THE LAW THAT CHANGES

The new Civil Code provides that as of 1 January 2010, the^er As of 1 January 2023, Saturdays will no longer be considered working days, as was the case at present. This will have an impact on the notification of dismissal in return for notice. At present, the Act of 3 July 1978 provides that the period of notice begins on the first Monday following the day on which the letter of notice is supposed to be received, i.e. on 3 July 1978.^ème working day following the date of sending. As Saturday will no longer be considered a working day, the letter of dismissal will have to be sent a day earlier if the employer wants the notice period to start on the first Monday after the day of dismissal and not on the Monday of the following week. This means that the letter will have to be sent on Tuesday instead of the current Wednesday.

SOCIAL JURISPRUDENCE READ FOR YOU

In a judgment of 28 March 2022 (R.G. no. 20/72/A), the Labour Court of Hainaut, Mons division, accepted the application of article 8.6 of the new Civil Code relating to proof by likelihood in the matter of overtime. Because of the employer's failure to cooperate in the burden of proof, the Court considered that the person who bears the burden of proof of a fact for which it is not possible or reasonable to demand certain proof, may be satisfied with establishing the likelihood of that fact. As the arguments put forward by the employee did not appear to be contrary to the evidence in the case, the Court decided to order the employer to pay the overtime claimed.

In a judgment of 25 April 2022 (R.G. no. 16/5157/A), the Labour Court of Liège handed down a decision on the statute of limitations in higher education. The employee had lodged her appeal on 12 September 2016 since her employment contract mentioned 13 September 2015 as the date of termination of the relationship, i.e. the day before the next academic year. Since the social documents (Dimona + C4) were dated 14 July 2015 and the social regulations stipulate that these documents must be drawn up at the latest on the last day of work, the Court decided that the date of the end of the contractual relations was 14 July 2015 and that the action was therefore inadmissible, all the more so since the worker had received these documents in July without any dispute.

For more information, please contact: Olivier Langlet (olivier.langlet@cew-law.be) and Anaïs Serlippens (anais.serlippens@cew-law.be), lawyers, CEW & Partners.