The Act of 4 April 2019 which amends the Act of 2007 on the Social Elections in light of the elections of next year is published today in the Belgian Official Gazette.
First, the Act fixes the possible dates of the social elections between 11 and 24 May 2020.
Social elections must be held to establish a works council if the company (seen as a Technical Business Unit) counts more than 100 employees during a reference period. If the TBU counts more than 50 employees, the company should only organise elections to establish a Committee for Prevention and Protection at Work (CPW). The new law provides for a reference period from 1 October 2018 to 30 September 2019 during which the number of staff of the TBU must be taken into account. In the previous elections of 2016, the reference period fell later, which led to unfortunate instances in which the election calendar already started while the reference period had not yet ended.
The reference period for taking into account the temporary agency workers as part of the total number of persons employed in the TBU has also been brought forward compared to the previous elections. This is now the second quarter of 2019. Previously, the user (the company where the temporary agency workers perform their work) always had to keep an annex to the general staff register which lists temporary agency workers . This administrative burden is now no longer mandatory if the works council unanimously declares that the threshold of 100 employees will be exceeded. This written declaration must be made before 30 May 2019.
In addition, temporary agency workers may also vote for the first time. In order to obtain the right to vote, temporary agency workers must meet two cumulative conditions:
- The temporary agency worker must have worked at least three uninterrupted months or, in the event of interrupted employment periods, a total of at least 65 working days at the TBU. This employment must be achieved during the period from 1 August 2019 until the notification of the announcement of the election date (this is called day X in the election calendar, which will take place somewhere in February 2020).
- Between day X and 13 days before the election date (this is called day Y), the temporary worker must be employed in the company for at least 26 days.
Finally, work has been done on the further the digitalisation of the procedure through the expansion of the Federal Government's e-box web application (still under development), the electronic posting of election notices and, above all, the facilitation of the possibility of electronic voting. The decision to switch to electronic voting is taken by the works council, the CPBW or, in its absence, the employer in agreement with the trade union delegation, which previously required an unanimous agreement. Moreover, the employees can vote from their usual workstation (i.e. via their own computer), and this no longer has to be done at a special polling station. This makes voting a lot more comfortable for the employees. However, the employer must ensure that electronic voting can take place in a secure manner (in order to prevent electoral fraud).