Belgium 2026: Restructuring, Collective Redundancies and International Mobility, Essential Compliance Guide for Employers

Belgium’s 2026 wave of labour reforms has reshaped the rules governing collective redundancies Belgium employers must follow when restructuring operations, terminating employees at scale, or moving staff across borders. New notice-period caps, higher voluntary overtime quotas, revised student-work limits and updated minimum salary thresholds for international mobility all took effect during the first half of 2026, creating compliance risks that demand immediate action from general counsel and HR leadership. This guide delivers a practical, step-by-step playbook, including timelines, checklists and sample calculations, so employers can restructure lawfully under the reformed Belgium employment law 2026 framework.

Executive Summary, What Employers Must Do Now

The 2026 Belgian labour reforms do not merely adjust figures in the statute books. They alter the operational calculus behind every restructuring decision, every cross-border secondment and every individual termination. The interaction between these changes and the existing collective dismissal procedure Belgium employers are already required to follow means that a single miscalculation, on notice, on headcount thresholds, on salary floors, can expose an organisation to significant financial liability and reputational harm.

Employers should treat the following three priorities as non-negotiable:

• Recalculate notice and severance exposure. The 2026 notice-period cap changes how termination indemnities are computed for employees with substantial seniority. Every active restructuring plan and template termination letter must be updated to reflect the new ceiling.
• Confirm collective dismissal thresholds and the 60-day reference period. Belgian law uses a rolling, uninterrupted 60-day window to determine whether individual dismissals aggregate into a collective redundancy. Employers that fail to monitor cumulative headcount reductions risk triggering the full Renault-law procedure retroactively.
• Review mobility packages against updated minimum salary thresholds. The revised salary floors for international mobility Belgium now enforces affect both inbound and outbound secondments. Immigration filings, social-security certificates and compensation structures all require re-examination.

Industry observers expect enforcement activity to intensify through the second half of 2026 as Belgian labour inspectorates and regional employment services adapt their monitoring to the new framework. Early compliance is the most cost-effective risk-management strategy available.

2026 Reforms That Change the Collective Redundancies Belgium Landscape

Several distinct legislative measures, published in the Belgian Official Gazette (Moniteur Belge) and transposing, in part, evolving EU-level guidance, came into force across the first and second quarters of 2026. While each reform addresses a different facet of the employment relationship, they converge when an employer begins planning a restructuring. The key changes are summarised below, followed by a compliance timeline.

Notice-period cap. The 2026 legislative measure introduces an effective ceiling on the notice period (or corresponding severance indemnity in lieu) that employers must grant to white-collar employees with long service. Before this reform, notice periods for senior employees could extend well beyond 20 months, accumulating on the basis of seniority, age and remuneration under the Law of 3 July 1978 on Employment Contracts. The cap now limits employer exposure for terminations initiated on or after the effective date. Employers must recalculate every pending termination and update template letters accordingly.

Voluntary overtime quota increase. Belgium raised the annual ceiling on voluntary overtime hours an employee may work without compensatory rest. This change is relevant to restructuring because it allows employers to absorb short-term workload peaks with fewer headcount additions, but it also introduces a consent requirement and record-keeping obligations that, if neglected, create liability.

Student work quota changes. Revised annual limits on student employment hours affect employers that rely on student labour to supplement their workforce. During a restructuring, employers must ensure that student hours are not used to circumvent obligations to retain or redeploy permanent staff.

Minimum salary threshold for mobility. The minimum gross salary that an employer must pay to qualify for certain international mobility exemptions and favourable immigration processing was adjusted upward in 2026. This directly affects the cost and structure of cross-border secondment packages.

Timeline of 2026 Legislative Changes

The practical effect of these reforms arriving simultaneously is that employers planning a restructuring in 2026 must model the financial impact of each change as part of a single integrated exercise rather than treating them in isolation.

When Is a Dismissal Collective? Thresholds, the 60-Day Reference Period and Legal Tests

Belgian law defines a collective dismissal as any series of employer-initiated terminations that meets specific numerical thresholds within an uninterrupted 60-day period, provided the dismissals are driven by economic, technical or organisational reasons unrelated to the individual employees concerned. The primary statutory framework is Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) No. 24, supplemented by the Act of 13 February 1998 (the so-called “Renault law”) and EU Directive 98/59/EC on collective redundancies.

The thresholds vary by the size of the employer’s workforce:

• Enterprises with 20–99 employees: a collective dismissal is triggered when at least 10 employees are dismissed within the 60-day window.
• Enterprises with 100–299 employees: the threshold is at least 10 % of the workforce.
• Enterprises with 300 or more employees: at least 30 dismissals within 60 days.

The 60-day reference period is calculated as a continuous, rolling window. Following the ECJ clarifications, now formally incorporated into Belgian legislation, the period is not tied to calendar months or payroll cycles. Every new employer-initiated termination restarts the analysis. This means that an employer who dismisses five employees in week one and six in week eight has triggered the collective threshold for a company of 20–99 employees, even if the employer did not intend a mass layoff.

Worked Examples by Employer Size

Small employer (55 employees): If eight staff are dismissed in March 2026 and three more in April 2026, all within 60 days, the total of 11 exceeds the threshold of 10. The collective dismissal procedure Belgium mandates is triggered and the employer must retrospectively comply or face sanctions.

Mid-size employer (180 employees): Ten per cent of 180 is 18. If the employer dismisses 12 employees in February and seven in March (within 60 days), the total of 19 exceeds 18. The Renault procedure applies.

Large employer (500 employees): The threshold is 30. Even phased layoffs of 15 per month can aggregate to 30 within 60 days, triggering full information-and-consultation obligations.

Step-by-Step Employer Playbook for a Collective Redundancy in Belgium

Running a collective dismissal procedure Belgium law recognises as compliant requires meticulous planning across four sequential phases. Skipping or abbreviating any phase exposes the employer to judicial challenge, financial penalties and, in the worst case, an order to reinstate dismissed employees or restart the entire process.

Phase 1, Diagnose the Business Case and Explore Alternatives

Before any formal notification, the employer must establish and document the economic, technical or organisational grounds for the proposed redundancies. Belgian courts scrutinise whether the employer genuinely considered alternatives before proceeding to collective dismissal. Key steps include:

• Prepare a written business case identifying the reasons for the restructuring (declining revenue, technological change, reorganisation of production).
• Assess whether internal redeployment, retraining, voluntary early retirement or reduced working-time arrangements could avoid or reduce the number of compulsory redundancies.
• Document every alternative considered and the reasons it was accepted or rejected.

Phase 2, Prepare the Consultation Pack

The Renault law requires the employer to provide the works council (or, where no works council exists, the trade-union delegation, or failing that, the employees directly) with a written information pack before any final decision on collective dismissals is taken. The pack must contain:

• The reasons for the proposed redundancies.
• The number and categories of employees to be dismissed.
• The total number of employees in the enterprise.
• The period over which the dismissals are planned.
• The proposed selection criteria.
• The method of calculating any severance or additional compensation beyond statutory minima.

The consultation that follows is not a formality. Belgian case law requires that the employer engage in a genuine exchange of views aimed at reaching an agreement, or, at minimum, at reducing the number and mitigating the consequences of the dismissals. Employers should budget a minimum of 30 days for meaningful consultation, though complex restructurings often take considerably longer.

Phase 3, Notification and Statutory Waiting Periods

Once consultation concludes, the employer must notify the regional public employment service (VDAB in Flanders, Actiris in Brussels, Le Forem in Wallonia) and the Federal Public Service Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue. The notification must include all information from the consultation pack, plus a summary of the consultation process and its outcome.

A statutory waiting period of 30 days follows the notification. During this period, no dismissals may take effect. The public employment service may extend the waiting period by up to 30 additional days if it considers that further measures could reduce the number of redundancies. In practice, this extension is most commonly applied to large-scale restructurings in sensitive sectors.

Phase 4, Implementation and Documentation

After the waiting period expires, the employer may begin issuing individual termination notices. Each notice must comply with the statutory notice-period rules, including the 2026 cap, and must be served in the language of the region where the employee’s place of work is located (Dutch in Flanders, French in Wallonia, French or Dutch in Brussels). Failure to use the correct language renders the notice null and void under Belgian language legislation.

Employers should maintain a comprehensive restructuring file that includes: the original business case, the consultation pack, minutes of every consultation meeting, the notification letters to the public employment service, proof of receipt and all individual termination letters. This file is the employer’s primary defence in any subsequent litigation.

Notice Periods Belgium: Severance Calculations and the 2026 Notice Cap

Under the Law of 3 July 1978 on Employment Contracts, the notice period an employer must observe, or pay in lieu as a severance indemnity, depends principally on the employee’s seniority, though remuneration level and, for contracts predating 1 January 2014, the employee’s status (blue-collar or white-collar) also play a role. The unified rules introduced from 2014 onward apply a progressive scale that increases steeply with seniority.

The 2026 notice-period cap limits the maximum notice for new terminations, curbing what had become open-ended exposure for employers terminating very senior employees. The likely practical effect will be a reduction in termination costs for employees with 20 or more years of service, though the cap does not affect the statutory minimum notice periods for shorter-tenured employees.

The following table illustrates three representative scenarios under the 2026 rules:

The severance indemnity in lieu of notice is calculated by multiplying the applicable notice period (in weeks) by the employee’s weekly remuneration, including base salary, variable pay, employer pension contributions, benefits in kind and any other contractual entitlements that form part of “remuneration” under Belgian law. Social-security contributions and withholding tax apply to the indemnity at the rates applicable to ordinary wages, though special tax optimisation mechanisms, such as spreading the indemnity over fictitious working periods, may mitigate the employee’s tax burden. Employers should seek actuarial and tax advice before finalising severance packages in collective redundancies Belgium operations involve.

Working Time and Overtime Changes: The Voluntary Overtime Quota Belgium Employers Must Now Apply

The 2026 increase to the voluntary overtime quota Belgium now permits allows employees to work a higher number of additional hours per calendar year on a purely voluntary basis, without the employer being required to grant compensatory rest. Before the reform, the annual voluntary overtime ceiling stood at 120 hours (extendable to 220 by sectoral CBA). The 2026 measure raises the base statutory ceiling, giving employers more flexibility to absorb workload spikes without recruiting additional headcount.

For employers in the midst of, or contemplating, a restructuring, this change has two important operational consequences. First, higher overtime capacity may allow the employer to maintain output with a smaller post-restructuring workforce, which in turn affects the business case presented during the consultation phase. Second, reliance on voluntary overtime requires the written, prior consent of each individual employee for every six-month period, a compliance step that is frequently overlooked in practice.

Early indications suggest that Belgian labour inspectorates will pay close attention to whether employers are using the increased overtime quota as a substitute for proper workforce planning or as a mechanism to avoid triggering collective dismissal thresholds by retaining a skeleton staff and filling gaps with overtime rather than hiring.

Practical HR Measures to Mitigate Risk

• Audit current overtime usage. Before any restructuring, map actual voluntary overtime hours by department against the new ceiling. Identify departments where overtime is already at or near the maximum.
• Obtain and file written consent. Ensure every employee performing voluntary overtime has signed the required consent form for the current six-month period. Missing consents convert voluntary overtime into ordinary overtime, triggering compensatory rest obligations and potential surcharges.
• Integrate overtime modelling into the restructuring business case. If the post-restructuring operating model depends on sustained high overtime, document the legal limits and build contingency plans for the scenario where employees withdraw consent.

International Mobility Belgium: Cross-Border Terminations and 2026 Thresholds

The revised minimum salary threshold Belgium applies to international mobility arrangements affects employers that post workers into Belgium, second Belgian employees abroad, or employ foreign nationals under Belgium’s combined single-permit system. The 2026 adjustment, indexed annually to reflect wage inflation, raises the gross annual salary an employee must earn in order for the employer to qualify for streamlined immigration processing, certain social-security exemptions and the favourable treatment of expatriate allowances.

Employers planning cross-border moves must verify that each affected employee’s total remuneration package meets or exceeds the updated threshold. Falling below the floor can result in refusal of a single-permit application, loss of social-security certificate A1 validity, and, in the most serious cases, reclassification of the employee’s status with retroactive social-security and tax consequences.

When a restructuring involves terminating expatriate employees stationed in Belgium, additional layers of complexity arise. The employer must determine which country’s dismissal law applies (governed by Rome I Regulation principles and the habitual place of work), whether the Belgian collective redundancy procedure is triggered for the Belgian establishment, and how severance is allocated between home-country and host-country obligations.

Mini-Case: Relocating 12 Employees from Belgium to the Netherlands

Consider a multinational that decides to consolidate its Benelux operations in the Netherlands, requiring 12 Belgian-based employees to either relocate or face redundancy. The compliance checklist includes:

• Step 1: Determine whether the 12 terminations (if employees decline relocation) trigger the collective dismissal threshold for the Belgian entity’s headcount.
• Step 2: For employees who accept relocation, verify that the Dutch compensation package meets Belgium’s minimum salary threshold if they will retain any Belgian tax or social-security link during a transitional period.
• Step 3: File Limosa declarations for any temporary cross-border work during the transition and apply for A1 certificates where employees remain subject to Belgian social security.
• Step 4: Consult the Belgian works council on the proposed restructuring, even if the ultimate destination of the work is the Netherlands, the consultation obligation attaches to the Belgian establishment.
• Step 5: Serve individual notices in the correct language and ensure severance calculations reflect the 2026 notice cap for any employees who are ultimately dismissed.

Common Employer Pitfalls and Litigation Risk

Belgian employment courts have developed a body of case law that penalises employers who attempt to circumvent collective redundancy obligations. The most common pitfalls include:

• Phasing dismissals to stay below thresholds. Deliberately spreading terminations across overlapping 60-day windows to avoid triggering the Renault procedure is a well-known tactic, and one that Belgian courts treat with considerable scepticism. If the court determines that the employer fragmented a single restructuring decision into sequential dismissals, it may aggregate all terminations and apply the collective procedure retroactively.
• Incomplete or pro-forma consultation. Providing the works council with the required documents but refusing to engage substantively with counter-proposals can result in the entire process being declared void.
• Miscalculating severance under the 2026 cap. Applying the cap incorrectly, for instance, failing to account for the transitional regime applicable to employees hired before 1 January 2014, exposes the employer to individual claims for the shortfall.
• Failing to check mobility salary thresholds. Employers that restructure by relocating staff internationally without verifying the updated minimum salary floor may face retroactive social-security assessments and immigration penalties.

The recommended mitigation for every risk listed above is the same: document comprehensively, calculate conservatively and engage specialist legal counsel before launching the procedure.

Practical Templates and Checklists for Restructuring Employment Belgium

The following sample texts are provided as starting points. They must be adapted to the specific circumstances of each restructuring and reviewed by qualified Belgian employment counsel before use.

Sample 1, Notification to works council / trade-union delegation (opening paragraph):

“In accordance with the Act of 13 February 1998 and Collective Bargaining Agreement No. 24, [Company Name] hereby informs the works council / trade-union delegation that it is considering a restructuring that may result in the collective dismissal of [number] employees over the period [start date] to [end date]. The grounds for the proposed restructuring, the categories of employees concerned and the proposed selection criteria are set out in the attached information pack. [Company Name] invites the works council / trade-union delegation to a first consultation meeting on [date] at [time and location].”

Sample 2, Individual termination letter (key clause):

“We regret to inform you that your employment contract with [Company Name] is hereby terminated with effect from [date], subject to a notice period of [X] weeks in accordance with the Law of 3 July 1978 on Employment Contracts, as amended. [Alternatively: in lieu of notice, you will receive a severance indemnity equal to [X] weeks’ remuneration, payable on [date].] This termination forms part of the collective restructuring announced on [date] and does not reflect any assessment of your individual performance.”

Sample 3, International secondment compliance checklist (key items):

• Confirm employee’s gross annual remuneration meets or exceeds the 2026 minimum salary threshold.
• File or renew Limosa declaration for the posting.
• Apply for A1 social-security certificate from the Belgian National Social Security Office (NSSO/RSZ).
• Verify single-permit validity and expiry dates.
• Confirm applicable employment law under Rome I Regulation analysis.
• Update payroll to reflect host-country tax and social-security obligations.

Conclusion, Three Priority Actions for Collective Redundancies Belgium Employers Must Take in 2026

The 2026 Belgian labour reforms require employers to act on three fronts simultaneously. First, update every termination template, severance model and HR policy document to reflect the notice-period cap and the revised overtime and student-work quotas. Second, implement continuous monitoring of the 60-day rolling reference period so that individual dismissals do not inadvertently trigger the collective dismissal procedure. Third, audit all international mobility arrangements against the updated minimum salary threshold before filing any new single-permit applications or secondment agreements.

These reforms reward employers who prepare early and penalise those who react only after a restructuring is already under way. Specialist legal guidance, grounded in current Belgian statute, case law and administrative practice, is essential for any employer planning a restructuring, a collective redundancy or a cross-border workforce move in 2026.

This article provides general information on Belgian employment law as of May 2026. It does not constitute legal advice. Employers should consult qualified Belgian employment counsel before taking any action based on the information presented here.

Sources

1. Federal Public Service Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue (Belgium)
2. Belgian Official Gazette / Moniteur Belge
3. EUR-Lex, Directive 98/59/EC on Collective Redundancies
4. Baker McKenzie, Belgium Employment Updates
5. Littler / Littler Global, 2026 Belgium Labour Changes
6. Liedekerke, Collective Lay-Off and Closure in Belgium
7. CMS Legal, Expert Guide to Dismissals in Belgium
8. European Commission, Employment and Social Affairs
9. Belgian National Social Security Office (NSSO/RSZ)
10. Vandelanotte, 2026 Belgian Employment Advisory