Until now, the discretional nature of employers’ right to lay off remained one of the characteristics of Belgian labor law, an exception in the European legal landscape. Justifying layoffs was planned but only in specific cases, in order to protect special interests (just cause, employee representation, pregnant women…). Blue-collar workers could only be laid off on 3 grounds, unlike white-collars who were not protected against arbitrary dismissals. In the context of the gradual removal of differences between the statuses of these two categories of workers, the social partners signed collective agreement No. 109, which implements the obligation to justify all layoffs from April 1, 2014 on. This article details the implications of this reform.
Overview of the reform’s outline. CCT No. 109, signed on February 12 (see article No. 8166) has 3 different goals. The first is to remove the differences in layoff systems between blue-collar and white-collar workers, which could have been declared contrary to the constitution as was the case for other aspects (see article No. 110470). The second is to allow workers to know why they were laid off. Justifying layoffs only existed in special cases (just cause, employee representation, preg
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