A mother who wants to work more in spring to have more time for her child during the summer holidays, without loss of income. A chocolatier who is swamped with orders at Easter and Christmas, but slows to a crawl in July. For them, and for all other Belgian workers and employers, the Employment Minister's plan approved by the Core Cabinet this morning could change everything.
Specifically, rather than calculating working time week by week, the hours are now spread out over the whole year. This is known as “accordion” schedules: employees work more when it's busy and ease off when it's quieter. SMEs in particular see this as a real breath of fresh air, allowing them to better adjust staffing to periods of high demand.
Accordion schedules
A full-time worker normally works 38 hours a week. With annualisation, they can alternate. Nothing changes fundamentally, but everything becomes more flexible.
This reform benefits both workers and employers. For workers, it allows them to adapt their work pace to the realities of personal and professional life, whether to care for a child, an ageing parent or another family member. For employers, it addresses a real need in sectors such as tourism, leisure, horticulture, events or offshore activities, where staffing needs vary greatly by season. Annualisation allows them to adapt work organisation to these fluctuations without systematically resorting to temporary layoffs, while retaining skilled workers.
A volume spread over 12 months, with the worker's agreement and without loss of pay
The main terms of this reform provide for:
- A calculation over the year: the weekly hourly volume is spread over 12 months.
- The worker's agreement: the system only applies with the worker's explicit consent.
- A stable income every month: annualisation guarantees the same salary every month, regardless of the number of hours worked during a given period.
David Clarinval, Minister of Employment: “Today, many workers want to be able to adapt their work pace to their real lives: their children, their projects or the busier periods of their daily life. With the annualisation of working time, we are giving more freedom of organisation, without loss of pay and with the worker's agreement. This reform also gives businesses the flexibility they need to better cope with peaks in activity. It is a reform of trust, balance and flexibility, benefiting both workers and employers.”