The Act of 12 June 2020 equates (amongst others) periods of temporary unemployment and incapacity for work with time worked for the granting of post-natal maternity leave of up to 15 weeks. In this way, pregnant workers are no longer disadvantaged by absences that occur outside their control.
Article 39 of the Labour Act of 16 March 1971 allows pregnant workers who have continued to work during the six weeks preceding the birth of their child to extend their maternity leave by five weeks after the nine weeks of compulsory post-natal rest. These 5 weeks are therefore optional and can be taken either before the birth or after compulsory post-natal rest.
This allows workers to choose whether they need more pre-natal or more postnatal rest. However, this choice did not apply if the worker was unable to continue working beyond her control before the childbirth. This means, for example, that a sick worker who was unfit for work during the period prior to childbirth was not entitled to extend her post-natal rest, since she had not continued to work during the prenatal period.
The social partners in the National Labour council asked in December 2019 (in advice no. 2.153) for time to investigate the optimal method to achieve a phased assimilation of periods of absence with periods worked. However, the corona crisis has speeded up the introduction of this equivalence, as many pregnant workers have been put into temporary unemployment by their employees outside of their will, which also meant that they would lose the option of extending their post-natal rest. Although the initial aim of the act was only to assimilate the period of temporary unemployment due to the coronavirus, the Act of 12 June 2020 was finally adopted in the Chamber of Representatives providing for a much broader assimilation. It deals in particular with the situations of:
- temporary unemployment due to force majeure;
- economic unemployment for white-collar workers;
- incapacity for work; and
- complete removal from work (protective measure by the employer).
In these cases, the worker will be able to extend her post-natal rest to 15 weeks.
The law will apply retroactively from 1 March 2020 and will therefore also have consequences for current and recently ended pregnancies.
The Act has been published in the Belgian Official Gazette on 18 June 2020.