LinkedIn·Monday, 3 August 2026·23d ago
Today I learned that Belgian employers are still legally required to inform, BY REGISTERED PHYSICAL LETTER, the Social Inspectorate where…
Jerome Leclanche
European Startup ecosystem builder | Founder & CEO, Ingram Technologies (AI venture studio) | Partner, Investor at Seven Capital (EU defence fund): working on Europe’s victory against Russia
Today I learned that Belgian employers are still legally required to inform, BY REGISTERED PHYSICAL LETTER, the Social Inspectorate where certain payroll records are kept.
I must have messed up my calendar and still be 30 years younger than I am.
A Royal Decree from 1980 still says “par lettre recommandée à la poste”, and no digital procedure appears to have replaced it.
This is the kind of administrative absurdity that is almost completely invisible unless you run a company. Belgium’s digitalisation problem is not limited to outdated websites or forms that have to be downloaded as PDFs. It is embedded in thousands of small legal requirements and internal procedures that still assume paper, printers, envelopes, stamps and manual processing.
Each one looks insignificant in isolation. Together, they consume an enormous amount of time across companies, social secretariats and public administrations.
Putting a digital portal on top of an administration does not make it digital if the processes and legislation underneath still require paper.
Eléonore Simonet Partena Professional Oleksandr Iefremov
Sources: Articles 18 and 22 of the Belgian Royal Decree of 8 August 1980 on the keeping of social documents specify that the employer must notify the competent inspector “par lettre recommandée à la poste” when the records are kept at certain alternative locations. The SPF Employment’s own e-Box guidance also states that registered correspondence for companies continues to be sent by post.
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