Update basic security training: Are your posted workers in order in Belgium?

Safety is crucial on a construction site where employees are exposed to various risks on a daily basis. Basic safety training is therefore essential to make everyone aware of construction site hazards and teach them how to prevent accidents and create a safe working environment.

We previously informed you about the introduction of compulsory basic safety training through a collective agreement in Joint Committee on Construction No. 124.

The aim of the eight hours training is to make employees aware of the risks they face on a construction site, to provide them with a basic knowledge of the prevention principles as well as the correct application of the appropriate prevention measures.

Now also mandatory for posted workers

Until recently, compulsory basic safety training did not apply to posted workers. However, two new Royal Decrees change this.

The scope of basic safety training is now extended to other sectors operating at the worksite (such as metal sector, sector for electricians and garden construction sector), to self-employed workers (including those on a posted basis) and to posted workers.

In principle, you have until 15 April 2024 by which you should be in regulation. However, posted workers covering the construction sector cannot take advantage of this transition period and must complete basic safety training within the month following the start of employment on a construction site.

Exemptions

It is possible that an exception can be made for your posted employees based on a security training they attended abroad. Several criteria have been set out which must be met by that foreign training.

We note that an SCC certificate is always equated.

Also exempt from undergoing basic safety training is an employee or a self-employed worker who has acquired five years of experience in the past 10 years by performing work on a temporary or mobile construction site. How this can be demonstrated for working abroad is not specified.

Proof

Self-employed workers can prove this through their registration in the trade register. For foreign employees who were already working in Belgium, the registrations for Limosa/Dimona/checkin@work will probably play a role in this. For experience accumulated abroad, this can be done by any means that can demonstrate experience.