Social elections 2012: Day X (between 7 and 20 February)

Between the 7th and the 20th of February 2012 lots of information needs to be dispersed. This implies that you are exactly 90 days away from the date of the election.

At day X, the Works Council, the Committee for Prevention and Protection at Work  or, if such bodies do not exist yet, the employer, must inform the workers about:

• the dates and the schedule of the elections;

• the address and the denomination of the technical unit of exploitation;

• the number of mandates by Works Council or Committee for Prevention and Protection at Work and by category of workers employed at day X: blue-collar workers, white-collar workers, young workers, executives (only for the Works Council); Attention, please: according to the Court of Cassation also all the temporary employees employed on day X need to be counted in!; 

• the temporary electoral list or the place where it can be consulted; New: these lists need to contain a numbering of each elector and this per category of employees;

• the list of the management staff with mention of their denomination and their duties or the place where it can be consulted; 

• the list of the executives or the place where it can be consulted;

• the dates of the electoral proceedings (calendar of the different steps);

• the person or service in charge of sending or distributing the electoral notice;

• the possibility of electronic voting.

The advice the explicit statement of the date must be displayed once again. This billposting can be replaced by an electronic dissemination of the document as long as all workers have access during their normal work hours. A copy of this document has to be sent to FGTB, CSC, ACLVB and to the organization representing the executives (CEMS), when elections for the Works Council are organized. It can be sent by post or by the information that needs to be uploaded at the web application of the Federal Public Service for employment, work and social consultation (when there is already a works council/prevention committee, these lists of the electors don't need to be added at this). When there is no works council/prevention committee, there needs to be handed over a copy of this message to the shop stewards' committee (when there is one).

The displayed decisions are then definitive if no complaint (at least at X+7 at the Works Council, the Committee for Prevention and Protection at Work or, in the absence of such bodies, the employer) or claim (at least at day X+21 at the Labour Tribunal) are introduced. Those complaints and/or claims can only be introduced concerning temporary lists (for example: false communication), number and distribution of mandates (for example, error in the calculation), names on the list of the management staff and the list of the executives. The claim to the Labour Tribunal is only possible when there is a previous internal complaint.