Sick leave at Belgian employers fell by 6.7 percent in the first half of 2026, continuing a decline in absenteeism that began in 2025, Securex reports.
Sick leave among employers in Belgium fell sharply in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier. This is shown by research from HR services provider Securex, based on data from 21,107 employers and 163,231 employees. The Belgian occupational safety association Prebes reported on the figures. The overall absence rate fell by 6.7 percent, from 8.62 to 8.04 percent. That percentage represents the number of working days per hundred not worked due to illness. According to Securex, the decline continues a trend that began in 2025, when sick leave fell significantly for the first time in 25 years.
What exactly does Securex’s research show?
Securex distinguishes three types of absence, a breakdown that is standard in absence management because short-term, medium-term and long-term absence are usually linked to different causes and call for a different approach to prevention and reintegration. Long-term absence, involving employees away for more than a year, fell by 4.6 percent: from 3.45 to 3.29 percent of working days. Medium-term absence, lasting between one month and one year, decreased by 6.9 percent, from 2.46 to 2.29 percent. Among blue-collar workers, medium-term absence fell by 11 percent; among white-collar employees it remained statistically stable, according to Securex. Short-term absence, of less than one month, showed the sharpest relative decline: 9.2 percent, from 2.71 to 2.46 percent of working days.
What explanations does Securex itself give?
Securex links the decline in long-term absence to several factors: personal support for employees absent over an extended period, early follow-up and reintegration programs, and, in its own words, easier access for employers and employees to instruments such as the Return to Work Fund of the National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (RIZIV/INAMI). Notably, Securex says the figures run counter to its own expectation: in early 2026 the so-called relapse period was extended, so employees only regain the right to continued pay from their employer in case of illness after eight weeks of returning to work, instead of after two weeks. That measure was expected to increase sick leave, but according to the figures that did not happen. Securex itself frames these links cautiously: the initiatives “seem” to be paying off and the measures “may” already be having an effect. The figures do not demonstrate a causal link.
Context
The Belgian figures stand out against the broader trend in Europe. OECD figures for the period 2010-2024, cited by HR trade publication mind HR, show that sick leave is actually increasing in most European countries, especially among women, older employees and, since the coronavirus pandemic, employees under 30. According to mind HR, Spain and Portugal top the list, with an increase of 2.3 percentage points in the number of absence days between 2010 and 2024, while sick leave in Bulgaria and Romania has remained low and stable for fifteen years. For HSE professionals worldwide, this underscores the importance of carefully and consistently measured absence figures. National sickness benefit systems and measurement methods differ, so absence figures from different countries cannot simply be used as a direct benchmark against one another.
Source: Absenteïsme is sterk gedaald in eerste helft van 2026, 1 October 2026
Additional research: HR Square, De Specialist, mind HR
