Belgians work less in the evening, at night and on weekends than their European counterparts, according to data for 2018 gathered by the Flemish think-tank Het Steunpunt Werk, reported the Belgian news outlet VRT NWS.
About one in ten people work according to schedules that vary considerably from the traditional 9-17 schedule.
3% of Belgian workers (3% in Flanders, 3.1% in Wallonia and 2.8% in Brussels) work at night, a percentage that has remained stable in recent years. The European average stands at 5.7%.
As for evening and shift work, Belgium is also below the European standard: 8.2% of Belgians work in the evening (against 13.2% of Europeans) and 7.4% in shifts, against 18.3% of other Europeans.
As for the weekend, 17.6% of Belgians are at their desks on Saturday, against 21.7% in Europe. One in ten workers in Belgium is also active on Sundays; a figure that continues to increase given that it was only 7% in the early 2000s.