Mandatory time recording in Belgium: what already applies and what the 2027 draft law provides

Will time recording be mandatory in Belgium in 2027?

Not yet: as at 5 October 2026, the general obligation to record working time only appears in a preliminary draft law. The Minister of Employment submitted it to the National Labour Council (CNT) on 26 March 2026, and on 30 September 2026 the CNT issued a split opinion (opinion No. 2.499). The text must still be passed by the Chamber of Representatives and published in the Belgian Official Gazette.

The text responds to the Court of Justice of the European Union, which requires, under Directive 2003/88/EC, an “objective, reliable and accessible” system measuring daily working time (judgments C-55/18 of 14 May 2019 and C-531/23 of 19 December 2024).

What the preliminary draft provides

• A new Article 38quinquies of the Labour Act of 16 March 1971: a system recording “objectively and reliably” the daily and weekly working time of each employee.
• No mandatory format. A system limited to deviations from the fixed or variable schedule is enough if it shows the time actually worked.
• Exclusions: family labour, management and positions of trust, sales representatives and the new category of “mobile staff”, with other categories that may be excluded by royal decree. According to both sides of the CNT, homeworkers, including teleworkers, would also be excluded; their position is still debated.
• Data retention for 5 years from the date the data is entered.
• Intended entry into force on 1 January 2027, with a period until the end of the first quarter of 2027 for employers that have no system yet.

Nothing is settled: employers' organisations reject the obligation and, failing that, ask for at least one year after the law is published; unions want a system the employee can access, recording of breaks, a minimum list of data, a criminal penalty and fewer exclusions.

When is recording working time already mandatory?

Employers must already record working time in four situations, and attendance recording is added on large building sites on 1 April 2027.

Part-time work. If deviations are not recorded, the employee is presumed to have worked full time. A variable schedule must be notified in a written, dated notice at least 7 working days in advance (at least 3 working days if a collective labour agreement, or CCT, declared generally binding so provides), and the notice must be kept for 1 year after the schedule ends. The employee may refuse work notified late or outside the agreed framework, and a late cancellation is paid as if the work had taken place.

Flexitime. Overtime aside, the working day may not exceed 9 hours and the week 45 hours, over a reference period of 3 months (1 year at most), with at most 12 hours carried over at the end of the period (more if a CCT so provides). Employees must be able to view their data and know their hours balance, and the inspectorate must have access.

Work rules (règlement de travail). They state the working hours or, since 1 June 2026, a “normal working time framework”, as well as the methods used to measure and check work in order to determine pay. Making employees work outside these hours is prohibited, except under legal exceptions such as voluntary overtime.

Which working time and overtime limits must you monitor?

Without reliable records, you cannot prove compliance with maximum working hours or with the quota of 360 hours of voluntary overtime a year, in force since 1 April 2026.

Voluntary overtime requires the employee's written, explicit and prior agreement, concluded for 1 year and tacitly renewed; either party may terminate it in writing with 1 month's notice. It gives no right to compensatory rest and does not count towards the internal limit of 143 hours. A part-time employee may only work voluntary overtime in the event of a temporary increase in work and after 3 years of part-time work (unless an agreement was already in place on 1 June 2026). It is excluded during a reduction of working time (career break, time credit), and “relaunch” overtime hours (heures de relance) worked in the first quarter of 2026 count towards the 360 hours.

Standard overtime carries a premium of 50%, or 100% on Sundays and public holidays: how it flows into payroll is explained on our page From time clock to payroll in Belgium.

In disputes over overtime, the court can already require the employer to help establish the facts (Art. 8.4 of the Civil Code), as the employers' organisations point out in the CNT opinion.

Biometric time clock, badge or GPS: what does the Data Protection Authority allow?

A fingerprint time clock is almost always unlawful: fingerprints are biometric data, a special category under Article 9 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and an employee's consent cannot be freely given in view of the imbalance of power with the employer.

For the Data Protection Authority (APD), an explicit national legal basis is almost always required, and the biometric template should in principle stay with the employee, for example on a badge; a central database is only justified in exceptional cases. On 6 September 2024, the APD's Litigation Chamber fined an employer €45,000 for a fingerprint time clock covering about 200 people: invalid consent, no impact assessment, less intrusive alternatives available (decision 114/2024).

• Badge: using the access badge as a time clock without telling employees breaches the transparency obligation.
• Geolocation: the GDPR applies. You need written rules drawn up in consultation, no permanent monitoring (in principle disproportionate), tracking switched off outside working hours, no tracking of employee representatives in their mandate and no calculation of working time by GPS when another system exists.

Inform and consult before installing the tool

• From 50 employees, CCT No. 39 requires written information and consultation no later than 3 months before introducing a new technology with significant collective consequences (at least 50% and 10 employees of a category), failing which protection against dismissal applies.
• The Committee for Prevention and Protection at Work (CPPT), or failing that the union delegation, or failing that the employees, gives a prior opinion on the introduction of new technologies.
• The GDPR requires a legal basis, written information for employees (purposes, retention, rights), an entry in the record of processing activities, an impact assessment where monitoring is systematic and a limited retention period.

What penalties apply after a labour inspection?

Breaches fall under the Social Criminal Code, and the fine is often multiplied by the number of employees concerned, up to a cap of 100 times the maximum fine.

For part-time employees, missing records also trigger the presumption of full-time work, hence back pay and contribution arrears. The APD can also penalise GDPR breaches.

How should your company prepare for working time recording?

First comply with today's obligations, then choose a system able to record each employee's daily and weekly working time, accessible and kept for 5 years: it will remain useful whatever the final text.

1. Map your employee groups: fixed hours, flexitime, variable part-time, flexi-jobs, management and positions of trust, mobile staff, teleworkers (see our page Remote work in Belgium).
2. Choose the recording method for each group: full time recording, or recording only deviations from a planned schedule, which the draft accepts if it shows the time actually worked.
3. Update the work rules (working hours or normal working time framework, methods for measuring and checking work) and send a copy to the Social Law Inspectorate (Contrôle des lois sociales) within 8 days of their entry into force.
4. Organise access and retention: read access for the employee, their representatives and the inspectorate; 5-year retention, then deletion; every correction logged (who, when, why) without erasing the original entry.
5. Connect time recording to payroll: normal hours, overtime, voluntary overtime, night and Sunday hours, absences.

Common mistakes

• Believing that no time recording is required until the general obligation is passed: flexitime, part-time deviations, flexi-jobs and cleaning are already subject to recording.
• Presenting 1 January 2027 as a settled date: the draft may still change its date, content and exclusions.
• Asking employees to sign a “consent” to a fingerprint time clock: it is not valid in an employment relationship.
• Using the access badge or the vehicle's GPS as a time clock without saying so, or calculating hours by GPS when another system exists.
• Changing a variable part-time schedule the day before, or not recording hours worked outside the schedule: presumption of full-time work and the employee's right to refuse.
• Allowing voluntary overtime without prior written agreement, for a part-timer with less than 3 years of part-time work or for an employee on time credit.

Your checklist

• Identify employees on flexitime, part-time contracts and flexi-jobs, and check that the recording required for each is already in place.
• Notify each variable part-time schedule in a written, dated notice at least 7 working days in advance, then keep the notice for 1 year.
• Update the work rules (hours or normal working time framework, methods for measuring and checking work) and send a copy to the inspectorate.
• Have the written agreement signed before the first hour of voluntary overtime and track the 360-hour and 240-hour counters per calendar year.
• Inform and consult before any new time recording tool: CCT No. 39 from 50 employees, CPPT opinion, written information for employees.
• Carry out an impact assessment where monitoring is systematic and rule out centralised biometrics.
• Keep the data for 5 years, then delete it, logging every correction.
• Follow the draft law and choose now a system that measures each employee's daily and weekly working time.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

• CNT (National Labour Council), opinion No. 2.499 of 30 September 2026 on the preliminary draft law on working time recording
• Labour Act of 16 March 1971, consolidated version (Justel)
• Act of 18 May 2026 on voluntary overtime (Belgian Official Gazette of 1 June 2026)
• FPS Employment (SPF Emploi), monitoring the hours of part-time employees
• Act of 8 April 1965 on work rules (Justel)
• National Social Security Office (ONSS), Check In and Out at Work
• Data Protection Authority, biometrics in the workplace
• Data Protection Authority, Litigation Chamber, decision 114/2024 of 6 September 2024
• CNT, collective labour agreement No. 39 (new technologies)
• FPS Employment, changes to the Social Criminal Code from 1 September 2026

This guide sets out the general rules in force on 5 October 2026. It is not legal advice for your situation (collective agreement, sector, employee status).