Drafting work regulations: mandatory content and procedure

Your first employee starts next week. The contract is signed, the Dimona (immediate employment declaration) is filed, and then your accountant asks: "Do you have work regulations in place yet?" Silence. Because honestly? Most new employers don't even know that such a document is mandatory. Let alone what has to go in it.

And yet work regulations are one of the most important documents in your company. They set the ground rules between you and your employees. Work schedules, holiday arrangements, penalties for breaches, the procedure in case of illness: it's all in there. Or it all should be.

This article tells you exactly what you need to know to draft work regulations that comply with Belgian law. From the mandatory content to the correct procedure, including the steps to follow if you want to amend them later.

What exactly are work regulations?

Work regulations are a mandatory social document that sets out the general working conditions and rules inside your company. Think of them as your company's constitution, but specifically for the relationship between employer and employee.

The legal basis? The Act of 8 April 1965 establishing work regulations. That law not only requires you to have work regulations, it also prescribes what must go in them and how you draw them up or amend them.

Important to know: work regulations apply to everyone. Both you as the employer and your employees are bound by them. An employee who breaks the rules can be penalised. But an employer who doesn't follow their own regulations? They can just as easily be held to account.

Who needs work regulations?

Nearly every private-sector employer with at least one employee must have work regulations. The law is fairly clear here.

The moment you take someone on, even a single person, you're required to draw up work regulations. It doesn't matter whether the employee is full-time, part-time, temporary or permanent.

There are a few exceptions, though. The law does not apply to:

• Family businesses where only family members work under the authority of the father, the mother or the guardian
• Mobile staff in the transport sector (for whom a specific set of rules applies)
• Certain categories in the public sector

So for the vast majority of Belgian SMEs and larger companies, the principle is: no work regulations, no compliant employment. And that can have consequences. The labour inspectorate actively checks whether employers have work regulations and whether their content is in order.

Just started out as an employer? Then also read our guide on registering your first employee, because work regulations are only one of many obligations.

Mandatory content: what to include

The Act of 8 April 1965 lists a whole series of mandatory items your work regulations must contain. Forget one of them and your regulations are incomplete, which can cost you dearly during an inspection.

This is where it gets a little legal. Not boring-legal, but important. Here are the main items, one by one.

Working time and schedules

This is often the most extensive part of the work regulations. You must state:

• The start and end of the normal working day
• The timing and duration of rest breaks
• The days of regular interruption of work (typically weekends)
• The schedules for part-time employees where these differ from the full-time schedule

Do you work with variable schedules or shift systems? Then all possible schedules must appear in the work regulations. Yes, every single one. In practice, this is the part where employers most often get it wrong, especially in sectors with flexible working hours such as hospitality or retail.

Pay and payment

The regulations must clearly state:

• The method used to calculate pay (hourly, monthly, piece rate)
• The method and timing of payment
• The place of payment (where it is not made electronically)

You don't have to include exact salary amounts. Those go in the individual employment contract. But the calculation method and payment terms? Those are mandatory.

Holidays and public holidays

In your work regulations you state:

• The dates of the annual collective holiday (if your company applies one)
• The procedure for individual holiday requests
• The list of statutory public holidays
• The replacement days for public holidays that fall on a Sunday or a normal day off

Those replacement days are, incidentally, a source of confusion. Every single year. As an employer, you're required to set the replacement days for the following year before the end of the current year and to include them in the work regulations. We regularly see companies forget this, and disputes follow.

Notice periods and dismissal

The work regulations must state the applicable notice periods, or at least refer to the statutory provisions and any sector-specific exceptions. Want to know more about the dismissal procedure? See our article on dismissing an employee in Belgium.

Penalties and disciplinary rules

An employer can only impose penalties if they are expressly set out in the work regulations. No mention, no penalty. It's that simple. This is the key point.

The regulations must provide for:

• A precise description of the shortcomings that can lead to a penalty
• The nature of the penalties (warning, suspension, fine, dismissal for serious cause)
• The amount of any fines and how they are used
• An appeal procedure for employees who want to contest a penalty

Strict rules apply to fines. The total amount of fines per pay period may not exceed one fifth of the net salary. And the money may not go to the employer: it must be spent for the benefit of the employees.

After more than 15 years in Belgian payroll, we see that disciplinary rules are often insufficiently developed. The result? Employers who want to penalise an employee but can't do so legally, simply because the work regulations are too vague.

Other mandatory items

Beyond the major blocks above, your work regulations must also state:

• The rights and duties of supervisory staff
• The names of the members of the works council, the Committee for Prevention and Protection at Work (CPPW), and the trade union delegation
• The name of the occupational physician or external prevention and protection service
• The addresses of the labour inspectorate (Supervision of Social Legislation) and the Supervision of Well-being at Work
• The reference to the collective labour agreements (CLAs) and collective accords that apply
• The measures protecting against violence, harassment and unwanted sexual behaviour at work
• The details relating to your privacy policy and camera surveillance (if you use it)

The list is long. Which is exactly why most employers get help from a social secretariat or HR partner. You can do all of this yourself, the legal text and a model set of work regulations are available free of charge on the FPS Employment website. But in practice it's an extensive job you'd rather not get wrong. At Recruit, our HR experts help employers with this kind of administrative obligation every day, so you can be sure everything is correct and compliant.

The procedure, step by step

The way you draw up work regulations depends on one crucial question: do you have a works council or not? The procedure differs fundamentally.

Procedure with a works council

Does your company have a works council (mandatory from 100 employees)? Then it's the works council that draws up or amends the work regulations.

Here's how the procedure runs:

Step 1. The employer submits a draft to the works council. At the same time, the draft is brought to the attention of all employees, so they are informed too.

Step 2. The works council is convened. That may happen no earlier than 15 days and no later than 30 days after the day of posting or notification.

Step 3. The works council discusses the draft and tries to reach an agreement.

Step 4 in case of agreement. The work regulations take effect 15 days after the agreement, unless another date is agreed.

Step 4 in case of disagreement. No agreement reached? Then the chair of the works council reports this to the inspector of the Supervision of Social Legislation. The inspector has 30 days to reconcile the positions. If that fails, the file goes to the competent Joint Committee.

Procedure without a works council

No works council? Then a different procedure applies, but here too employees have a say.

Step 1. As the employer, you draw up a draft and post it in a visible and accessible place in the company. For 15 days, employees must be able to consult it.

Step 2. During those same 15 days, employees can submit comments. They can do so in a special register you make available for that purpose, or they can report their comments directly to the inspector of the Supervision of Social Legislation.

Step 3a, no comments. Are there no comments after 15 days? Then the work regulations take effect on the 15th day after posting.

Step 3b, comments received. Are there comments? Then you send the draft and the comments register to the Supervision of Social Legislation. The inspector tries to mediate within 30 days. If that fails, the dispute is referred to the Joint Committee.

Step 4. Once the work regulations take effect, you send a copy within 8 days to the regional directorate of the labour inspectorate. This can also be done digitally via www.arbeidsreglement.belgie.be.

Key formal requirements

Don't forget these:

• Every employee receives a copy of the work regulations when they join
• With every amendment, all employees receive an updated version
• A copy of the work regulations must be available in an accessible place in the company
• The regulations state the date of entry into force

Changing work regulations: when and how?

Work regulations are not a static document. Quite the opposite. You'll need to adjust them regularly. New legislation, changed schedules, a different holiday policy, new rules around remote work: the reasons are countless.

The procedure for amending work regulations is broadly the same as for drawing them up. With a works council, it goes through the works council; without one, through the posting procedure with the 15-day period.

There is one important nuance, though. Some changes in legislation apply automatically, even if you haven't yet updated your work regulations. Think of statutory adjustments to notice periods or indexations. But that doesn't relieve you of the obligation to keep your regulations up to date.

Many of the employers we support at Recruit ask: "How often do I have to review my work regulations?" There's no legal frequency, but in practice we recommend checking at least once a year whether everything is still current. Certainly after CLA changes or new legislation.

Want to know more about the documents you have to keep as an employer? Read our guide on social documents for employers.

Common mistakes to avoid

Honestly? This is one of those topics that even experienced HR managers sometimes trip over. Here are the most common mistakes.

Incomplete schedules. You apply variable working hours but haven't included every possible schedule. The result: the labour inspectorate can treat those schedules as invalid, with all the consequences that entails for overtime arrangements and allowances.

Vague disciplinary rules. "Repeated lateness may result in a penalty." That's too vague. What counts as repeated? Which penalty exactly? Work regulations must be concrete.

Missing privacy clauses. Do you use cameras on the shop floor? Do you monitor emails or internet use? Then that must be in the work regulations. The GDPR only makes this more important.

Outdated information. Labour inspectorate addresses that are no longer correct, names of CPPW members who left long ago, references to abolished CLAs. It sounds like a detail, but during an inspection this really is checked.

No mention of remote work. Since the pandemic, structural remote work has become embedded in many companies. But the work regulations often haven't kept pace. If you run a remote-work policy, it belongs in there.

The procedure not followed correctly. You've drawn up the regulations but didn't respect the 15-day posting period. Or you didn't make a comments register available. Formally, this means the work regulations have not validly taken effect.

What penalties do employers face?

Not having work regulations, or having regulations that don't meet the legal requirements, is not a no-strings matter. The consequences are real.

The labour inspectorate (Supervision of Social Legislation) can draw up an official report. That can lead to criminal penalties or administrative fines. The amounts vary depending on the offence and are multiplied by the number of employees involved.

But the consequences go further than fines alone. Without valid work regulations, as an employer you can:

• Impose no valid penalties on employees (because the penalties aren't in there)
• Run into problems with dismissal for serious cause (if the procedure isn't in the regulations)
• Face disputes over schedules and overtime (because they aren't formally set out)

The honest truth? Most small employers aren't inspected daily. But the moment a conflict arises with an employee or a trade union, and that happens faster than you'd think, the work regulations are the first document put on the table.

How to get started: practical tips

Use the model work regulations from FPS Employment. The government makes a free model available on werk.belgie.be. It's a good starting point, but you do have to adapt it to your own company situation.

Involve your social secretariat or HR partner. This is not a document you throw together on a Sunday evening. The legal consequences are too great. Have it reviewed by someone with expertise in Belgian labour law.

Think ahead. Don't just capture the current situation, anticipate growth. Likely to introduce shift work? Include the schedules now. Considering remote work? Provide the clauses. Adjusting later is possible, but it means going through the full procedure again each time.

Keep evidence of the procedure. Keep a record that you posted the draft, that the register was available, and that you filed the copy. In later disputes, that evidence is worth its weight in gold.

Give every employee a copy. On joining and with every amendment. Have them sign for receipt. It's not a legal requirement, but it saves you disputes down the line.

Also check which joint committee applies to your company, because sector-specific CLAs can impose additional obligations on your work regulations.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need work regulations if I only have one employee?

Yes. The law makes no distinction based on the number of employees. The moment you take someone on, work regulations are mandatory. Even with a single employee.

Can I make the work regulations available digitally?

Yes, provided all employees genuinely have access to them. A digital version on the intranet is enough, but make sure employees without their own computer can also consult it. A paper copy in an accessible place remains recommended.

What if an employee doesn't want to sign the work regulations?

The employee isn't obliged to sign. The work regulations apply as soon as they are correctly drawn up and introduced through the legal procedure. A signature is useful as proof of receipt, but it's not a condition of validity.

How often do I have to review my work regulations?

There's no legal frequency. But in practice it's wise to check them at least once a year, and certainly after every change in labour law or after sector-specific CLA adjustments. Some social secretariats automatically send updates when the work regulations need adjusting.

Where do I find a model set of work regulations?

FPS Employment (Federal Public Service Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue) offers a free model on werk.belgie.be. Your social secretariat can also provide you with a tailor-made model.

In short

Drawing up work regulations is mandatory for every employer in Belgium with at least one employee. The document contains your company's ground rules: schedules, method of pay, holiday arrangements, disciplinary rules and much more.

The procedure depends on whether or not you have a works council, but in both cases a formal process applies, with a say for employees. And once drawn up, the job isn't done: you have to keep them up to date with every relevant change.

It's not the most exciting part of running a business. But it is one of the most fundamental. Good work regulations prevent disputes, protect you as an employer and provide clarity for your team. Take the time for it, or get help from experts who do this every day.

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The information in this article is purely informative and does not replace professional legal or accounting advice. Labour law changes regularly. Always consult the current legislation or contact an HR expert for advice tailored to your situation.