From this week, shops in Belgium will be able to open seven days a week until 21:00, confirmed the Federal Minister for Small Businesses Eléonore Simonet (MR).
Clothing shops, electrical shops and supermarkets are currently still subject to fairly strict rules in Belgium: they must have at least one fixed closing day per week (usually Sunday), and they are not allowed to open between 20:00 and 05:00 on other days – except on Fridays, when they are allowed to stay open until 21:00.
A bill to amend that was published in the Belgian Official Gazette on 3 August and will enter into force on Thursday 13 August.
"From then on, the compulsory weekly closing day will be abolished, and shops will be allowed to remain open until 21:00 instead of 20:00 currently," Ortwin De Vliegher, spokesperson for Simonet, confirmed to The Brussels Times.
"This is an option, not an obligation," he added.
Simonet's office stressed that this amendment to the law offers "an opportunity to retailers", given the competition from e-commerce and the more flexible opening hours in force abroad (France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg).
Opening with no staff
In principle, however, employers in the retail sector are not permitted to make staff work on Sundays after 12 noon, in accordance with labour legislation.
"So we can open, but we cannot use staff," Luc Ardies of Buurtsuper.be, the organisation representing independent supermarkets in Flanders, told Belga News Agency.
Currently, 75% of shops in Belgium have no staff, meaning they are run by the owners themselves and can stay open on Sunday afternoon without any issues. "These are not just small shops, but also certain supermarkets in cities," De Vliegher said.
Additionally, an exception to the rule is in place in tourist areas, De Vliegher said: shops on the Belgian coast, or in cities such as Bruges, Antwerp, Genk or Maasmechelen can employ staff on Sunday afternoon.
A closed board on the door of a shop. Credit: Belga/Nicolas Maeterlinck
De Vliegher explained that while the decision about shops' opening hours is part of Belgium's economic legislation, rules and measures for staff's working hours are part of the country's employment law – something that is not set to change just yet.
Federal Employment Minister David Clarinval (MR) is responsible for this, and will soon be organising a round-table discussion with the sector, to assess whether there is a need to modernise the legislation and make it more flexible.
