During the health crisis in 2021 and 2022, the principle of recovery hours was introduced. The social partners have now reintroduced recovery hours for the period from July 2023 to June 2025[1]. Below we briefly explain what these recovery hours entail.
Recovery hours are additional voluntary overtime hours that an employee can work over a certain period. The employer is not obliged to pay an overtime rate for these hours, and time off in lieu does not need to be granted. The recovery hours are paid at the normal rate (100%).
These recovery hours are in addition to the existing 100 voluntary overtime hours. The differences between recovery hours and ‘normal’ voluntary overtime are set out in the table below. There is no requirement for employees to take their voluntary overtime first and only then take recovery hours.
|
|
Voluntary overtime |
Recovery hours |
|
Number |
In principle, max. 100 hours per calendar year |
Max. 120 hours per legally defined period |
|
Overtime rate? |
Yes (+50%, except for Sundays and public holidays: +100%) |
No |
|
Time off in lieu? |
No |
No |
|
Does an internal limit apply? |
Yes, except for the first 25 hours. Sectoral deviations possible. |
No |
|
Procedure |
Prior written agreement of employee (valid for 6 months) |
Prior written agreement of employee (valid for 6 months) |
|
Social security, withholding tax? |
Yes |
No, gross = net |
Employees can work a maximum of 120 recovery hours in each of the following periods: from 1 July 2023 to 31 December 2023, from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2024 and from 1 January 2025 to 30 June 2025.
Recovery hours, like voluntary overtime, are worked at the employer’s request and with the employee’s express prior written consent. The agreement between them is valid for six months and can be renewed. The mere fact of there being a written agreement between the parties is sufficient: there is no need for any specific justification or valid reasons to be given for working the recovery hours.
Working the recovery hours must not result in the daily limit of 11 hours or the weekly limit of 50 hours being exceeded. Taking into account European regulations on working time, the average weekly working time may not exceed 48 hours over a period of four months.[2]This means that it must be possible to guarantee at any time that the working time, including overtime, has not exceeded an average of 48 hours over a period of four months.
Employees on a part-time schedule may only claim recovery hours if they exceed the normal limits for a day (nine hours) or for a week (in principle 38 hours) for full-time employees in their company. If they do not reach these limits, yet extra work hours on top of their normal schedule, these will be overtime hours (not recovery hours), to which separate rules apply.
In contrast to voluntary overtime, pay for recovery hours is free from social security contributions and withholding tax.
However, note that this tax exemption only applies if an overtime rate is not paid for these recovery hours (the payment of an overtime rate not being mandatory). If the employer therefore voluntarily decides to pay a higher rate for these hours, they become subject to tax.
Given the possible combination of recovery hours and voluntary overtime, an employee can in principle work up to 220 overtime hours voluntarily. Since the recovery hours are exempt from social security contributions and withholding tax and an overtime rate does not have to be paid, it is advisable to use this balance first, and only then use voluntary overtime.
[1] Law of 31 July 2023 implementing the agreement framework in the context of the interprofessional negotiations for the period 2023-2024, Belgian Official Gazette 5 September 2023.
[2] Directive 2003/88/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 November 2003 concerning certain aspects of the organisation of working time.