While the new government announced fairly drastic measures on the employment front when it was formed towards the end of January 2025, most of these changes have yet to take place.

There are however a couple of developments to report:

• Bridge pension schemes (almost completely) abolished

Belgium has long applied an early retirement regime known as a ‘bridge pension‘ or, following the (unpopular) name change, the regime of ‘unemployment with company allowance‘. Under this regime, when an employee of a certain age is dismissed, they are entitled to unemployment benefits until they reach retirement age, as well as a monthly allowance payable by the former employer.

Over the years, the conditions for this regime (minimum age and professional career requirements) have tightened, in an effort to increase the average retirement age. For example, the age to access the general regime had increased to 62 and the requirement to have a professional career had gone up to 40 years. There were however still a number of exceptions to this rule (e.g. for disabled workers).

The regime has now been further tightened meaning, for example, that it will no longer be possible for employers to ask to lower the minimum age for the bridge pension when the employer is recognised as an ’employer in difficulties’ or ’employer in restructuring’ (following a collective dismissal situation or company closure).

Transitional measures have also been included for employees already receiving the company...

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