Bad weather in 2026: what do employers pay?
Last updated: October 2026
Monday morning, minus five. Everything is frozen and your team cannot work outside. If you send everyone home, who pays for that day? And what if the frost lasts all week?
Bad weather is not in itself a reason to stop paying wages. With temporary unemployment due to bad weather, you suspend your blue-collar workers' contracts, and the NEO (National Employment Office) pays them a benefit. That is only possible if the work is genuinely impossible and you complete the formalities on time.
In this article: when bad weather justifies temporary unemployment, what you still pay yourself, what changed in 2026, which formalities to complete and how quickly, what is different in construction and what a mistake costs.
In short: temporary unemployment due to bad weather is possible for blue-collar workers, not white-collar employees, when the weather makes the work impossible. The NEO pays 60% of the capped average wage. You pay a supplement of at least €2 per day of unemployment, and an additional supplement of €5.41 per benefit, unless a sector fund or a collective labour agreement (CLA) arranges otherwise. In a five-day week, one day of unemployment counts as 1.2 benefits. Every month, you notify the NEO of the first day of unemployment: notifying too late or too early costs you wages.
When is temporary unemployment due to bad weather possible?
When rain, frost, snow or heat make the work impossible, not when they only make it harder or less profitable. The weather must be the direct cause, and it is always about full days. The scheme applies to blue-collar workers, blue-collar temp workers and blue-collar apprentices in dual learning (Article 50 of the Employment Contracts Act; NEO, leaflet E26, NEO, leaflet E29, accessed 23 October 2026).
The NEO gives its own examples: frost or heavy rain that makes masonry or structural work impossible, or rain that stops a road-marking company from working on a wet road surface. Very hot weather can also, exceptionally, make the work impossible. If the weather is only an indirect cause, for example because raw materials are not delivered on time, you may be able to apply for another form of temporary unemployment, such as force majeure (NEO, leaflet E26, accessed 23 October 2026). If you still have people work in conditions that make the work harder without making it impossible, take the necessary safety measures. If an accident does happen, it falls under your occupational accident insurance.
Who is excluded?
White-collar employees are excluded: suspension due to bad weather is a ground for suspension specific to the blue-collar employment contract (FPS Employment, accessed 23 October 2026). Nor can you place student workers in full-time education on temporary unemployment. Exception: July, August and September after the end of their studies, if they still have a student employment contract (NEO, leaflet E26, accessed 23 October 2026).
Compensatory rest first
If a blue-collar worker has built up full days of compensatory rest through overtime, through work on a Sunday or public holiday, or under a flexible working arrangement, those days must be taken first. Only then is temporary unemployment due to bad weather possible. Working-time reduction days and compensatory rest of less than a full day do not have to be taken first (Article 51bis of the Employment Contracts Act; NEO, leaflet E26, accessed 23 October 2026). How compensatory rest arises is explained in our article on paying overtime.
What do you pay during temporary unemployment?
For the days of unemployment themselves, you pay no wages, but you do pay two supplements. The NEO pays your blue-collar workers a benefit of 60% of their capped average wage, from which 26.75% professional withholding tax is deducted. On top of that, you pay a statutory supplement of at least €2 per day of unemployment, and an additional supplement per day covered by a benefit (Article 51(8) and Article 29 of the Employment Contracts Act; NEO, leaflet E26, FPS Employment, accessed 23 October 2026).
The statutory supplement of at least €2
For every day on which a blue-collar worker does not work because of bad weather, you pay a supplement of at least €2 on top of the benefit. This also applies to economic unemployment and technical breakdown. If a CLA made generally binding places the supplement with a Fund for Existence Security, that fund pays (NEO, leaflet E26, Securex, accessed 23 October 2026).
The additional supplement of €5.41
Since 2024, the benefit has been 60% of the capped average wage instead of 65%. To compensate, you pay an additional supplement, €5.41 since 1 September 2026 per day covered by a benefit (FPS Employment, Liantis, accessed 23 October 2026). FPS Employment counts the supplement per benefit.
The number of benefits per month is the number of hours of temporary unemployment in that month x 6, divided by the weekly working hours. A remainder below 0.25 is dropped, a remainder from 0.25 to 0.75 becomes 0.5, and from 0.75 you round up. For a full-time employee in a five-day week, one day of unemployment therefore gives 1.2 benefits. For voluntary part-time employees, FPS Employment works with half benefits, at €2.71 per half benefit. The day from which you pay the supplement depends on the gross monthly wage:
- Up to €4,284 gross a month: from the first day of unemployment.
- Above €4,284: only from the 27th day of temporary unemployment in the same calendar year with the same employer. Days of force majeure do not count.
The supplement comes on top of the supplements that already exist under the law, a CLA or agreements in your business. A CLA made generally binding can place it with a sector fund. You do not have to pay it if a CLA guarantees your employees a percentage of their wage that yields at least as much (FPS Employment, accessed 23 October 2026).
The €4,284 threshold also applies to part-time employees, without recalculation. If your blue-collar worker is paid by the hour, you convert to a monthly wage with the formula hourly wage x weekly working hours x 13 / 3 (same source). According to Securex, the supplement is exempt from NSSO contributions but subject to professional withholding tax (Securex, accessed 23 October 2026).
Whether your sector takes over the supplements is set out in your Joint Committee's CLAs. See also our article on CLAs and sectoral agreements.
When do you still pay normal wages?
Mainly in four cases: your blue-collar workers were not told in time and turn up anyway, work stops during the day, a public holiday falls within the period of unemployment, or the suspension is not valid. A mistake in the notification to the NEO also costs wages. In construction, the start and course of the day follow their own rules. You will find both further on.
- Not told in time. Outside construction, you let your blue-collar workers know in advance that they should not come in, in any way you like: phone, text message or email. If they turn up anyway because you did not tell them in time, you pay the whole day (NEO, leaflet E26, accessed 23 October 2026).
- Work stops during the day. You then owe the guaranteed daily wage for that day. You cannot place your workers on temporary unemployment for the remaining hours (same source).
- Public holiday in the period of unemployment. You pay any statutory public holiday or substitute day that falls in the period. Depending on the number of days of temporary unemployment in the year, you may get a reduction in social security contributions for a number of public holidays (same source). What you need to arrange for the public holidays of 2027 is explained in our article on public holidays in 2027.
- No valid suspension. You then pay the normal wage for those days and repay the gross amount of the benefits wrongly received to the NEO. You may deduct the net amount from the net wage (NEO, leaflet E29, accessed 23 October 2026).
What changed in 2026?
Three things. The additional supplement follows indexation: €5.31 since 1 March 2026 and €5.41 per benefit since 1 September 2026. The wage threshold that determines from which day you pay it rose to €4,284 on 1 January 2026 (FPS Employment, accessed 23 October 2026). And since 1 March 2026, an employee must register as a jobseeker after 3 months of temporary unemployment (NEO, leaflet T50, NEO, leaflet E29, accessed 23 October 2026).
| 2025 | October 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Additional supplement | €5.20 (since 1 February 2025) | €5.41 (since 1 September 2026; €5.31 from 1 March to 31 August 2026) |
| Wage threshold for the supplement from day 1 | €4,155 gross a month | €4,284 gross a month (since 1 January 2026) |
| Registration as a jobseeker | exempt | mandatory after 3 months of temporary unemployment (since 1 March 2026) |
Sources for 2025: NEO, leaflet E26 and Securex, accessed 23 October 2026.
Registering with VDAB, Actiris, Forem or ADG is the employee's obligation. If the employee fully returns to work for two consecutive weeks, a new 3-month period begins (NEO, leaflet E29, accessed 23 October 2026). The supplement and the wage threshold are indexed: check them at every indexation and every new year. For days before 1 September 2026, a lower amount applied: €5.31 from 1 March to 31 August 2026, and €5.20 before that (Acerta, Partena Professional, accessed 25 October 2026).
Which formalities apply, and how quickly?
Every month, you notify the NEO electronically, per blue-collar worker, of the first actual day of unemployment. You do this on that day itself, on the working day before if you are sure work will not be possible, or at the latest on the working day after. When a first period of unemployment starts, you file an ASR (social risk declaration) scenario 2, and after the end of each month an ASR scenario 5 (NEO, leaflet E29, accessed 23 October 2026).
- The monthly notification goes to the NEO office for your place of operation, via the social security portal or in batch. Among other things, it states the site, the type of bad weather and why the work is impossible.
- The deadline is counted in working days: every day except Sundays, public holidays, substitute days and bridge days. If the day before or after falls on a Saturday, the NEO accepts the Friday before or the Monday after.
- Every month again. A notification is valid until the end of the month. If the bad weather continues, you send a new one by the second working day of the new month at the latest.
- ASR scenario 2 is filed at the start of the employee's first temporary unemployment in your business, after a break of at least 36 months, after a change in working arrangement or at the first unemployment after 30 September.
- ASR scenario 5 is filed after the end of the month, with code 5.2 for bad weather. The employee receives a copy and completes the electronic control card eC3.2 (NEO, leaflet E29, accessed 23 October 2026).
Your social secretariat can complete these formalities for you as your authorised representative. If you work with blue-collar temp workers, the temp agency sends the notifications and the ASRs, using your company's enterprise number (NEO, leaflet E26, accessed 23 October 2026). You can read more about this division of roles in our article on temporary agency work in Belgium.
Notified too early or too late
Let's not beat around the bush: this is where a mistake costs money. If you do not send the notification, or send it too early, more than one working day before the first day of unemployment, the employee gets no benefit for that month. You then pay the normal wage for the first 7 days of suspension and a capped wage for the rest of the month.
Too late means more than one working day after the first day of unemployment. The NEO then only accepts the unemployment from the working day before the notification was sent. You only pay the days before that date yourself: the first 7 of them at the normal wage, any further days at a capped wage (Article 50 of the Employment Contracts Act; NEO, leaflet E29, accessed 24 October 2026).
What is different in construction?
Construction (JC 124) has its own rules. For temp workers, this is only possible if they were hired to replace blue-collar workers who are unfit for work or because of a temporary increase in work. If a blue-collar worker finds on arrival at the site that the weather makes the work impossible, they are not entitled to wages and the day can still count as temporary unemployment. The worker may combine a mobility allowance for that day with the benefit. If work was able to start, the worker is entitled to the wage for the whole day (NEO, leaflet E29, NEO, leaflet T79, accessed 23 October 2026).
For the hours that the weather then makes impossible, you may pay only half the normal wage yourself if the construction industry's Fund for Existence Security pays the rest, through what are known as bad-weather stamps (Articles 1bis and 2 of the Royal Decree of 16 December 1981, accessed 23 October 2026). That halving only applies to construction businesses with an activity on the list in Article 1 of that decree, including structural work, earthworks, roadworks and roofing. According to FPS Employment, it does not apply to tiling, plastering, ceiling work and finishing such as joinery, central heating and plumbing (FPS Employment, JC 124 sheet, last updated 5 February 2019). There, you pay the full wage for a day that has started (Article 27 of the Employment Contracts Act).
The control card from day one
In construction, every blue-collar worker completes the eC3.2 control card from the first day of the month, even if there is no temporary unemployment. On leaving for the site, the worker does not yet mark the day as a working day. If they cannot start on arrival, the day stays blank on the eC3.2. The worker only sends the card if there was temporary unemployment that month (NEO, leaflet T79, accessed 23 October 2026).
Winter training
From 1 December to 31 March inclusive, a blue-collar worker in JC 124 can follow scheduled winter training for up to 4 weeks while receiving bad-weather benefits. This does not apply to temp workers, who fall under JC 322. Only full days count, and accrued compensatory rest comes first (NEO, leaflet E29, accessed 23 October 2026). According to Embuild, the worker follows that training whatever the weather, and Constructiv contributes financially (Embuild, accessed 23 October 2026).
Whether the construction industry's Fund for Existence Security or you pay the supplements during temporary unemployment depends on the generally binding CLAs of JC 124. The law allows such a CLA to place the supplement with the fund (Article 51(8) of the Employment Contracts Act). Check the conditions and deadlines with Constructiv or your social secretariat.
What does a week of frost cost in practice?
That depends mainly on how promptly you notify the NEO. With a correct notification, you only pay the two supplements, plus any public holiday. With a late notification, you pay the normal wage yourself for the days before the date the NEO accepts. The example below sets the two situations side by side.
Worked example: frost in Christmas week
Assumptions: a full-time blue-collar worker outside construction, 38 hours a week spread over five days of 7.6 hours, with a gross monthly wage below €4,284 and a gross daily wage of €140. There is no sector fund taking over the supplements, and no extra supplement under a CLA. It freezes from Monday 21 to Thursday 24 December 2026 inclusive. You tell the worker on Monday morning, before work.
| Item | Notified on Monday (on time) | Only notified on Wednesday (late) |
|---|---|---|
| Normal wage for Monday 21 December | €0 | €140 |
| Statutory supplement of €2 per day of unemployment | 4 x €2 = €8 | 3 x €2 = €6 |
| Additional supplement of €5.41 per benefit | 5 x €5.41 = €27.05 | 3.5 x €5.41 = €18.94 |
| Total cost to the employer | €35.05 | €164.94 |
With the late notification on Wednesday, the NEO accepts the unemployment from Tuesday, the working day before it was sent. So you pay for Monday yourself.
The supplement is counted per benefit: four days of unemployment are 30.4 hours, and 30.4 x 6 / 38 gives 4.8, rounded to 5 benefits. Three days give 22.8 x 6 / 38 = 3.6, rounded to 3.5 (FPS Employment, accessed 23 October 2026).
You pay Christmas Day, Friday 25 December, as a public holiday in any case, regardless of the frost: that public holiday pay is therefore not in the table. All amounts are gross and exclude employer contributions. The NEO benefit itself is not a cost to the employer. How to get from gross wage to your total wage cost is explained in our article on calculating labour cost.
How do you prepare for winter?
Start before the first frost. The worked example shows it: a late notification costs more than the frost itself. The same goes for a worker who was not told and turns up anyway. These five steps let you settle the arrangements, together with your social secretariat.
Step 1. Agree how you will tell your blue-collar workers about bad weather and about work resuming, and who does it. As soon as the weather allows, you must tell them that work is resuming (NEO, leaflet E26, accessed 23 October 2026). Acerta recommends including that procedure in your work regulations (Acerta, accessed 23 October 2026).
Step 2. Check your sector-level CLA to see whether a fund takes over the supplements, and whether there is an extra supplement.
Step 3. Decide who sends the monthly notification and the ASRs: you or your social secretariat, and by when.
Step 4. Have accrued compensatory rest taken first, and plan your sites and staff so that you can move things around. For tips on flexible scheduling, see our article on unexpected peaks.
Step 5. Keep track of the days per blue-collar worker: the 26 days for the supplement above €4,284 and the 3 months for registration as a jobseeker. What seasonal work means for your wage costs more broadly is covered in our article on payroll costs in seasonal employment.
What employers should remember
- Only for blue-collar workers, and only if the work is impossible: harder or less profitable is not enough, and it is about full days.
- You pay at least €2 per day of unemployment and €5.41 per benefit, above €4,284 gross only from the 27th day, unless a sector fund or a CLA arranges otherwise.
- The monthly notification is the core: notifying too early or not at all costs you the normal wage for the first 7 days of suspension and then a capped wage until the end of the month. Notifying too late costs you the wage for the days before the date the NEO accepts.
- You pay public holidays that fall in the period of unemployment, as well as a day on which work only stops during the day. In part of the construction sector, the fund takes over part of that day.
How Recruit helps you
Temporary unemployment due to bad weather calls for accurate payroll processing, just when the weather is upending your planning.
With Recruit:
- Accurate payroll - Pay aligned with your Joint Committee and the legislation in force
- Flexible staff paid correctly - Students, flexi-jobbers and temporary staff, each according to their status
- Dimona and social documents - Immediate employment declaration and records kept
- Clocking app - Your staff clock in and out via the clocking app, so you can see each day who has worked
- Temporary unemployment handled - If you work with Recruit's blue-collar workers, we, as a recognised temp agency, send the monthly notification to the NEO and the ASRs. You simply let us know when work stops
- Personal support - On weekdays from 9am to 5pm, and for priority matters a personal account manager directly on the line
Try Recruit or contact our HR experts for tailored advice.
Frequently asked questions
Can a white-collar employee go on bad-weather unemployment?
No. Temporary unemployment due to bad weather is reserved for blue-collar workers, blue-collar temp workers and blue-collar apprentices in dual learning (NEO, leaflet E26, FPS Employment, accessed 23 October 2026).
Can I declare half a day of temporary unemployment?
No. It is about full days. If work stops during the day, outside construction you pay the guaranteed daily wage. In construction, the worker is entitled to the wage for the whole day. Only in construction businesses covered by the Royal Decree of 16 December 1981, not in finishing work, may you pay half for the hours not worked if the Fund for Existence Security pays the rest (NEO, leaflet E26, Royal Decree of 16 December 1981, accessed 23 October 2026).
What if the bad weather lasts into the next month?
Then you send a new notification of the first day of unemployment, by the second working day of that month at the latest. A notification is only valid for one month, until the last calendar day of the month (NEO, leaflet E26, NEO, leaflet E29, accessed 23 October 2026).
What does the employee have to do?
At the first temporary unemployment, the employee applies for benefits with a C3.2-WORKER form at their own payment institution (ABVV/FGTB, ACV/CSC, HVW/CAPAC or SYNOVA). After that, they complete the electronic control card eC3.2 and submit it to that payment institution at the end of the month. Since 1 March 2026, they register as a jobseeker after 3 months of temporary unemployment (NEO, leaflet E26, NEO, leaflet T50, NEO, leaflet E29, accessed 23 October 2026).
The information in this article is provided for general guidance only and does not replace professional legal advice. Labour legislation changes regularly. Always consult the legislation in force or contact an HR expert for advice suited to your situation.