European Development Covid-19 and labour law in Belgium Frank Hendrickx KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium Simon Taes KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium Mathias Wouters KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium Abstract As Belgium and its population were heavily hit by the coronavirus, the Government adopted specific measures to address the economy and the world of work. The initiatives were deployed during the crisis but have also been designed for the exit scenario. Various measures have a strong relation with labour law. In addition to health and safety obligations, as specified in the Belgian Well-being Act, the new measures also refer to teleworking, social distancing, and have relied on the Belgian system of temporary unemployment. Keywords Covid-19, temporary unemployment benefits, telework, well-being, privacy Introduction Like in many countries, the coronavirus has had an immense impact on Belgian society. The virus and the accompanying policy measures introduced by governments have brought drastic changes to the labour market. The way in which companies operate has significantly changed. The disrup- tion to work, the switch to working from home, the risk of infection, rules on social distancing and the easing of (temporary) unemployment have brought new challenges to, and asked novel ques- tions of, Belgian labour law. The coronavirus heavily impacted Belgium around mid-March 2020. Since then, Belgian hospitals have been receiving and counting patients with Covid-19. The highest numbers of Corresponding author: Frank Hendrickx, KU Leuven, Leuven, 3000, Belgium. E-mail: frank.hendrickx@kuleuven.be European Labour Law Journal 2020, Vol. 11(3) 276–285 ª The Author(s) 2020 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/2031952520934554 journals.sagepub.com/home/ell ELLJ ELLJ