international employment law firm alliance L&E Global
Belgium

Van Olmen & Wynant and Microsoft Host Employment Law Forum

In the series of the Employment Law Forum from the Belgian Institute for Company Lawyers (IBJ/IJE) Van Olmen & Wynant and Microsoft jointly organized the conference “Legal tools for flexible working solutions: Microsoft, Belgium’s Best Employer”. The event took place on February 8 at the head quarters of Microsoft Belgium and was attended by more than 60 senior legal counsels.

Philippe Rogge, CEO of Microsoft Belgium and Microsoft product development and marketing manager Gunter Staes gave presentations on Microsoft’s HR approach and technical solutions to make homeworking possible. VOW senior associate Marian Dewaersegger and Sigrid Windmolders, Microsoft’s in-house counsel gave a lecture titled “Flexible working & Employment Law” presenting a standard protocol for employers that would like their employees to work partially from their home-office. It contains many matters that should be taken into account when a company considers offering such an opportunity to its employees. Examples of such issues are working-time, costs, insurance and health and safety.

Chris van Olmen commented that he was very pleased to be able to work with Microsoft on this topic. “They are extremely innovative and homeworking is already well vested in Microsoft’s corporate culture. On the other hand we were able to inform the members of the IBJ/IJE on how to respond to the legal challenges that may arise when a company offers the homeworking alternative.”

Anne de Wolf, general director of the IBJ/IJE looked back at a very successful event. This is a perfect example of what the IBJ/IJE wants to offer its members. By taking an actual business case and then discussing the legal implications of such example, the participants really learnt a lot about all aspects of the topic.