Notice period in Belgium

It depends on three things: your seniority, which party is ending the contract, and the date your contract started. For a dismissal by the employer the period runs from one week below three months' seniority to 52 weeks from seventeen years. For contracts that started before 1 June 2026 there is no ceiling. Enter your dates above for the exact number of weeks.

On the Monday following the week in which notice was served. If the letter arrives on a Thursday the period starts the next Monday; if notice is served on a Monday it only starts the Monday after that. A registered letter also only takes effect on the third working day after posting. Seniority counts up to that Monday: someone who started on 1 March and whose notice starts on 1 September has exactly six months.

For contracts whose execution starts from that date, notice is one week throughout the whole of the first six months, instead of one, three, four and then five weeks depending on the month. An employee who resigns during that period also serves only one week. Nothing changes for contracts that started earlier.

For contracts starting from that date, notice on dismissal is capped at 52 weeks from seventeen years' seniority. Anyone hired earlier stays under the older table, which runs up to 65 weeks and then grows by one week for every started year.

Not for contracts that started on or after 1 January 2014: since then a single status and the same table apply to everyone. The distinction only still matters for the part of the seniority built up before that date.

Less than your employer does. Notice on resignation is capped at thirteen weeks and reaches that maximum from eight years' seniority. Switch the choice above to "the employee" to see your own period.

Because any figure we showed would be wrong. For employees already in service before 1 January 2014 the period is calculated in two parts: the first is frozen at 31 December 2013 under the old blue-collar or white-collar rules, the second follows the table on this page. If you were a white-collar employee above the 2013 salary threshold, that first part is set by the Claeys formula or by the labour court. Have it checked.

Yes. The employer may end the contract immediately and pay a severance indemnity matching the pay and benefits of that entire notice period instead. A mixed arrangement is possible too: part worked, the remainder paid out. Work out the amount with the severance pay calculator.

Yes. An employee who has been given notice and finds other work during the notice period may serve a shortened counter-notice. It lasts at most four weeks and otherwise follows the ordinary resignation periods where those are shorter. You then become the party ending the contract.

If your employer gave notice, the period is suspended for the duration of your incapacity: it resumes afterwards and therefore ends later. If you resigned, there is no suspension: your notice period keeps running.

Yes, with pay. During the last 26 weeks of the notice period you may be absent one day or two half-days a week to look for a job; before that, half a day a week. Employees entitled to outplacement support may take one day or two half-days a week for the whole period.

Deviations in the collective agreements of your joint committee, protected situations such as pregnancy, time credit or a staff-representative mandate, and dismissal for urgent cause. For anyone already employed before 1 January 2014, the tool deliberately gives no figure. In those cases, have your situation checked by an employment lawyer or your union.