Social elections 2020 - Day X: announcement of new information

On day X (between 11 and 24 February 2020, depending on the date of the elections within your company) lots of information with regard to the organisation of the social elections needs to be prepared. Companies with a works council and/or a CPPW should moreover discuss this information within these bodies in advance.

On day X, the works council, the committee for prevention and protection at work (CPPW) or, if such bodies do not exist yet, the employer, must inform the workers about:

• the date and schedule of the elections;
• the address and the denomination of the technical unit of exploitation;
• the number of mandates per body and per category of workers : blue-collar workers, white-collar workers, young workers, executives (only for the works council);
• the temporary electoral lists or the places where they can be consulted. These lists with the persons that will be able to vote need to be issued by category and contain all employees and temporary agency workers that fulfil the electoral requirements (in an alphabetical order and with a number);
• the list of the management staff with an indication of the denomination and the content of the functions, or the places where it can be consulted;
• the list of the executives or the places where it can be consulted (only for the works council);
• 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 decision whether there will be proceeded with an electronic voting system.

The announcement (which explicitly mentions the date) needs to be posted. This can be done electronically, provided that all employees have access to it during their normal work hours. If you were to put the electoral lists at the disposal of your workforce in an electronic way, this should be done through a sealed platform or on an intranet/sharepoint which is secured by the employer and to which only employees of the company have access. Sending the electoral lists by e-mail to the employees should be excluded, unless if this would concern an e-mail with a link to such secured platform or intranet/sharepoint.

A copy of this document has to be sent to the representative trade unions. This can be sent by post or by uploading the information on the web application of the Federal Public Service for employment, work and social consultation. When there is already a works council or a CPPW or a trade union (composed of the three representative unions) in place, the electoral lists do not need to be added.

When there is not yet a works council/CPPW in place, a copy of the above information needs to be communicated to the trade union delegation (if any).

Action point

Check whether you have fully prepared the announcement for day X. In this regard, preliminary consultation of the works council and/or the CPPW is required.