Belgium adopts four-day week, giving employees right to ignore their bosses after work

Workers in Belgium will soon have the option to work in a four-day week underneath a number of labour market reforms announced on Tuesday. Further, under the reform package which has been adopted by the nation's multi-party coalition administration, the Belgian workers would have the right to switch off their work devices and might ignore work-related texts after working hours without the fear of retaliation, Euronews Next reported.   

While announcing the reform package in a press conference, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo stated, “We have experienced two difficult years. With this agreement, we set a beacon for an economy that is more innovative, sustainable and digital. The aim is to be able to make people and businesses stronger," Euronews Next reported.  

The new guidelines would provide the gig economy workers to have more legal protections, whereas full-time job employees would be permitted to work in flexible schedules on request. However, these measures might take months to enact since the draft bill would go through many readings by federal Legislators before becoming law. During a news conference, Belgian labour minister Pierre-Yves Dermagne said, "This has to be done at the request of the employee, with the employer giving solid reasons for any refusal," as per Euronews Next.  

New rules in the reform package

Furthermore, a government spokesperson told Euronews Next that the Belgian workers will be allowed to request a work period of four days per week for a time span of six months. The workers can then opt to keep the arrangement or go back to a five-day week with no adverse effects. The Spokesperson then explained the logic by saying that the six-month timeframe has been established “so that an employee would not be stuck for too long” if they made the incorrect decision.  

As the Workers in Belgium would be allowed to reduce the present five-day workweek to four days, this would entail sticking to a 38-hour workweek, with the extra day off to make up for much longer workdays. 

In addition to this, since January 2022, Belgian federal government employees were granted the freedom to disconnect their phones after work, allowing them to switch off work equipment and ignore communications after work hours without fear of retaliation from their bosses. According to Dermagne, all Belgian workers, even those in the private sector, will henceforth have the same rights under the reform package. 

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