Belgian government approves draft law on rail staff reform

SNCB and Infrabel take over selection, hiring and training of staff from HR Rail and move step by step to a more flexible contract model so that SNCB can withstand the competitive tendering of passenger services required by 2032; the unions had rejected an earlier draft in a member ballot in October 2025.

On 23 December 2025 the Belgian Council of Ministers, acting on a proposal from Mobility Minister Jean-Luc Crucke, approved a preliminary draft law that reshapes staffing policy on the railways: SNCB and Infrabel will themselves handle selection, hiring and training, HR Rail stays the legal employer and guarantor of the staff statute, and employees are to move step by step to a more flexible contract model. The background is EU Regulation 1370/2007, under which public service contracts for passenger rail must be awarded competitively by 2032; the draft now goes to the joint national committee and to the Council of State for an opinion. An earlier draft, under which only key occupations (about 10,000 employees at SNCB) would have kept civil-service status from 1 January 2028, had failed in the unions' member ballot in October 2025 (79% at CGSP-Cheminots, 74% at CSC-Transcom); Crucke then announced contract-based hiring throughout and a rebuild of HR Rail. (LOK Report, 16 Oct 2025 and 2 Jan 2026)