As the UK Government introduces stronger worker protection through its new Employment Rights Bill 2024, what lessons can be learned from Belgium, which has introduced similar legislation?
Introduced in October 2024, the Employment Rights Bill seeks to introduce flexibility — for both employees and employers — by ensuring employment legislation is, in the UK Government’s own words, “fit for modern life and a modern economy”.
The bill includes 28 individual employment reforms, which range from ending so-called exploitative zero-hour contracts and ‘fire and rehire’ practices, to establishing day-one rights for paternity, parental and bereavement leave for millions of workers. It also strengthens statutory sick pay by removing the lower earnings limit for all workers and eliminating the waiting period before sick pay kicks in.
In addition, the bill includes measures to help make workplaces more compatible with people’s lives, by making flexible working the default where practical.
The UK’s Employment Rights Bill is essentially a framework for change: the wide-ranging legislative changes will take some time to hammer out and implement. It is likely to be 2026 before any substantive changes take effect, and the more sweeping changes will involve detailed consultations, engaging business, unions and workers through 2025.
The proposed changes will make the UK on a par with many other advanced economies. One key example is Belgium, where the government introduced new legislation under its ‘Workable Work’ initiative in 2017, and bolstered it with additional ‘Employment Deal’ legislation in 2022.
How do things work there? And what lessons can the UK government learn from the Belgian experience?
‘Workable Work’ in Belgium
Over the past decade or so, Belgium has implemented a number of progressive employment reforms – under the ‘Workable Work’ banner – aimed at enhancing work-life balance, boosting employee satisfaction, and reducing attrition rates.
Chief among these are:
Flexible working arrangements – employees can request variable work schedules, including flexible start and end times, to better align work commitments with personal responsibilities such as childcare, learning and development. Employers are encouraged to accommodate these requests wherever possible, and foster a more adaptable work environment. One desired outcome of this legislation was to help the country be more competitive in global e-commerce, where business continues around the clock.
Four-day work week – one of the reforms made by Belgium’s government in 2022 was the introduction of the option for employees to work a compressed four-day week. This enables employees to request that they work a standard 38 hours over four days instead of five, without reducing pay. While employers can refuse such requests, they must provide a written justification within a stipulated timeframe. The agreement is typically for a fixed period, such as six months, after which it can be renewed or reassessed.
Right to disconnect – recognising the often blurred lines between work and personal life brought on by digital connectivity, Belgium introduced the ‘right to disconnect’ for federal public servants in 2018, and extended this to the private sector in 2022. The legislation permits employees to disengage from work-related communications outside their normal working hours without fear of repercussion. The aim is to combat burnout and promote mental well-being by ensuring employees can fully disconnect from work during their personal time.
Teleworking policies – partly as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Belgian government bolstered its teleworking policies to provide clarity around support for remote work. It issued new guidelines covering reimbursements for home office expenses, provision of necessary equipment, and compliance with health and safety standards. These measures were designed to formalise teleworking arrangements and protect the rights and responsibilities of both employers and employees.
But what has been the effect of these changes?
Measuring ‘workability’ trends
Belgium’s Social and Economic Council of Flanders (SERV), which includes representatives of both employers and trade unions – performs regular analysis and reporting of ‘workability’ in the country. This work centres around four key indicators: work-related stress, motivation, learning and work-life balance.
The latest SERV report, from 2023, shows the effects of Belgium’s employment law reforms since 2017, as illustrated in the chart below. It shows a noticeable improvement in three out the four main indicators, and a plateauing in the steady deterioration of the fourth over recent years.
The 2023 SERV report shows that more than four-fifths (86.4%) of employees say they have sufficient learning opportunities in their job. The 2023 results show a significant reduction in the occurrence of problems related to learning development compared with 2019 (the share of employees with a learning deficit fell from 16.6% to 13.6%).
In terms of motivation, the 2023 workability report also shows a significant improvement compared with 2019. The proportion of employees who are motivated at work rose from 78.9% to 81.2% (the proportion citing motivational issues fell from 21.1% to 18.8%). The 2023 report also shows an improvement in the proportion of employees making work-related stress complaints, falling to 36.1% from the high of 36.8% in 2019.
Finally, the 2023 data also show a plateauing in the decline of work-life balance satisfaction (87.1% compared with 87.2% in 2019), which had set in around 2013. The SERV report also finds a clear correlation between workability and employee turnover intention. While 3.5% of employees with a (generally) workable job seriously consider changing jobs, this proportion is almost three times higher (9.6%) for employees with one workability bottleneck.
For those facing multiple workability bottlenecks, this indicator increases eightfold (27.8%). With current concerns around retaining qualified staff, such findings are highly informative.
Business implications
As the reforms proposed in the UK Employment Rights Bill come into effect, it will be vital for businesses to keep abreast of the changes, review their implications, and adjust internal policies as required. For example, flexible work – while beneficial to employee satisfaction and engagement – may require new investment in technology and updated job structures to support remote or hybrid roles effectively.
Now is the time for HR professionals and employers to assess current workplace policies, especially around contracts, flexible working and employee support initiatives. Staying informed and responsive will be critical to ensuring a smooth transition, and to maintaining a competitive, attractive work environment.
For many companies, especially those based outside the UK, it will be important to consider compliance and strategic alignment with the forthcoming changes, perhaps with the help of an HR service provider with specialist in-market expertise.
The changes envisaged under the UK’s Employment Rights Bill 2024 will take some time to work through and introduce into the workplace. But, if the experience of similar legislation in Belgium is anything to go by, they will be beneficial to both employees and employers in the long run.
With over a decade at TMFGroup, Gitte de Brabander has held key leadership roles, including TMF Group’s Belgium Executive Director, andHead of Global Entity Management and Funds for Western Europe. Gitte has extensive legal andbusiness expertise, holding a Master of Laws from the University of Antwerp and a Master of GlobalManagement from the Antwerp Management School. Passionate about compliance and efficiency,she helps businesses navigate complex environments while optimising their operations.