Working-time registration has long existed in Belgian labour law for specific sectors and situations, but the rules are about to become significantly broader. The Belgian federal government has set a trajectory toward mandatory time registration for employers across the board, with 2027 marking a critical compliance milestone. For SMEs that have historically relied on informal tracking methods, the message is clear: the time to prepare is now, not in two years.
Who is affected?
The obligation targets all employers operating under Belgian labour law, regardless of company size. Whether you run a five-person marketing agency in Ghent or a fifty-person logistics firm in Liège, the same framework applies. Sectors such as construction, hospitality, healthcare and cleaning already had specific obligations in place, but the extension to the broader economy is a meaningful shift.
One important nuance: certain categories of workers, particularly senior managers who have full autonomy over how they organise their working time, may fall under a different regime. It is worth reviewing each role in your organisation, ideally with your social secretariat or a labour law specialist, to understand exactly which rules apply to whom.
What must be recorded?
Belgian labour law uses the 38-hour working week as its central reference point. Time registration must make it possible to verify, at any given moment, that legal limits are being respected. In practice, this means capturing:
- Start and end times for each working day
- Rest breaks actually taken during the day
- Overtime, tracked against the daily ceiling (generally 2 hours per day in most sectors), the weekly limit and the annual quota of 360 hours (which can be raised via sectoral collective agreements)
- Absences, including annual leave, sick leave and time credit
These records must be available for inspection by the social inspectorate. A rough spreadsheet or a stack of paper time sheets will be difficult to defend during an on-site visit. Inspectors expect structured, verifiable data.
What are the risks of non-compliance?
Infringements of Belgian social law can result in administrative fines or criminal sanctions, depending on the severity and frequency of the breach. The labour inspectorate has the authority to visit premises and request access to attendance records at any time. Beyond the financial exposure, non-compliance can also affect your standing with employees and business partners.
It is worth noting that proper time registration also protects the employer. In the event of a dispute over hours worked or overtime entitlements, you have clear, dated evidence to rely on rather than depending on competing recollections.
How to prepare your SME
Getting ready does not have to be a painful exercise, but it does require a structured approach. Here are the practical steps to take:
- Audit your current situation. How are working hours tracked today? Are there gaps or inconsistencies?
- Review your work regulations. Is the reference period for overtime correctly defined? Are posted schedules accurate and up to date?
- Choose a reliable digital tool. A system that captures time in real time, allows data export for inspections and connects with your payroll administration will save considerable effort down the line.
- Work with your social secretariat. Sectoral collective agreements can introduce specific modalities and exceptions that are easy to miss without expert guidance.
- Train your team. Time registration only works consistently if every employee understands the process and follows it from day one.
Tikkit is built around the requirements of Belgian labour law. The working-time registration module lets you record start and end times, breaks and absences digitally, manage rosters and calculate overtime automatically against the applicable legal thresholds. Everything is stored in a structured, exportable format so you are always prepared if an inspector calls.
The 2027 deadline may feel comfortable from a distance, but a solid implementation takes time: adapting internal processes, bringing staff along, configuring integrations with your existing systems. SMEs that start the conversation today will approach the deadline with confidence rather than scrambling at the last minute.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Always verify your situation with your social secretariat or a legal adviser.