Belgium..work 4 days a week and the right to ignore the manager's calls on vacation

Belgium has approved a package of labor laws, providing for work for 4 days a week, with granting the employee the right to ignore all forms of communications related to work outside working hours.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexandre de Croo said in a press conference that the new labor laws include a series of "great achievements for workers", as "Sputnik" quoted "Euro News".

And de Croo added in a statement: "Our labor market is changing, and the worker will now be able to better divide his weekly work schedule into four days instead of five and benefit from an additional day of rest every week."

The Belgian Prime Minister explained that the government wants with these new laws "to give people more freedom in their lives and to give companies more freedom in the way work time is occupied."

De Croo pointed out that if the Belgian government wants to address the labor shortage, it should take as many measures as possible to ensure that people can combine their professional and private lives.

The new Belgian laws give workers in companies with more than 20 employees the legal right to disconnect from work at the end of the working day, and to ignore incoming calls from their bosses at work outside official working hours.

Under the new laws, employers and managers will no longer expect their employees to read their emails outside of work hours.

The Belgian government's statement stressed the border between working and private life, stressing that it had "become more porous", necessitating more limits for employees.

In the same context, the new laws gave workers the right to receive training from employers, at a rate of three days of training, to be increased to four days by 2023 and five days from 2024.

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