How can you implement economic unemployment for your white-collar workers in a relaxed way?

What does this extension mean for you as an employer?

The social partners have extended collective agreement no. 172. This collective agreement extends the simplified procedure for introducing economic unemployment for employees until 31 December 2025. If you implement economic unemployment for your employees during this period, you do not need to conclude a collective agreement or create a business plan.

The first step to introducing economic unemployment before the coronavirus crisis

To introduce economic unemployment for employees, the Employment Contracts Act requires a rather complex procedure. Initially, you must be recognised as a company in difficulty. This recognition can be arranged at the sectoral level through a sectoral collective agreement.

If there is no sectoral collective agreement for economic unemployment for employees in your sector, you, as an employer, must conclude a company collective agreement regarding the introduction of economic unemployment for your employees. If you do not have a trade union delegation in your company, you must create a business plan to be recognised as a company in difficulty.

Since the coronavirus crisis, the social partners have concluded collective agreements in the National Labour Council (NAR) which made this first step no longer necessary. From 1 July 2025, the extension of collective agreement no. 172 ensures that this step will also not be necessary in the future. This will continue until 31 December 2025.

What if you have already invoked economic unemployment under collective agreement no. 172 or 159?

If you, as an employer, have already invoked economic unemployment for your employees based on collective agreement no. 172 or 159, and you have, based on that collective agreement, already submitted a C106A to the RVA? Then there is good news: the RVA does not require a new C106A.

You can therefore continue the economic unemployment without a new C106A. You must, of course, still comply with the maximum number of weeks of temporary unemployment on an annual basis.

If you want to invoke economic unemployment for your employees for the first time from 1 July 2025, you can read about that procedure further on in this article.

Economic unemployment for employees

If you have not yet invoked economic unemployment for your employees, you will find below the five steps you must follow to introduce economic unemployment for your employees. In the examples, we assume that you want to introduce unemployment starting from Monday 4 August 2025.

Step 1. Prepare the C106 by 13 July 2025

To submit the C106A, you must follow these three steps:

a) Check whether the turnover, production or orders in your company has decreased by 10%

You can also demonstrate that your workers were economically unemployed for 10% of the working days in the previous quarter.

The decrease in turnover, production, or orders must be discussed with your accountant or financial department. Securex does not have access to your VAT returns.

b) Gather evidence of the decrease or the number of unemployment days and fill in the C106A.

Indicate the applicable framework of collective agreement no. 172 on the C106A. If you have previously sent a C106A to the RVA, you normally do not need to send another C106A.

What does Securex do for you?

If you are a client of our social secretariat and have questions about the C106A, you can contact your Legal Advisor via myhr@securex.be.

c) Send the C106A along with the evidence to the RVA

You do this by registered letter and no later than 14 days before the notification of unemployment.

If Monday 4 August 2025 is the first day of unemployment in your company, you must send the C106A by Sunday 13 July 2025 at the latest.

Send the C106A and the supporting documents by registered letter to the local RVA office responsible for your company.

Tip: to inform the RVA as quickly as possible, you can also send the C106A and the supporting documents by email to the unemployment office responsible for your company.

Even if you send the C106A and the supporting documents by email, you still need to send them by registered letter. An email alone is therefore not sufficient.

Step 2. Check whether you want to fully or partially suspend the employment contract of your employees

You can suspend the employment contract per calendar year for:

• 16 full weeks
• Or 26 partial weeks

Note, if you start unemployment during a week, you lose a full week for which you can invoke temporary unemployment. Therefore, we recommend starting unemployment on a Monday.

Step 3. Indicate when the employment contract will be suspended

You must do this no later than 7 calendar days before the first day of unemployment. You send this notification to the RVA and also inform your employees and the consultation bodies.

Note, the day of notification and the first day of unemployment itself do not count.

If Monday 4 August 2025 is the first day of unemployment in your company, you must send the notification by Sunday 27 July 2025 at the latest.

What does Securex do for you?

If you are a client of our social secretariat and need help with this procedure, you can contact our Service operators via aanvraag.tw@securex.be. They can submit the application to the RVA and provide you with the necessary documents. This costs you €24 per application (excluding VAT).

Step 4. Inform the RVA monthly about the first effective day of unemployment

You do this electronically. You must submit this notification within the period of 5 working days before that day until the first working day thereafter.

What does Securex do for you?

If you are a client of our social secretariat and need help with this procedure, you can contact our Service operators via aanvraag.tw@securex.be. This costs you €11 per application (excluding VAT).

You can also submit the application to Securex via this website. This costs you €9 per application (excluding VAT).

Step 5. Have your employee apply for the e-C3.2A

Your employees must also apply for an e-C3.2A. Remember to inform them about this. 

What does Securex do for you?

The DSR scenarios 2 and 5 also need to be arranged, but Securex will take care of that for you.

Do you want to go through the entire procedure in detail again? Then log in to Lex4You and read our file on economic unemployment for employees.

Source

• Collective agreement no. 172 of 30 June 2023