Social inspection visit: which documents do you need?

There is an inspector standing at your bar, in your warehouse or at the service entrance of an office building. He identifies himself, asks who is at work at that moment and wants to see the corresponding documents. At that point you don't have weeks of preparation time — you have what you have.

The good news is that the list of what an inspector asks for is fairly predictable. Anyone who keeps their HR administration structurally in order is effectively inspection-ready at all times. Below we run through what you need to be able to produce for each theme, which mistakes crop up most often, and how to organise all of this in practice.

Who exactly comes to visit?

"The social inspectorate" is not a single service. In practice, you may receive a visit from, among others:

• Supervision of Social Legislation (FPS Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue): working time, work rosters, work rules, wage protection, contracts. Alongside its supervisory role, this service also has an advisory and conciliatory remit.
• Supervision of Well-being at Work: safety, occupational accidents, personal protective equipment, induction of new staff.
• The inspection services of the NSSO: correct declarations, Dimona, contributions.
• NEO inspections: for example in the case of temporary unemployment.

A visit may be announced in advance (in which case you receive a letter listing the documents to be produced), but just as often it is not. Unannounced checks are a logical step in sectors with a lot of part-time, temporary or fluctuating staff: hospitality, retail, cleaning, logistics and construction-related activities. A complaint from a former employee, a workplace accident or an earlier infringement increases the likelihood even further.

Theme 1: who works here, and on what basis?

The first question is almost always the same: who is at work right now, and does that match your declarations? So keep the following ready:

• Dimona declarations for every member of staff present, including students, flexi-job workers, casual workers and agency workers (for agency staff the temping agency files the Dimona, but you must be able to demonstrate the details).
• Employment contracts, in particular those contracts that must be in writing: student contracts, part-time contracts, fixed-term contracts or contracts for clearly defined work, and the framework agreement for flexi-jobs.
• Identity details and, for non-EU staff, the required residence and work documents.
• Do you work with subcontractors or foreign workers? Then Limosa declarations, A1 certificates and the declaration of works also come into play.

The classic blunder: someone "just helps out" on a busy Saturday and the Dimona follows "on Monday". That is exactly the scenario inspections target. Linking your scheduling and your declarations avoids this structurally — more on that in automating Dimona declarations and contracts.

Theme 2: working time and work rosters

This is the part that takes up the most time, and where something is most often wrong.

• Work rules (arbeidsreglement): in place, up to date and actually provided to your staff. All the work rosters you apply must be included. A copy must also have been filed with the Labour Inspectorate (more information from the FPS Employment).
• Publication of variable part-time work rosters: rosters must be published in good time and in a verifiable manner, and the publication must be traceable afterwards. How to handle this in practice is explained in publishing variable part-time work rosters.
• Deviations register for part-time staff: if someone starts or finishes earlier or later than the published roster, that deviation must be recorded. If you have a time registration system that meets all the legal conditions, it replaces the paper register.
• Registration of hours worked by flexi-job workers: the start and end of the shift must be demonstrable.
• Overtime and compensatory rest: which scheme do you use, how many hours are outstanding, when was compensatory rest granted?

An inspector likes to put three things side by side here: the published work roster, the hours actually worked and the payslip. If these differ without explanation, questions follow. In sectors with last-minute changes — a chef off sick, a shift falling through at a terminal — that is exactly where the tension lies.

Theme 3: pay and pay conditions

• Payslips and the individual account for each employee.
• Application of the sectoral pay scales of your joint committee: minimum wages, seniority, job classification.
• Supplements: night, weekend and public holiday supplements, shift premiums, overtime pay.
• Expenses and benefits: meal allowances, travel expenses, benefits in kind, eco-vouchers.
• Holiday pay and end-of-year bonus in line with the sectoral rules.

Theme 4: well-being and occupational accidents

• Occupational accident insurance and the accident register.
• Risk analysis and the global prevention plan, plus the annual action plan.
• Evidence of the induction of new staff and of the safety instructions given — crucial in industry, ports and logistics.
• Medical examinations for safety-critical roles.
• Appointment of the prevention adviser and, where applicable, the confidential adviser.

What may an inspector do, and what not?

Inspectors may enter your business premises, even when you are not there, and they may examine documents and data carriers — both paper and digital. They may question staff separately. For your private home or private rooms they need your consent or a court warrant. Simply going on a fishing expedition without concrete indications is not permitted.

The outcome is not automatically a fine. Often advice or a warning comes first, with a deadline to put things right. In the case of serious or repeated infringements a formal report (proces-verbaal) is drawn up, and then the sanction levels of the Social Criminal Code come into play — per employee concerned, which makes the amounts add up quickly. Missing Dimona declarations are one of the most expensive categories here.

How to make your file inspection-ready

You gain the most from three principles: one source, digital, and traceable per employee.

1. Work from a single schedule. If your work roster, hours worked and declarations all come from the same system, they cannot drift apart. That is the essence of digital staff scheduling.
2. Automate your Dimona declarations on the basis of the schedule. Whoever is rostered for the shift is declared — no intermediate step, no forgotten Saturday.
3. Record hours worked as they happen, not afterwards from memory. That way you automatically build up your deviations register and your overtime balance.
4. Store contracts and documents centrally in the personnel file rather than in an email folder or a cupboard in the manager's office. See staff management and HR administration.
5. Run a self-check twice a year. Pick three random employees and a random week: can you find the Dimona, the contract, the published roster, the actual hours worked and the payslip within five minutes? If not, you know where your gap is.

A practical example

A catering company with 40 staff, 25 of them part-time and flexi-job workers, gets an inspection on a Friday evening. The inspector asks for the hours worked over the past two weeks. If everything is in folders and Excel files, you lose half a day reconstructing it — and any reconstruction after the visit works against you. If everything is in one system, you export each employee's roster, clocked hours, deviations and declarations in a few clicks.

That difference is not a legal subtlety. It is simply administration you set up at the right moment, rather than at the worst possible one.