Meet Esther Soetens

Telephone:

+32 2 426 14 14

Email:

esther.soetens@altius.com

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Esther specialises in individual and collective employment law as well as social security law.

She advises Belgian and international clients on a wide range of employment law matters, including recruitment and termination, employee well-being, transfer of undertakings, working time regulations, and employee representation.

Esther assists clients with negotiations, drafting company policies, employment contracts, and collective bargaining agreements (CBAs). She has extensive experience conducting due diligence and advising on the labour law aspects in M&A transactions.

Esther represents clients before the Employment Courts and Employment Appeal Courts.

Within ALTIUS’ employment department, Esther is responsible for managing legal know-how, drafting newsletters, organising webinars, and developing tools and websites.

Esther is a frequent speaker at seminars and is an active member of the ‘Vereniging Sociaal Recht’.

Education

• Lic. Juris (University of Ghent – UGent)

Languages

•  Esther is fluent in Dutch, French and English

Selection of publications

• Booklet on Monitoring of Employees, issued by the WSG network in 2017, Belgian chapter
• Employment section of the Belgian chapter in “Legal Aspects of Doing Business in Europe”, published by the Center For International Legal Studies, 2018
• Booklet on Work Life Balance, issued by the WSG network in 2018, Belgian chapter
• Booklet on Recovery and Claw-back and booklet on GDPR in an Employment Context (Belgian contributions) on the occasion of the EMEA Employment Lawyers Meeting of January 2019 in Paris
• Booklet on Equal Gender Pay, issued by the WSG network in 2019, Belgian chapter
• Share-related benefits granted by foreign parent companies: Esko strengthens view that social security contributions are due, Lexology, 2020 (with P. De Wulf)
• Posting workers to Belgium: all you need to know, Lexology, 2021 (with E. Van Caenegem and A. Caporali)
• EU Posted Workers Directive: impact on employers posting workers to Belgium, International Law Office, 2020 (with E. Van Caenegem)
• The end of mandatory telework?, Lexology, 2021 (with A. Coopman)
• Belgian strategy to increase vaccination coverage: vaccinations in workplaces and option for employers to request vaccination rates, Lexology, 2021 (with P. De Wulf)
• Dos and don’ts for employers regarding COVID-19 vaccination, Lexology, 2021 (with M. de Foestraets)
• Back to the (pre-pandemic) future – but not for employers, Lexology, 2022 (with A. Coopman)
• What can employers expect from government’s labour deal?, Lexology, 2022 (with P. De Wulf)
• Coordination of the ‘Question of the month’ published in HR Magazine
• The drafting of several newsletters