Working-time rules

Working-time rules in Belgium

What the law says in Belgium about rest, hours, breaks, night work and workers under 18, with the provision behind each figure, and what helloswap checks when a shift is planned, swapped or taken.

The figures for adults

Each figure is the law's, with the number of its source. The last column says what helloswap does with a shift that breaks it.

Rule	What the law says	In helloswap
Rest between two shifts	At least 11 hours in a row¹	Blocks the shift
Longest working day	Never more than 11 hours of work²The ordinary limit, without overtime or an exception, is 8 hours³	Blocks the shift
Longest single week	Never more than 50 hours in one week²	Blocks the shift
Average working week (EU rule)	At most 48 hours a week on average, overtime included⁴	Warning
Weekly rest	35 hours in a row every week⁵	Warning
Break	At least 15 minutes when the working day is longer than 6 hours⁶⁷	Warning
Night period	20:00 to 06:00⁸⁹	Definition

Workers under 18

Someone who is under 18 on the day of the shift gets these figures. helloswap goes by the date of birth on the person's profile. An empty cell means the law has no figure there that this page can state.

Rule	Ages 15–17	In helloswap
Rest between two shifts	12 hours¹⁰	Blocks the shift
Longest working day	8 hours¹¹	Blocks the shift
Longest working week	40 hours¹¹	Blocks the shift
No work between	20:00 and 06:00¹²¹³	Blocks the shift
Weekly rest	2 consecutive days off a week¹⁴	Blocks the shift
Break	30 minutes when the day is longer than 4.5 hours¹⁵	Warning
Longer break	60 minutes when the day is longer than 6 hours¹⁵	Warning

Nobody under 15 may be employed, apart from narrow exceptions such as performances with a permit. So there are no working-hour figures for them here.¹⁶
The longest day and week count hours of work: the company's unpaid break is taken off first when the shift is long enough to need a break.
Weekly rest is measured over the 7 days up to the shift. Too few days off blocks the shift; days off that are not next to each other give a warning, because the law itself allows them to be split in some cases.
helloswap does not check whether someone of a given age may be employed at all, or in which kind of work.

How helloswap applies them

The law's figure is one thing, the check another. Where the two differ, it says so here.

Rest between two shifts: helloswap measures from the end of one shift to the start of the next. A shift that leaves less than 11 hours is not saved.
Longest working day: One shift may hold at most 11 hours of work. The company's unpaid break is taken off first when the shift is long enough to need a break.
Longest single week: helloswap adds up the shifts of the company's week, from start to end, and does not save a shift that takes the week over 50 hours.
Average working week (EU rule): This figure is not in the country's own statute, which sets its limits in another way. It is the ceiling of the EU working-time directive, which every member state's law has to stay within. helloswap gives a warning when a person's average goes over 48 hours; the shift can still be saved.
Weekly rest: helloswap looks at the 7 days up to the shift and gives a warning when they hold no rest of at least 35 hours in a row. A rest that began before those days counts in full.
Break: helloswap compares the 15 minutes with the break length the company has set and gives a warning when a shift longer than 6 hours has a shorter one.
Night period: The hours that count as night for adults, where no agreement sets others. Workers under 18 have hours of their own, in their own table.

What blocks a shift, and what only warns

The split is the product's own and the same for every company.

Blocks: the shift is not saved

Nobody can override these, whether a manager plans the shift, someone takes it from the swap board or it is part of a swap.

Rest between two shifts
Longest working day
Longest single week
The figures for workers under 18, except the break

Warns: the manager decides

The shift can still be saved. The warning names the rule and says why.

Average working week (EU rule)
Weekly rest
Break
The break for workers under 18

Sources

Every figure on this page carries the number of the provision it was read in. The links go to the official text.

Check the rest between two shifts

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