Flexible Application Procedure for Economic Unemployment for Employees
As an employer, you can still take advantage of the more flexible rules to apply for economic unemployment for your employees until December 31, 2025.
This more flexible application option was first introduced during the COVID-19 crisis. During that time, the social partners within the National Labour Council (NAR) reached collective agreements to simplify the application process for temporary unemployment for employees. With this simpler procedure, as an employer, you do not need to prepare a business plan or enter into a business collective agreement to implement that unemployment.
The social partners indicated some time ago that they wanted to extend this arrangement. The current collective agreement, which provides for a simplified procedure, collective agreement no. 172, was set to expire on June 30, 2025. Negotiations regarding the duration of the extension are still ongoing. To continue these negotiations, the social partners have initially extended the duration of of CLA No. 172 through CLA No. 176, concluded on 30 June 2025, which prolongs the simplified procedure until 31 December 2025 inclusive.
This means that as an employer, you can continue to take advantage of the more flexible rules for applying for economic unemployment for employees at least until the end of this year.
What if you have already applied for economic unemployment based on collective agreement no. 172 or no. 159?
The NEO still needs to confirm this on its website, but if you have previously submitted a C106A to apply for economic unemployment through the flexible procedure, you do not need to do that again.
The NEO will then accept your application based on the previous C106A. More information about this procedure can be found in our other article of today.
Extension of Collective Agreement for Career Break at the End of Career
Employees aged 55 or older can take 1/5 or 1/2 career break at the end of their career. If your employee meets certain conditions, they have the right to benefits from the NEO.
The collective agreements that introduced this system, namely collective agreements 170 and 171, also expired on June 30, 2025. The social partners also wanted to negotiate further extensions of these collective agreements and the associated conditions. To provide employees with sufficient legal certainty, they have already extended the current arrangement until December 31, 2025.
If you want to know more about the career break at the end of the career, read our file on Lex4You.
Extension of SWT for Medical Reasons
Until June 30, 2025, employees under certain circumstances could go on SWT (the former early retirement) before the age of 62. For this, the social partners had concluded various collective agreements.
However, the coalition agreement stipulated that all forms of SWT should be abolished. Therefore, most systems for implementing SWT will not be extended. However, the coalition agreement provided for an exception for employees who can go on SWT for medical reasons.
The government wanted to retain the possibility of granting those employees, in the event of a dismissal, the right to a company supplement. Therefore, collective agreement no. 165, which introduced SWT for medical reasons, could be extended. Negotiations to extend this collective agreement are still ongoing.
In the meantime, the social partners have also extended the duration of the current collective agreement no. 165 until December 31, 2025. This prevents a gap for employees who still want to go on SWT for medical reasons.
However, the other SWT systems will not be extended.
If you want more information about SWT for medical reasons, discover the conditions here.
What Does Securex Do for You?
If you have any questions about the extension of these collective agreements, you can consult our various files on these topics.
If you have any questions, you can contact your Securex Legal Advisor. You can reach them at Myhr@securex.be.
Source
- Press release VBO
