Budgetary measures for 2024: an overview for employers

From 1 January 2024, flexi jobs will be allowed in a higher number of sectors. In amongst others, new sectors include:

* buses and coaches;

* events industry;

* garages;

* additional sub-sectors in the food industry;

* funeral homes;

* removal companies.

However, these new sectors remain free to decide to restrict the option of calling on flexi workers to specific sub-activities or posts, or even to decide - subject to  certain conditions - that flexi jobs are not allowed at all.

Further sectors may be added in times to come.

In addition to the expansion of the number of sectors, changes are being introduced to the amount of pay flexi workers earn and the employer’s contribution. There are also changes to the conditions for an employee to be allowed to do a flexi job.

In June 2021, the representative employer and worker organisations in the Group of 10 decided to step up the guaranteed average minimum monthly income (GMMMI), or gross minimum wage for short, in stages. The concrete terms of the agreement were laid down in Collective Bargaining Agreement No 43/15. The first time the minimum wage went up in application of this agreement was 1 April 2022. This is set to happen again from 1 April 2024, with an increase of 35.7 euros gross per month.

The government is implementing the next phase from 1 April 2024, as requested by the representative employer and worker organisations. The government is committed to ensuring that the 35.7 euros gross increase in the GMMMI will result in a 50 euro increase in net pay for very low wage earners.

To reach the target of 50 euros net, the tax work bonus is being increased. This uplift can only be achieved by splitting the social work bonus into two parts. A first part of the social work bonus applies to very low wages and a second part to slightly higher wages. The tax work bonus percentage however is only being increased for the very low wages. 

Employers who introduce a collective working time reduction for their full-time employees of at least one full hour under 38 hours per week may be eligible for a target group reduction. Part-time employees whose wages need to be adjusted due to the introduction of the working time reduction are also eligible. From 1 January 2024, part-time employees will only be eligible for the reduction if the normal average weekly working time as specified in their contract is at least 28 hours per week. The new provision applies to working time reductions introduced from 1 November 2023.

In 2018, an activation contribution was introduced for employers who wholly release their employees from the obligation to perform work at the end of their employment contract, as an alternative to the regime of unemployment benefits topped up with a company-paid supplement (SWT) scheme.

The activation contribution goes up by 30% from 1 January 2024 to support the increase in the employment rate and to make employers more accountable.

The activation contribution is now also payable once the employees concerned work less than 1/3rd of a full-time employment regime per quarter. Even if the employee returns to work in a new job of at least 1/3rd with another employer or starts as a self-employed worker, the employer will no longer be exempt from having to pay the contribution.

The existing 40% reduction in the contribution percentage also changes. The 40% reduction will only apply for employees who are given the benefit of outplacement services within the meaning of chapter 5 of the Act of 5 September 2001 on improving the employment rate of employees.

Employers who, from 1 April 2024, hire a worker who has been recognised as disabled as part of a progressive work resumption scheme may receive a financial incentive in the form of a work resumption bonus of 1,000 euros paid by the employee’s mutual health benefit society. This measure is said to continue to apply until 31 March 2025.

This work resumption bonus is intended to compensate the employer concerned for the additional costs of such a work resumption (in organisational terms and/or due to diminished productivity). The government is keen to beef up this work resumption bonus. The fixed amount of the work resumption bonus is therefore increased to 1,725 euros from 1 January 2024 provided that the period covered by the permission of the advising physician as well as the actual (progressive) resumption work by the disabled employee with the employer start on 1 January 2024 at the earliest.

In the agricultural and horticultural sectors, the benefit regime of casual labour can be used when it comes to social security contributions. This regime means that - for a specific number of days per year - the social security contributions are determined based on a flat rage daily wage instead of the real wage of the casual worker.

Taking effect on 1 July 2023, the government raised the maximum number of days for which use can be made of this advantageous social security contribution calculation. Initially, this measure was only intended to last for a limited period of time, until 31 December 2023. At the same time, the minimum wages of these casual workers were raised. In order to compensate for this increase in wage costs, the employers of these casual workers may (subject to certain conditions) benefit from a new partial exemption from withholding tax.

As part of the Budget Agreement, the government decided to make the above measures permanent. The exemption from withholding tax payments is regulated by the Programme Act.

Hospitality businesses are required to use a registered cash register system ("white cash register") subject to certain conditions in order to comply with their tax obligations. Additional penalties have been introduced for not (properly) using this registered cash register system and doing so knowingly.

Moreover, the data from these "white cash registers" are currently accessible only to the NSSO in order to check the correct allocation of the reduction in social security contributions for 5 permanent full-time employees. Minister Vandenbroucke is also looking to extend access to these data to all inspectorates and to allow monitoring for other purposes as well, such as checking the duration and time of employees working hours.

From 1 January 2024, employers may need to pay an additional supplement when they have applied for temporary unemployment for their employees. This additional supplement applies for all forms of temporary unemployment, except temporary unemployment due to force majeure.

For workers whose monthly salary does not exceed 4,000 euros, the supplement is 5 euros for each day covered by temporary unemployment benefit. Employees whose monthly salary exceeds 4,000 euros are entitled to said supplement as soon as they have have more than 26 days’ temporary unemployment during the same year with the same employer. In that case, the supplement applies for each day covered by temporary unemployment benefit from the 27th day onwards. Days of temporary unemployment due to force majeure do not count towards the first 26 days.

The amount of the supplement is linked to the trigger index in place on 1 January 2024. The statutory and contractual schemes that already existed continue to apply.

The employer pays this supplement himself, unless:

• The industry enters into a collective bargaining agreement that has been declared to be generally binding, which imposes this obligation on the Basic Livelihood Support Fund. This collective bargaining agreement is then published in the Belgian Official Gazette.
• A sectoral or company-wide collective bargaining agreement is in place that guarantees employees they will get paid a percentage of their salary and only to the extent that this percentage offers these employees assurances they will be getting an amount which, at a minimum, is equivalent to that to which they are entitled pursuant to the new rule detailed above.