The Law of 26 December 2013 concerning the introduction of the unified status between blue collar and white collar workers regarding the notice periods, first day of unpaid sick leave and accompanying measures (Wet betreffende de invoering van een eenheidsstatuut tussen arbeiders en bedienden inzake de opzeggingstermijnen en de carenzdag en begeleidende maatregelen/Loi concernant l'introduction d'un statut unique entre ouvriers et employés en ce qui concerne les délais de préavis et le jour de carence ainsi que de mesures d'accompagnement) broadened the right to outplacement for dismissed employees (See, VBB on Business Law, Volume 2014, No. 1, p. 10, available at www.vbb.com).

The system of outplacement was extended to all employees who are entitled to a notice period or corresponding notice indemnity of at least 30 weeks (as of 9 years of seniority under the new rules) and the existing system of outplacement as from the age of 45 became the default system (only applicable if the employee is not entitled to outplacement under the new outplacement system).

Due to the fact that, under the new outplacement system, the dismissed employee also contributes to the funding of the outplacement in case this employee is dismissed with a notice indemnity (by means of a deduction from his notice indemnity), a transitional measure had been provided for. Under this transitional measure, an employee had the possibility to refuse the outplacement offer and regain his/her full notice indemnity.

All of this will change on 1 January 2016 as follows:

An employee is not entitled to outplacement if his/her employment contract is terminated for serious cause (which is also the case for outplacement as of the age of 45).

If an employee is terminated with a notice indemnity, the employee will be entitled to a "dismissal package" consisting of (i) 60 hours of outplacement with a value of 1/12th of the annual salary (4 weeks) with a minimum of EUR 1,800 and a maximum of EUR 5,500 (prorated in case of part-time employment); and (ii) a notice indemnity equal to the remainder of the notice period with a deduction of the 4 weeks' salary (outplacement).

The outplacement offer must be made within 15 days after the termination of the employment contract. The employee has 4 weeks to accept the offer from the moment the outplacement offer is made. If the employer does not make an outplacement offer, the employee has 39 weeks to give notice of default to the employer by registered letter. The employer should make a valid outplacement offer to the employee within 4 weeks after the letter of default.

If the employer fails to make a valid outplacement offer or does not provide the offered outplacement, the employee regains his/her 4 weeks' notice indemnity which was taken into account for outplacement. This will not change after 1 January 2016. 

For employees not accepting the outplacement offer, the 4 weeks' notice indemnity should still be deducted.

If an employee is terminated with a notice period, the employee will be entitled to 60 hours of outplacement which will be taken out of his/her entitlement to solicitation leave. In case the employee is entitled to outplacement, the solicitation leave is always equal to 1 day (or 2 half days) per week during the whole notice period and not only during the last six months of the notice period.

The outplacement offer must be made within 4 weeks after the start of the notice period. The employee has 4 weeks to accept the offer as from the moment the outplacement offer is made. If the employer does not make an outplacement offer, the employee has 4 weeks to give notice of default to the employer by registered letter. The employer should make a valid outplacement offer to the employee within 4 weeks after the reception of letter of default.

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