An employer must urgently send a termination letter (notice period) (or a letter notifying of a serious cause (the reasons)) by registered mail, as required by law. The person authorized to sign is abroad.
Can the letter be validly signed digitally and sent by electronic registered delivery?
The eIDAS Regulation (Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of 23 July 2014 (eIDAS)), which has direct effect, distinguishes between a simple, advanced, and qualified electronic signature and provides that a qualified electronic signature has the equivalent legal effect of a handwritten signature.
Such an electronic signature offers the highest level of technical security and is, among other things, based on a qualified certificate for electronic signatures issued by a qualified trust service provider listed on the EU Trusted List.
Although the evidential value of a (mere) advanced electronic signature cannot automatically be denied under eIDAS, the use of a qualified electronic signature is strongly recommended.
Therefore, check which provider can offer this service (in Belgium, the most well-known is Itsme - a recognition in one Member State also applies in other Member States).
Once validly signed digitally, a valid electronic registered delivery is also possible subject to conditions.
An electronic registered delivery can be simple, qualified, or hybrid.
- A qualified electronic registered delivery must, under eIDAS, be provided by a qualified trust service provider listed on the EU Trusted List (in Belgium, there are currently five recognized for electronic registered delivery - but recognition in another Member State also applies here).
- A hybrid registered delivery occurs when the qualified electronic registered delivery service (QeRDS) materializes the registered delivery in paper form at the sender’s request and then sends it in an envelope.
eIDAS provides that data sent and received using a QeRDS enjoys the presumption of integrity of the data, its sending by the identified sender, its receipt by the identified addressee, and the accuracy of the indicated date and time of sending and receipt. Where a legal or regulatory text requires registered delivery, the Belgian Code of Economic Law presumes that this obligation is fulfilled by using a QeRDS.
Case law and legal doctrine require, based on the principle of voluntariness provided in the Code of Economic Law (no one can generally be obliged to perform a legal act electronically), that parties explicitly (individually and in advance) agree to this electronic method of notification (e.g., via (an annex to) the employment contract).