In brief
The Belgian act implementing EU Directive 2019/1937 ("Whistleblowing Act") requires legal entities in the private sector to establish channels and procedures for internal reporting and follow-up of reports in specific areas. These obligations apply to all legal entities employing at least 50 employees. Except for certain companies in the financial sector, the deadline for establishing the required channels and procedures also depends on the employee headcount, as follows:
Employee headcount method
Therefore, it is important to know how the legal entity's employee headcount is to be calculated. Unfortunately, the only guidance in this respect in the Whistleblowing Act (and moreover only for the 50 employee threshold) is a reference to the employee headcount calculation method used in the Belgian legislation on social elections.
This calculation method essentially means that over a period of four consecutive quarters (the reference period) the number of calendar days "in service" of all employees as reported in the quarterly social security declarations (Dimona) is to be added up and divided by 365.
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