The Belgian Whistleblower Act of 28 November 2022 on the protection of reporters of violations of Union or national law transposes the EU Whistleblower Directive into national law. This Act, which came into effect on 15 February 2023, requires private-sector companies with more than 50 employees to set up an internal reporting channel for whistleblowing. In this newsletter, Strelia’s Employment & Benefits Practice clarifies how you should calculate this 50-employee threshold and at what level.

Where should you start?

The Belgian Whistleblower Act refers to social election legislation only. This legislation requires companies to calculate every 4 years the average number of employees at their technical business unit (TBU) level over a specific reference period to determine if social elections should be organized. For this average number for the purpose of social elections, you take the number of calendar days between each entry and exit declaration recorded in the DIMONA system during the reference period from 1 October to 30 September and divide that number by 365.

The Belgian Whistleblower Act’s reference to the above prompts many employers to ask the following:

• Should we calculate the number of employees for the reference period from 1 October (2022) to 30 September (2023)?
• Are we exempt from this obligation for 4 years if we do not have 50 employees on our payroll?
• Do we count any temporary workers when calculating this 50-employee threshold?

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