labour market
Belgium wants a four-day week with the same working hours
Work and private life should go better together: Prime Minister Alexander De Croo. Photo: Frederic Sierakowski/Pool/BELGA/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Belgium is pushing for a labor market reform. Felixibility and freedom play a major role in this.
In future, employees in Belgium should be able to do their work flexibly on four days instead of five. The Belgian government agreed on a corresponding labor market reform, as announced by Prime Minister Alexander De Croo.
“The first pillar is to give workers more flexibility, more freedom,” De Croo said. Full-time workers should be allowed to work longer hours so that all required hours can be worked in four days. According to De Croo, this should benefit the compatibility of work and private life.
The labor market reform also includes legally regulated access to further training for employees, said De Croo. In addition, there will be more flexibility in the night service rules, in order to boost online trade in particular. There should also be better protection for freelancers from Internet platforms such as Uber, such as mandatory work accident insurance. “We are working on a sustainable, innovative and digital economy,” said De Croo.
The news agency Belga wrote that the aim of the reforms is an employment rate of 80 percent by 2030. It is currently 71 percent with large regional differences. For comparison: According to the Federal Statistical Office, the employment rate in Germany was 75.5 percent.