Social elections 2016: Day X-30 (between 10 and 23 January 2016)

The protection against dismissal as granted to social elections candidates starts between 10 and 23 January 2016, depending on day Y.

On day X-30 a new dismissal protection period starts for each future candidate for the social elections.

During at least 65 days, certain employees will benefit from this protection without you as their employer even being aware of it. Therefore, the term “hidden” protection period is often used when referring to this period. The names of these employees will indeed only be known on day X+35 (that is between 15 and 28 March 2016), or in case of replacement of candidates even only later (the final candidate lists should be submitted by day X+76, that is between 25 April and 8 May 2016).

The law provides that any employee dismissed during this period (irrespective of the reason for dismissal including dismissal for cause) can be nominated as a candidate employee representative, even if he/she is no longer employed in the company on the day of the presentation of the candidate lists.

An employee dismissed during this hidden protection period (or the trade union that nominated this employee) is obliged to demand his/her reinstatement in a correct way. Should you as employer refuse such reinstatement, you will owe the employee concerned a compensation for failure to respect his/her protected status, which may amount to more than eight years’ salary!

> Action point

Every dismissal during this “hidden” protection period is potentially extremely costly and to be avoided.