US vs Belgium dismissal: at-will habits against Belgian notice rules

The US default, outside a few exceptions, is at-will employment, under which a job can be ended by employer or employee on any day and for any lawful reason, with no notice owed. Belgian law reverses that default. An open-ended employment contract can only be ended with a period of notice fixed by law, or with a payment covering that notice, and the length grows with the employee’s seniority.

At-will employment is not unlimited, of course. Anti-discrimination law, retaliation rules, contracts and some state rules all restrict it. But a US manager is used to a default where a dismissal on Friday can take effect that afternoon, with a final paycheck and no statutory notice. That default does not exist in Belgium for anyone past their first day.

The practical gap is about time and money rather than permission. A Belgian employer may decide to end a contract for performance, restructuring or almost any other genuine reason. What it cannot do is end it without notice or an indemnity in lieu, outside the narrow case of serious misconduct, and from six months’ service it must be ready to explain the reasons.

Belgian notice is counted in weeks and set by a single statutory scale, the same for white-collar and blue-collar staff on contracts started since 2014. Here is the employer’s side of that scale for anyone whose contract started on 1 August 2026 or later:

• less than six months’ service: 1 week;
• six to nine months: 6 weeks; nine to twelve months: 7 weeks;
• one year: 8 weeks, then one more week every three months up to 11 weeks before two years;
• two years: 12 weeks; three years: 13 weeks; four years: 15 weeks;
• from five years: 18 weeks, rising by 3 weeks a year;
• a cap of 52 weeks, reached at 17 years of service.

The cap is new. Contracts that started before 1 June 2026 have no maximum, and their notice keeps growing by a week a year after 20 years. Contracts started from 1 June to 31 July 2026 keep the older scale for the first six months, with 3, 4 and 5 weeks between three and six months, but share the 52-week cap. Contracts that began before 2014 use a two-part calculation that combines frozen earlier rights with the new scale.

Those rules mean that two employees with the same seniority can have different notice periods depending on when they were hired. Consider two analysts, each with five months’ service in autumn 2026. One started in May 2026 and is owed 5 weeks’ notice; the other started in August and is owed 1 week. The full table, including the older contracts, is in our full guide to Belgian notice periods.

Most Belgian employers end a contract by paying an indemnity in lieu of notice (indemnité de rupture / opzeggingsvergoeding) rather than asking the employee to work it out. The indemnity equals the current pay and benefits for the notice period that is not worked, so the cost is the same as the notice, paid at once.

Use our usual reference salary of €4,500 a month under PC 200. Annualised over twelve months, a week’s base salary is about €1,038. On that basis, before benefits, bonuses and employer contributions:

• four months’ service, contract from August 2026: 1 week, about €1,040;
• eighteen months’ service: 10 weeks, about €10,400;
• three years’ service: 13 weeks, about €13,500;
• ten years’ service: 33 weeks, about €34,300, and outplacement must be offered.

The indemnity also has to include the pay elements that would have been earned during the notice, such as the pro rata 13th month and other benefits, so the real figure is higher than the base salary alone. Ask payroll for the full calculation before any conversation with the employee, and ask at the same time how contributions and withholding tax apply to the payment, so the budget shows the full cost.

Long-serving employees bring one more cost. Anyone entitled to at least 30 weeks of notice or indemnity must be offered outplacement (reclassement professionnel): 60 hours of support, worth one twelfth of the previous year’s gross pay, with a minimum of €1,800 and a maximum of €5,500 excluding VAT. The offer goes by registered letter within four weeks of notice starting, or 15 days after the end where an indemnity is paid. A separate regime applies to employees aged 45 or more with at least a year’s service and less than 30 weeks of notice.

A US manager comparing this with a voluntary severance package should note one key difference. US severance is usually a negotiated sum offered for a signed waiver of claims. Here, by contrast, the notice or indemnity is the legal minimum, owed whether or not the employee signs anything.

From six months of service, a dismissed employee in the private sector can ask the employer for the concrete reasons for the dismissal, a right created by the national collective agreement no. 109. US managers used to keeping reasons out of the termination letter need to adjust their habits here.

• The employee sends the request by registered letter within two months of the contract ending, or within six months of notice being given but no later than two months after the end, if notice is worked.
• Two months is also the employer’s deadline to answer, again by registered post; silence costs a civil fine of two weeks’ pay.
• If a court finds the dismissal manifestly unreasonable, the employer pays an award of 3 to 17 weeks’ pay, in addition to any fine.
• An employer that gives the reasons in writing on its own initiative does not have to answer a later request.

The safest approach is to document performance concerns as they arise, from the early months onwards, and to send reasons in writing with the dismissal. The FPS Employment page on CCT no. 109 sets out the procedure in detail.

This is where a US habit can cause real damage. A termination email that says only that the company is going in a different direction gives an employee with a year’s service a strong starting point for an unreasonable-dismissal claim. A short, factual letter that names the performance or business reasons, sent with the notice, closes most of that door before it opens.

Belgium does allow immediate dismissal without notice or indemnity, but only for serious misconduct (motif grave / dringende reden), and the procedure is strict. Get advice the day the facts come to light, before anyone acts on them: if the misconduct claim does not hold, the notice or indemnity is owed after all, and the employee may add a claim that the dismissal was unreasonable.

At the other end, some employees are protected against dismissal. Staff representatives and candidates for the works council and the health and safety committee have absolute protection, which can be lifted only through a special procedure. Others are protected against dismissal linked to their situation, including:

• pregnant employees, from the moment the employer is told until one month after postnatal leave;
• employees on birth leave, adoption leave, time credit or thematic leave;
• employees on paid educational leave, union delegates and prevention advisers;
• employees who have used their rights under the 2022 law on transparent working conditions.

For these employees, a dismissal needs reasons unconnected to the protected situation, and breaching the protection usually costs a lump sum on top of notice. A US manager should check with payroll whether any form of protection applies before a decision is communicated.

In the US, two weeks’ notice is a courtesy that many employers waive. In Belgium, an employee who resigns also owes notice under a statutory scale, though a much shorter one than the employer’s.

For a contract starting from 1 August 2026, the employee’s notice is 1 week during the first six months. It then rises in steps with seniority and never exceeds 13 weeks, the maximum reached after eight years. In practice the two sides often agree a different leaving date, and an agreement in writing is the usual way to do that. For a US manager, the main point is planning: a senior Belgian employee who resigns may still be with the team for a quarter, which leaves time for a proper handover but also means the replacement search should start the day the letter arrives.

Whichever side ends the contract, the employer has paperwork to complete: an end-of-employment Dimona, the unemployment form C4, a holiday certificate and an employment certificate. Holiday money is settled on the way out as well: 15.34% of this year’s gross earnings, and of last year’s too when that leave was never used.

Because Employer of Record Belgium holds the Belgian contract as employer, the notice letters, the indemnity calculation, outplacement offers and the end-of-contract documents come from us. The decision about whether a role continues is yours, and we need to hear about it before anything is said to the employee.

• Raise performance concerns early and write them down, especially in the first six months.
• Ask for the notice or indemnity calculation, including benefits, before budgeting the exit.
• Check for protected situations such as pregnancy, birth leave or time credit.
• Decide whether reasons will be given in writing with the dismissal.
• Plan how equipment, access and handover will be managed on the last day.

A Belgian exit takes more planning than an at-will termination, but it is predictable: the scale is published and the costs can be calculated in advance. For the wider picture of how US teams set up in Belgium, see our guide for US employers, and for the duties we carry as employer, our explainer on the Belgian EOR role.