BELGIUM WE NEED TO TALK

Feb 26
4 min read

Belgium, we need to talk!

Belgium has a special talent for creating situations that make absolutely no sense and then treating them as “normal”. One of the best examples?

“Freelancers” being placed inside companies by interim offices. Hm? On paper, it can sound simple. In reality, it can become a legal and operational identity crisis.

Here is the situation: a freelancer and an employee are not the same thing.

A freelancer is an independent business owner, an employee is hired, paid, and protected under employment law. And yet, in practice, the Belgian market sometimes creates a strange hybrid creature: someone who invoices like a business but works like an employee. A worker wearing two hats at once, depending on who is looking..🤔Belgium, we need to talk!

Let’s clear up the “bijberoep/complémentaire” misunderstanding BELGIUM WE NEED TO TALk

Zelfstandige in bijberoep or travail complémentaire is not a third magic status.

It simply means you have a main activity (often an employment contract) and you also run a self-employed activity on the side. I like to call it: “one leg in the office, the other in the business”… and deal with the tax when it inevitably arrives. No worries, you are still a winner! ;-)

Zelfstandige/bijberoep - Belgium we need to talk!

So yes, one person can be both employee and self-employed, but not in the same relationship at the same time, and certainly not in a way that breaks basic reality like time and control.

Here are my scratch scenarios that every Belgian should know. By the way, do other European countries have this “magnificent” way of working too, or is it just my beloved Belgium? Send me your take, I genuinely want to know.

Scenario a: employee in company A + temporarily employee via interim agency in company B - Clean situation!

You can be an employee in company A and also do temp assignments in company B through an interim agency. In this case, it’s straightforward:

- the interim agency is your employer

- you are paid a salary (no invoice)

- social security follows employment rules

- you fall under employment protections

This is not freelancing. It’s employment (twice). And it can be totally legitimate.

Scenario b: employee in company A + freelance work for company B as a real independent freelancer - also clean relationship!

You can be an employee in company A and do freelance work for company B on the side — as a genuine independent. That means:

- you invoice for services as an independent, business owner

- you keep autonomy (how you work)

- you deliver outcomes,

- you are not managed like internal staff, you come and go, but you must deliver. This is perfectly fine when it’s a real business-to-business relationship.

Hold it! scenario C.. the blurry road.

Blurry road-Belgium we need to talk! — Blurry road

Scenario c: invoice setup through an “interim” middleman + you work like internal temp staff (grey zone)

Now we enter the Belgian fog. This is the setup that keeps popping up nowadays! The “freelancer” invoices the interim office, the interim office invoices the company and "cerise sur le gateau" the company treats the “freelancer” like interim staff.

And the company knowing or not knowing, offers the full employee package:

- fixed hours

- reporting lines

- company equipment

- team meetings

- internal processes

- line manager approval for basic decisions

So the paperwork says “independent freelancer”, but daily reality says “employee”. The big question: is the hiring company even aware of what is happening behind the scenes?

interim offices do not “hire” freelancers in these setups — they contract them. In this special arrangement, the interim office does not hire the person as an employee. I don't think so.

They contract them, and therefore:

(i) the freelancer invoices the interim office

(ii) the interim office invoices the company

(iii) the company manages the freelancer like staff

From the outside, everyone smiles. From a compliance view, it is a grey zone.

When a freelancer is contracted by an interim office and start working as an Interim, it create a misclassification risk. Why? Because,it looks, smells and functions like employee-employment contract. But the freelancer has none of the protections of an employee meaning:

- no paid leave

- no employer-funded benefits

- no employee safety net

- no classic employment rights

Just an invoice and a smile☺️

Many freelancers accept to work in this "special way" because it helps! Especially when you need clients, or simply do not know where to find them and need a quick pay. However, the easiest compliance check nobody talks about: time.

If someone is an employee in their main job, please don’t tell us they magically have time for an interim “side mission” during the same normal working hours.

Unless it is:

- an evening shift

- a weekend mission

- a night schedule

- official leave days

- etc

Otherwise?…It would simply does not add up. When a so-called “side job” happens inside standard office hours, it usually means one thing: the person is being used like staff, placed into a company structure, and the relationship starts drifting into the grey zone — the classic “invoice like a freelancer, work like an employee” scenario.

In this C-scenario grey-zone, it's a confusion nobody wants to name. Freelancers think they are freelancing, companies think they are outsourcing, interim agencies think they are simply connecting people, and everyone assumes someone else is handling the compliance risk☺️

If this c-scenario is taking place, Belgium has created its own version of Schrödinger’s worker: both freelancer and employee at the same time, until someone opens the Pandora box.