Volunteer firefighters: a ministerial circular to relax recall services

The Minister of the Interior, B. Quintin, sent a ministerial circular on October 22, 2026, to the presidents of the rescue zones inviting them to relax the constraints imposed on volunteer firefighters during on-call services. The text was published in the Moniteur belge on November 4, 2026 (No. 251, pages 59215 to 59219), under reference C − 2026/007910. It explicitly aims to prevent Belgian or European jurisdictions from qualifying these periods of availability as working time.

A legacy from 2014 to be updated

The circular completes and updates that of April 22, 2014, regarding the organization of the availability of volunteers in public fire services. The latter already recommended an IT system allowing volunteers to enter their own availability and unavailability in real time; more than ten years after the creation of the zones, this system is widespread. The legal framework remains the Royal Decree of April 19, 2014, regarding the administrative status of operational personnel in rescue zones, of which Article 177 requires that these rules be included in internal regulations, in compliance with the principle of the fastest adequate aid enshrined in the Law of May 15, 2007, regarding civil security.

It is precisely the judicial interpretation of these rules that poses a problem. A few zones have been condemned based on the overall constraints imposed on their volunteers. The circular cites the Labor Court of Liège, Namur division, of October 12, 2023 (RG No. 2022/AN/97 and 2022/AN/136), which ruled that the availability periods of volunteer firefighters in the Dinaphi rescue zone constitute working time and must be paid at 100%, and the ruling of the Labor Court of Liège, Liège division, of April 23, 2024 (RG No. 2023/AL/176) confirming this reading for the Hesbaye rescue zone. Added to this is the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the case of City of Nivelles v. R. Matzak (C-518/15, February 21, 2018), concerning a volunteer from the city of Nivelles before the creation of the zones, where an 8-minute deadline to reach the workplace was decisive.

Nine concrete recommendations

The Minister acknowledges that the case law is not unanimous — other decisions, including the Labor Court of Liège, Dinant division, of March 25, 2022, the Court of First Instance of Liège, Liège division, of November 5, 2024, and the Labor Court of Hainaut, Tournai division, of May 17, 2024, have rejected this qualification — and that the affected zones have filed an appeal in cassation. However, waiting for unanimous case law “is not an option” given the organizational and financial risks. He therefore recommends including the following in the zonal regulations:

• the explicit possibility for the volunteer to choose at any time whether or not to be available;
• the explicit mention that a professional activity may be carried out during the on-call service;
• the removal of any automatic disciplinary sanction or negative evaluation mention linked to on-call services;
• the removal of the general obligation to respond to every call, replaced by an obligation of means;
• the indication that no specific clothing must be worn during availability;
• the increase in the minimum reaction time imposed on volunteer firefighters;
• the maintenance of minimum availability thresholds at a reasonable and indicative level, or their expression as a global contribution to the service;
• the abandonment of any binding obligation to remain within a determined geographical perimeter;
• the traceability of actual interventions, per staff member and per reference period.

Discouraged rewards and consistency of messages

The minister further discourages granting “rewards” to volunteers reaching a certain percentage of on-call services — additional planned missions, a larger “clothing” budget —, as a judge could view this as an implicit sanction for those who declare themselves less available. He also insists on the vocabulary: using “service time,” “rest,” “station duty,” and “on-call service,” and avoiding “home duty.” This rigor must extend beyond the internal regulations: service notes, internal correspondence, WhatsApp messages, and dispatching communications are part of the factual context and may contradict the text.

Scope

The circular imposes nothing: it recommends, with each zone remaining master of its service level based on its risk analysis, the ratio between volunteer and professional personnel, and the distribution of its rescue stations. The minister’s services continue to examine, with the national representative body of the rescue zones “Brandweer België – Sapeurs-Pompiers de Belgique,” which modifications to federal rules could further reduce this risk. For the zones, the challenge is twofold: preserving operational availability while limiting a financial exposure which, in cases already judged, concerns the full remuneration of on-call hours.

Source: Belgian Official Gazette of November 4, 2026, No. 251, p. 59215-59219, ministerial circular of October 22, 2026, reference C − 2026/007910.