“We really want the labor market to be modernized and made more flexible. It’s an aspect as important as unemployment reform”he insists. With an assumed schedule: “My goal is to have this completed by July 21 and implemented before the summer.”
1. La suppression du Federal learning account
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The Federal learning account (FLA), created in 2022 under Vivaldi at the initiative of Pierre-Yves Dermagne (PS), was only a parenthesis. This system, supposed to centralize training rights at company level, has been abolished. “A real gas factory, with no added value”decides Deputy Prime Minister David Clarinval.
It will be replaced by an Individual Learning Account (ILA), this time attached to the worker. Each employee will have an individual digital portfolio automatically listing the diplomas and certificates recognized by the Regions, with the possibility of adding other training courses. Its deployment remains conditional on a cooperation agreement with the Regions, but the tool is expected on January 1, 2027. With the consent of the citizen, it can be consulted by employment services or by employers in a recruitment context.
2. Night work: the end of the general ban
This is one of the most sensitive reforms in the employment chapter. The principle of a general ban on night work will disappear. In precisely targeted sectors – retail and wholesale trade, e-commerce, logistics and bpost – nighttime will now be defined, for the joint committees concerned, between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., and no longer from 8 p.m. The introduction of night work will also be made easier at company level.
For new contracts, no premium will no longer be mandatory before 11 p.m.; beyond this, minimum compensation will remain imposed via CCT no. 49 (€1.52 per hour, €1.82 for those over 50), without excluding higher bonuses at sectoral or company level. Existing contracts retain all their rights. The objective is assumed: to fill a deficit estimated between 9,000 and 20,000 jobs and reduce a competitiveness handicap which pushed certain e-commerce and distribution players to set up abroad. “We don’t touch anything for the workers already in place”insists David Clarinval, rejecting criticism aimed at other professions: “To say that nurses will lose is completely false. We are only targeting these sectors.”
3. Notice capped at one year
For contracts concluded from April 1, 2026, the maximum length of notice in the event of dismissal will be capped at 52 weeks. The government sees it as a tool for predictability for businesses and a way to avoid certain diversions, such as the use of false sick leave linked to high dismissal costs. In fact, the effect will be very gradual: before 2043, when the ceiling will come into full effect, no concrete impact will be perceptible. However, nothing changes for contracts already signed, nor for the terms of calculation of the notice period.
4. Return of the trial period
Abolished under the Di Rupo government, the trial period will be reintroduced in a very simplified form. During the first six months of the contract, employer and worker may terminate it with one week’s notice, in both directions. The government sees this as a lever to reduce hiring risk, particularly for young people and less experienced profiles.
5. Voluntary overtime
The voluntary overtime system is expanded. The project provides for up to 240 hours per year – 360 in the hospitality sector – without reason, without extra pay or compensatory rest, according to the principle of net equals gross. To this volume are added 120 hours of overtime with additional pay and social security contributions. A reform assumed by David Clarinval, despite the criticism. “The labor market is too rigid and too costly. This rigidity causes a loss of activity”believes the minister, who contests the union argument of a negative effect on employment and recalls that the system is based on individual volunteering, already tested without complaints “massive” after the health crisis.
6. The extension of flexi-jobs
Flexi-jobs will be authorized by default in almost all sectors, including the public sector, according to a principle of general authorization accompanied by a sectoral opt-out. The annual income ceiling will be raised to 18,000 euros, while the maximum hourly wage will increase to 21 euros. The extension to the public sector will still have to go through the stage of committee A, the consultation of the social partners. Faced with union criticism, David Clarinval rejects the idea of replacing structural employment and defends a logic of additional activity. “Without this flexibility, part of the activity simply does not happen”he summarizes.
7. Reform of the mobility budget
The mobility budget, reformed with Minister Jean-Luc Crucke, will become mandatory gradually from 2027. From January 1, 2027, companies with more than 50 workers who have made company cars available for at least 36 months will have to offer a mobility budget. Those with between 15 and 50 workers will have additional time until January 1, 2028, while smaller companies will not be affected. The precise modalities must still be set out in a bill, which will have to go through the Council of State and then Parliament.
