Amendments to the law on occupational accidents

The maximum statutory basic annual wage as stipulated by the legislation for occupational accidents will be adjusted by the employer with effect from 1 January 2016 within the framework of the prosperity adjustments. The increase will be around 1.25%, as a result of which the statutory maximum for 2016 will be EUR 41,442.43.

(Source: Final publication in the Belgian Official Journal tbc)

As compensation for the increase in the statutory maximum, causing the premium for employers to rise, the FMV contribution has been reduced from 4.13% to 3.75% with effect from 1 January 2016. The remaining contribution for student workers is 20% for the Fund for Occupational Accidents, causing the total contribution here to fall from 24.13% to 23.75%.

(Source: Publication in the Belgian Official Journal on 20/11/2015)

The system of ‘disproportionately aggravated risk’ was implemented with the aim of improving employee safety. This applies to employers who, on the basis of data spanning three financial years, show costs of claims (frequency and seriousness) which are abnormally high compared to the average of employers who perform similar activities.

Each year, the Fund for Occupational Accidents stipulates the aggravated risks and communicates them to the policyholders and the occupational accident insurers concerned.

The selection mechanism was adjusted following evaluation of the selection system by the Technical Committee for Prevention. From now on, an insured risk will be selected as a ‘disproportionally aggravated risk’ if:

• in the company, the annual risk index1 in the final calendar year and in another calendar year of the observation period is at least three times the risk index of the industrial sector the company comes under and at least five times the risk index of the private sector; and
• a minimum of two occupational accidents occurred during the course of both these calendar years and a minimum of six during the course of the observation period.

The risks designated as ‘disproportionally aggravated risks’ in November 2015 were already selected based on newly-defined criteria.

(Source: Publication in the Belgian Official Journal on 27/11/2015)

*The risk index is equal to the sum of the frequency and seriousness, divided by the volume of labour expressed in full-time equivalents.
The frequency is the total number of occupational accidents that was recorded during the course of the observation period, multiplied by four.
The seriousness is the number of calendar days actually lost as a result of occupational accidents, limited to 120 days per occupational accident.
A total of 120 days will be charged in the event of a fatal accident.