Several media outlets announced at the end of April that legislation with regard to student labour will be made more flexible from 1 January 2012.
In fact, simplifying and extending the favourable social security regime applicable to students has long been on the agenda of the representatives of trade unions and employer organisations. Since there was no breakthrough within the National Labour Council (NLC), the federal ministers of employment and social matters, Milquet and Onkelinx, jointly put together a bill which was in turn approved mid-April by the inner cabinet. Currently, the bill is (again) subject to recommendation by the representatives of trade unions and employer organisations. Even if such recommendations will only touch upon a number of details, it is only after this procedure is completed that the bill can be submitted to the House of Representatives for a vote. Therefore, at this stage, the new law is far from being final.
If the current bill is approved as such by the NLC and the House of Representatives, student labour will be newly regulated as of 1 January 2012 in the following terms.
Students will be able to work 50 days of their choosing, instead of the current 2 periods of 23 days of which the first set has to occur during the months of July, August or September.
Students remain exempt from social security contributions. Only a limited solidarity contribution of 8.31%, of which 5.42% is paid by the employer and 2.71% by the student, is applied.
Finally, a new declaration system will be put in place and include an electronic Multi-Dimona form and a “student job counter”.
In the meantime, the existing regulation remains applicable until the new bill becomes effective.
It should be underlined that, similarly to the current regime, the favourable social security regime will only apply for students employed under a specific employment contract.
An employment contract for students must be made in writing and contain certain mandatory provisions, such as the agreement’s start and end date, the description of the work and the place of employment. Social security authorities do not accept standard employment contracts.
The remuneration scales of the company or the sector must be applied to any student contract being exercised.
