Belgium to offer four-day working week in Covid-era shake-up

Belgium is giving employees the right to ask for a four-day working week under a Covid-era shake-up of labour laws.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo with Scott Morrison in Glasgow last year. Picture: Adam Taylor

Belgium is giving employees the right to ask for a four-day working week under a Covid-era shake-up of labour laws.

“The Covid period has forced us to work more flexibly. The labour market needs to adapt to that,” Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said.

The four-day week is the most eye-catching change to industrial relations. It would allow employees to clock up 38 hours of work over four days instead of five, opening the possibility to permanent long weekends, or a day of parenting. All without any reduction in pay.

Employees would also be able to work a greater number of hours in one week to have a much lighter week the next.

However, any request needs to be approved by the boss – meaning that, in practice, such managed flexibility would likely only be an option for those working in big companies, where the workload can be more easily distributed.

The new rules are expected to come into effect later this year. According to the OECD, the average usual work-week in Belgium is 35½ hours. That compares with 36½ hours in France, 38.7 hours in the US and 36.3 hours in Britain.

The move by Belgium follows countries trials of a four-day week by Iceland and Japan.

Other reforms agreed by the Belgian government included individual employee access to training, and a test program allowing night work for employees in the e-commerce sector.

AFP