The Pécule de Vacances

Belgium's annual leave system is unusual:

• 20 days of paid leave for a full-time worker (4 weeks)
• A bonus payment (pécule de vacances) equivalent to 92 percent of monthly salary, paid in May or June
• Leave is fully accrued from the previous calendar year, not the current one (so a new hire in 2026 will typically take their first paid leave in 2027)

Since 2012, supplementary holidays have let workers who start or resume work take leave after 3 months of work, paid as an advance on the next year's holiday pay, to mitigate this delay.

#Record-Keeping

Belgium has a strong records tradition. Required documents include:

• Dimona declaration: each worker registered with the social security administration before starting work
• Daily working time records: for part-time workers, deviations from the published schedule must be recorded under the Loi-programme of 22 December 1989; a general working-time registration duty for all employers is planned from 1 January 2027 but is not yet law
• Overtime register: documenting voluntary overtime under Loi Peeters
• Annual leave records: with the pécule calculation

Records are kept for 5 years (in some cases 7 for tax purposes).

#After CCOO

Belgium had already required time tracking for part-timers and workers near maximum hours. Following the 2019 CCOO ruling, the federal government agreed in late 2025, as part of its budget agreement, to introduce a general working-time registration obligation. As of October 2026 it is still a preliminary draft bill: it would add a new Article 38quinquies to the Labour Act, and the National Labour Council gave a split advice on it on 30 September 2026. It still has to pass the Council of Ministers and Parliament and be published in the Moniteur belge. There is no across-the-board 2023 extension by Royal Decree.

The draft sets a single date for all employers:

• 1 January 2027: planned start of working-time registration, with employers that have no system yet given until the end of March 2027 to comply

Under the draft, records would be kept for 5 years. No particular system is prescribed, and recording only deviations from a fixed or variable schedule would be enough if actual hours can still be established objectively and reliably. Managers and staff in positions of trust, commercial representatives, travelling staff and teleworkers would be excluded.

#Inspection and Penalties

The SPF Emploi, Travail et Concertation sociale (FPS Employment) enforces, through its labor inspectorate (Contrôle des lois sociales / Toezicht op de Sociale Wetten).

Penalties under the Social Penal Code:

Common findings:

• Voluntary overtime above the annual cap (360 hours per worker since 1 April 2026)
• Records delayed or missing
• Dimona declarations after the worker started
• Sunday work without proper basis

#Practical Compliance Checklist

1. Register every worker through Dimona before work starts. Late Dimona is a separate, serious offense.
2. Track daily working time for everyone in scope. Prepare for the general registration obligation planned from 1 January 2027 (still a draft bill as of October 2026).
3. Document the voluntary overtime opt-in. Written agreement for one year (tacitly renewed), capped at 360 hours per calendar year (450 in hospitality), with no overtime premium on 240 of them (360 in hospitality).
4. Honor the 11-hour daily rest and 35-hour weekly rest. Schedule them deliberately.
5. Calculate the pécule de vacances correctly. Disputes are common and expensive.
6. Retain records for 5 years. 7 for safety, given tax retention.

#Common Questions

Are exempt categories defined? Belgium has narrow exemptions. The Labour Act's working-time rules do not apply to domestic workers, sales representatives (Art. 3) or home workers (Art. 3bis), and among managers only staff in a management position or a position of trust, as listed in the Royal Decree of 10 February 1965, are exempt (Art. 3).

Can I use the four-day week without employee request? The four-day week is a worker-initiated right, but employers can propose it. Worker consent is required either way.

What about temporary agency workers? They are covered the same as employees of the user employer for working time purposes. The agency handles the Dimona; the user enforces working time.

Does the recordkeeping apply to telework? Not under the current draft. The draft registration bill leaves structural and occasional telework outside the new duty, a point the unions contest in the National Labour Council advice. Employers can still choose to record remote hours, for example with employee time tracking for remote workers.

Are public holidays separate from the 4 weeks? Yes. Belgium has 10 federal public holidays, separate from the 4-week leave. Some sectors have additional regional or sectoral holidays.

#Summary

• 38-hour standard week on average, normal limits of 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week, absolute ceilings of 11 and 50 hours
• Voluntary overtime: up to 360 hours per year since 1 April 2026 (100 under the original Loi Peeters); annualized reference period for flexible schedules
• Four-day week (Labour Deal 2022) on worker request
• Records: general working-time registration planned from 1 January 2027, still a draft bill as of October 2026
• Pécule de vacances unique Belgian leave bonus
• FPS Employment enforces; fines per worker per breach

#Sources

• Loi du 16 mars 1971 sur le travail on ejustice.just.fgov.be
• Loi Peeters (loi du 5 mars 2017)
• Loi du 18 mai 2026 on voluntary overtime
• SPF Emploi guidance
• National Labour Council advice no. 2.499 (30 September 2026) on the draft bill on working-time registration

#Where to Go Next

• The EU Working Time Directive explained for the framework Belgium implements
• The ECJ CCOO ruling: why time tracking is mandatory for the trigger behind the planned 2027 registration obligation
• Netherlands' Arbeidstijdenwet for the close cousin to the north