Employment of Interns

With the summer holidays approaching, many companies are currently looking for students or new graduates interested in a summer internship. Even outside the summer holidays, companies very commonly give young people the opportunity to follow a practical internship as first working experience, whether or not a long term employment can be envisaged.

There are no specific provisions in Belgian employment law with regard to internship agreements. However, an internship contract (often referred to as “BIO”) does exist. It is a “professional immersion” agreement which, despite being created in 2002, is not very well known and therefore scarcely used.

This agreement covers all the possibilities regarding schooling, traineeship, or internship in a company for which no specific legal framework currently exists. This agreement governs every situation in which the trainee gains, within the framework of education, certain knowledge or competencies by performing work activities with an employer.

It must be noted that the professional immersion agreement is not an employment contract since the basis of this agreement is not the performance of employment activities as such, but the gain of practical professional experience, i.e. education through the performance of workplace activities. Consequently, the company is not subject to applying the minimum wages of the relevant industrial sector, but must ensure a gross remuneration of 721.80 EUR per month for trainees aged 21 and older.

By lack of any legal framework, no social security contribution is officially due on top of this remuneration. However, the National Social Security Office (RSZ/ONSS) refers to a draft Royal Decree which would fill this gap in the future, advising that a limited employer contribution of 7.38% is due on this monthly remuneration.

An internship may also be concluded between parties without any formalities. The Federal Public Service of Employment indeed confirmed that no legal obligation for concluding a professional immersion agreement exists. However, an internship without contract carries greater risk to be qualified as a classic employment contract given the absence of a written attestation.