Since January 1, 2014, the waiting day, which used to cover blue-collar workers only, has been canceled and a new system for calculating notice periods has come into force. In addition to these two major changes, the outplacement obligation in case of layoffs is extended to all employees, when it used to cover people over 45 only. The law of December 26, 2013, published on December 31, is the first part of the harmonization of blue-collar and white-collar statuses, which will be the subject of more work in 2014.
For over a century, Belgian labor law has made a difference between workers whose job is mostly manual (blue-collar) and those whose job is mainly intellectual (white-collar). Over time, they have developed differently, which is why there are so many difference today between blue-collar and white-collar statuses. The wake-up call following the Constitutional Court’s decree of July 2011 (see article No. 110470), imposing the harmonization of waiting days and notice periods, as the differences were deemed discriminatory, forced the public powers and social partners to take hold of the subject.
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