On 13 March 2025, Sofya Buelens (Senior Associate and member of the VOW civil servants' team) presided the 20th Conference on Public Sector Personnel (organised by Abilways).
Sofya shared her insights on the topic of the legal protection of contractual employees in the public sector when confronted with a potential dismissal for serious cause. She presented a detailed overview of the most important safeguards that public employers must comply with when they intend to sanction the contractual employee with a dismissal for serious cause (i.e. defence rights, the rules on competences, reasonable time for investigations, and the statutory deadline of 3 working days for the dismissal). The presentation includes a practical roadmap on possible approaches for public employers to investigate serious misconduct with regard to the aforementioned safeguards.
If you missed the Conference, of you have further questions, please reach out to us for sharing insights on this topic.
Furthermore, Sofya moderated the panel discussion on workplace investigations, where she welcomed 2 in-house counsels at bpost group, Séverine Vincke and Barbara Marissens,to share their insights on how to properly conduct different types of workplace investigations (both disciplinary and whistleblowing).
Please find below some pictures of the conference.
