Working-time registration will be mandatory in Belgium starting in 2027: everything about the new law

What is the likely impact of the new working-time registration law?

In 2019, the European Court of Justice stated that the European directive on working hours can only be respected when those working hours are actually measured. Most European countries required their companies to register working hours, but Belgium did not. This means that now 80% of Belgian companies and employees will have to adapt to comply with the new rules.

About 60% of our companies report that they already record working hours. Companies in sectors such as cleaning & transport, hospitality, and many small businesses will have to digitalize their paper-based time registration.

Although time registration can quickly evoke the image of the old “punch clock,” time registration systems have also evolved with the times. Perceptions are evolving as well, as shown by our recent survey. In November 2025, we commissioned the independent research agency iVox to survey 1,000 Flemish employees. The results show that time registration mainly helps to maintain a balance between work & private life.

Digital systems like Protime offer several concrete benefits – both for employers & employees

• Quick access to a complete overview of hours worked per employee

Through a central system, HR staff or managers can immediately see an employee’s working hours, including worked time, absences, vacation days, or sick days. This is a big help for payroll administration.

• Better estimation of workload & planning

With a digital time registration system, you can see at a glance which teams are under pressure, where bottlenecks occur due to illness or vacation, or where there is space in the schedule for new projects.

• Time savings in recording & checking hours

Because employees record their working hours digitally – for example via software on their laptop or an app on their smartphone – time registration takes less effort compared to the paper-based method. For HR teams, checking hours & processing payroll also becomes much smoother.

• Cloud-based data management, accessible 24/7

A “digital punch clock” operates on a cloud system, so the data is always available for those who need it. This offers employees a welcome form of flexibility, for example working parents splitting their day to pick up children from school, remote workers, or production staff with irregular hours.

• An integrated system that streamlines payroll administration

Digital time registration systems can be seamlessly integrated with payroll software, allowing salaries, overtime, & vacation days to be calculated automatically. This also means fewer administrative errors & full compliance with the law – including the new law coming into effect in 2027.

Protime is a Belgian company (est. 1995) with many years of experience in working-time registration and extensive knowledge of Belgian labor law. Over our thirty-year history, we have helped numerous Belgian companies digitize their processes, including Delhaize, Demeyere, Vandemoortele & Arcelor Mittal.

We provide fully digital time registration for all employees and offer solutions for flexible time tracking for office staff, production workers, remote employees & hybrid work arrangements. Thanks to this digital form of collaboration, managers & HR staff receive automatic reports on overtime & breaks and have unlimited access to the cloud system with all necessary data. This saves time, reduces administrative burden for your teams, & increases transparency between employer & employees. Our time registration system is also compatible with most HR software in Belgium and fully compliant with current legislation – as well as the new law coming into effect in 2027.