New Belgian regulations for enabling working at night are disapproved by e-commerce sector

Last week, the Belgian government presented their new regulation regarding working at night in Belgium. The biggest change is that it is no longer prohibited to work during the timeframe midnight until 5 a.m. The Belgian e-commerce sector is asking for a long time now to change this. The new regulation should make it possible to start working at nightly hours from January 1st, 2018. Currently not being able to do so has led the Belgian e-commerce sector to fall behind in comparison to other (European) e-commerce markets.

The Belgian Federation of Trade and Services, Comeos, has commented on the new regulation, stating that it is insufficient to get the sector up to speed. While the new regulation makes it possible to work between midnight and 5 a.m. priority should be on the 8 p.m.-midnight timeframe. These are the most important hours Belgian merchants want to continue to work. The main problem with changing regulation for this period is that a new agreement has to be made with all labor unions. The same goes for working on Sundays.

Currently, one in two Belgian e-commerce orders is placed on an international shop selling in Belgium. According to president Dominique Michel, this will not change anytime soon.