Legislative Changes To Labour, Social Security And Tax Law

Belgium was without a government for over a year following its last elections in June 2010. The new government was finally established in December 2011 and, since then, a number of important rules in labour, social security and tax law have been adopted with regard to matters including the restructuring of companies, company structures, retirement and pre-retirement, employment contracts and benefits in kind.

The application of these new rules will mean that it will become more expensive to restructure Belgian companies, as, for example, the employer cost for specific early retirement benefits granted within the framework of restructurings has been increased. Employers are now also obliged to diversify the categories of employees whose employment they want to terminate (in order to avoid only older workers' employment being terminated).