The Minister for Employment, Kris Peeters (Flemish Christian Democrats), has removed conditions connected with the use of hours exempt from payroll tax within the hotel, restaurant and catering sector. He is relaxing the rules aiming to fight against black market work.
These rules are proving too complex. This is reported in La Dernière Heure and the Mediahuis publications today (Thursday).
Until now, the recourse to net overtime hours was only permitted in cases of unusual work requirements or unforeseen needs. Minister Peeters explained, “However we have observed that a number of establishments are not correctly applying these rules.”
From now on, such hours will therefore be able to be worked without applying such rules. This is the case although these hours remain the preserve of full time workers.
Minister Peeters has maintained the ceilings previously in force, namely 360 hours for establishments with a so-called ‘black box’ and 300 hours for those which do not have such a device. Kris Peeters indicates, “This will act as an incentive for establishments having a so-called ‘white box’.”
