Belgian employment law reforms: Sickness

Since 1 January 2026, employers must implement an active absenteeism policy and incorporate into their work regulations a policy for maintaining contact with absent employees.

The work regulations must specify:

• Who contacts the employee and within what timeframe (for example, the HR manager within 10 working days following notification of the absence);
• How frequently follow-up contacts take place (for example, once a week in the event of a short absence, every two weeks in the event of a long absence), unless the employee wishes otherwise;
• Through which channels (telephone, e-mail, video conference), while respecting privacy and without requesting medical details.

Where appropriate, the employer may, in consultation with the employee and/or the occupational health physician, consider measures facilitating the employee’s return to work: support, temporary adjustments, gradual return to work, etc.

Reintegration Track: RT 3.0

Since 1 January 2026, employers must, after eight weeks of incapacity for work, have the employee’s work potential assessed by the external service for prevention and protection at work. If the employee has work potential, the employer is required to initiate an RT 3.0 within six months following the start of the sickness.

For employers employing more than 20 employees, failure to initiate the reintegration track within this period is punishable by a level 2 sanction within the meaning of the Belgian Social Criminal Code.

Another major change: employers may now initiate a reintegration track from the very first day of sickness, provided the employee consents. Under the previous regulations, a waiting period of three months had to be respected.

Application over time: RT 3.0 applies only to incapacity for work beginning on or after 1 January 2026, without retroactive effect on tracks already initiated. An incapacity that started on 31 December 2025 therefore does not fall under RT 3.0. !! This means that the new rules relating to reintegration tracks will, for the first time, actually have to be applied from 1 July 2026 onwards because employers – for illnesses occurring from 1 January 2026 – are required to initiate the reintegration track within 6 months following the start of the illness!!

It is therefore important to actively take this into account already now.

Finally, the assessment of suitable work is no longer limited to internal possibilities: it now extends to an analysis of employment opportunities with other employers. This development now has a legal basis.

Medical force majeure

Where RT 3.0 does not lead to a result, the medical force majeure procedure constitutes the logical next step. The waiting period has been reduced from 9 to 6 months of uninterrupted incapacity.

!! The reduced waiting period of 6 months also applies to incapacities for work that began before 1 January 2026!! → This means that the employment contract of a person whose incapacity for work began on 31 October 2025 can already, at present, be terminated due to medical force majeure.

Attention: a medical force majeure procedure may only be initiated if no reintegration track is ongoing. However, RT 3.0 must mandatorily be launched after 6 months, which is the same period applicable to medical force majeure. It is therefore necessary to ensure that RT 3.0 is concluded before initiating the medical force majeure procedure: the two procedures cannot run simultaneously.

The government agreement encouraged employers to invest more in the reintegration of long-term sick employees aged between 18 and 55. This point has also been enshrined in legislation.

During the first two months of primary incapacity following the guaranteed salary period (i.e. during the second and third months of sickness), employers that do not qualify as SMEs must pay a contribution corresponding to 30% of the benefit paid by the NIHDI to this category of employees.

This measure replaces the fines currently applicable to companies with a relatively high number of employees on long-term sick leave.

The importance of work potential was also emphasized in the government agreement from the employee’s perspective. Where an employee with work potential fails to cooperate, or does not sufficiently cooperate, with the reintegration process, sanctions may be imposed from 1 June 2026 onwards.

These sanctions have since also been incorporated into legislation:

• A 10% reduction of benefits in the event of failure to comply with administrative obligations;
• Complete withdrawal of benefits in the event of unjustified absence (following an initial warning) from a physical meeting with the medical adviser, the mutual insurance fund team for the assessment of work potential, or the occupational health physician (within the framework of the reintegration process). This represents a significant tightening compared with the previous sanction of 2.5%;
• A 10% reduction of benefits in the event of unjustified absence from an appointment with a “return-to-work” coordinator.

Since 1 January 2026, the number of days of absence that may be taken without a medical certificate has been reduced from 3 to 2 days per calendar year.

Since 1 January 2026, an employee must have resumed work for eight weeks (instead of 14 days) before becoming entitled again to 30 days of guaranteed salary.

In the event of a partial return to work, the employee cannot claim guaranteed salary in the event of a relapse.