Belgian landscaping and greenery companies manage crews that move between client gardens, parks, road verges, and corporate grounds throughout the day. No fixed workplace, multiple addresses per shift, seasonal peaks in spring and autumn, and a workforce mix of permanent staff, seasonal workers, and subcontractors: these are the conditions under which time registration must work. Here is how the sector’s specific rules apply and how Suivo’s time tracking solution handles the practical challenges for Belgian landscaping crews.
PC 145: the joint committee for landscaping and greenery
Belgian landscaping and greenery work falls under Joint Committee 145 (PC 145, agriculture, horticulture, and forestry, with the landscaping subsection). PC 145 has several features relevant to time registration:
Seasonal employment: Belgian labour law allows seasonal contracts in agriculture and horticulture, which includes some landscaping activities. Seasonal workers are employed for specific peak periods (typically March-October) and may return year after year. They must be declared via Dimona, and their actual hours must be recorded, seasonal status does not exempt them from time registration obligations.
Bad-weather unemployment (tijdelijke werkloosheid wegens slecht weer): When outdoor work is impossible due to rain, frost, or other weather conditions, landscaping workers can be placed on temporary unemployment. The employer must file with the ONEM/RVA (National Employment Office). The time registration record showing when work started, when the bad weather stopped work, and how many hours were actually worked before the interruption is the basis for the unemployment claim.
Working time: Normal working time in PC 145 is 38 hours per week. The sector’s outdoor and weather-dependent nature means actual hours vary significantly; accurate daily records are essential for correct payroll and correct temporary unemployment claims.
Multiple sites, no fixed workplace
A landscaping crew typically starts at a depot or parking point, loads equipment, and then travels to the first client address. They may work at two to four locations in a single day before returning to the depot.
This movement pattern creates three time-tracking requirements:
- Travel time from the depot to the first site counts as working time in most PC 145 arrangements.
- Time at each client address must be traceable to the specific address for billing and scheduling purposes.
- Return travel from the last site to the depot is typically also working time.
GPS-based time registration handles all of this. The crew member’s app registers departure from the depot (start of working day), arrival and departure at each client site, and return to the depot (end of working day). The platform produces a daily log that shows hours at each location, useful for both NSSO compliance and client invoicing.
Seasonal workers: same obligations, shorter tenure
Seasonal workers in Belgian landscaping are often employed on fixed-term contracts of 3 to 6 months. During that period, their obligations are identical to permanent staff: Dimona declaration, daily time records, correct social security contributions.
Common mistakes with seasonal workers:
- Dimona declarations filed retroactively rather than before the first working moment.
- Time records maintained informally (a notebook in the crew van) rather than in a system that produces an auditable export.
- End-of-season off-boarding not reflected in Dimona (failing to declare the end of employment).
A digital time registration system that requires a worker to clock in before they can start a job at a client address prevents the first two problems. The platform also prompts HR when a seasonal worker’s contract end date is approaching, making off-boarding less likely to be missed.
When landscaping work triggers CIAW
Landscaping crews frequently work on construction projects: installing irrigation systems on a new housing development, laying hard landscaping around a commercial building under construction, maintaining verges on a new road project. When the landscaping work takes place on a site that falls under CIAW thresholds (construction contract value thresholds apply), the landscaping crew must register under CIAW, even though landscaping itself is not a construction activity.
This catches many landscaping companies off guard. They assume CIAW applies only to bricklayers, electricians, and roofers. The obligation follows the site, not the trade. A landscaping subcontractor on a covered construction project must use CIAW or CIAO registration for every worker on that site.
Suivo’s Check-in at Work solution can be activated for specific sites where CIAW applies, while the standard time tracking continues for other client locations, the crew member uses the same app for both.
Equipment location and time tracking together
For landscaping companies that also want to know where their vehicles and equipment are, GPS-based time registration integrates naturally with fleet and asset tracking. When a crew van is at a specific client address, the system can correlate the vehicle’s location with the workers’ clock-in records, providing a second, independent confirmation of presence on site.
Suivo’s vehicle tracking solution and asset management solution work alongside the time registration platform, giving the office a complete picture of where crews, vehicles, and equipment are throughout the working day.
Ready to simplify time registration for your landscaping crews?
Suivo helps Belgian landscaping and greenery companies track crew time across multiple sites, manage seasonal workers, and handle CIAW when required. See Suivo products or view pricing.
