In Belgium, employees are not allowed to work on 10 official public holidays per year. In 2012, the 10 official public holidays will be as follows:
New Year's Day - Sunday 1 January
Easter Monday - Monday 9 April
Labour Day - Tuesday 1 May
Ascension Day - Thursday 17 May
Whit Monday - Monday 28 May
National Holiday - Saturday 21 July
Assumption Day - Wednesday 15 August
All Saints Day - Thursday 1 November
Armistice Day - Sunday 11 November
Christmas - Tuesday 25 December
When a public holiday falls on a Sunday or a day that is normally a non-working day within the company, it should be replaced by an alternative working (business) day within the same calendar year.
Example: if Saturday and Sunday are normally non-working days within a company, the public holidays of 1 January, 21 July and 11 November 2012 should be replaced by a normal working day in 2012.
Determination of alternative days
If alternative days are determined at the level of the competent Joint Committee, a notification must be sent to the Minister for Labour and Employment before October 2011.
In the event that no decision has been taken at Joint Committee level, the alternative days can be determined at company level:
by a Works Council decision;
by mutual agreement between the employer and the union representative(s);
by mutual agreement between the employer and the employees;
by mutual agreement between the employer and the individual employee.
The decision regarding alternative days for the next calendar year together with regulations regarding compensatory rest must be posted throughout company offices, where it is clearly visible to employees, doing so before 15 December 2011.
If alternative days are not determined as described above, the holiday will be replaced with the next regular working day.
Example: if no replacement day has been determined for New Year’s Day, which falls on a Sunday in 2012, this holiday will be replaced by Monday 2 January 2012.
