Incapacity for work and reintegration: the new rules effective from 1 January 2026

Dear reader,

On 30 December 2025, the long-awaited Act of 19 December 2025 implementing a strengthened return-to-work policy in the event of incapacity for work was published in the Belgian Official Gazette, as also the Royal Decree of 17 December 2025 amending the Codex on Well-being at Work regarding the reintegration of employees on sick leave and the prevention of long-term absence.   

In addition to the Programme Act of 18 July 2025 and the Act of 11 December 2025 containing various provisions (for which we refer to our Newsletter of 15 December 2025), this therefore constitutes a third, very important wave of legislative initiatives implementing the Government Agreement.

In this newsletter, we provide you with a schematic overview of the most significant developments introduced by these legislative initiatives within the HR landscape. 

For your convenience, the left-hand column sets out the regulations as they applied until 31 December 2025; the right-hand column contains the new regulations applicable as from 1 January 2026.

Enjoy the read!