Social elections 2020 - next on the employer’s to do list: posting the candidate lists
13 Mar 2020
At the latest on date X+35, which is situated between 17 and 30 March 2020, the representative employee organisations must submit their candidate lists for the 2020 social elections. This causes the blackout period to end, as the employees protected from dismissal will - for the most part - be known to the employer at that point in time.
The representative employee organisations can submit their candidate lists on paper or by using the online application provided by the Federal Public Service in charge of Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue.
Date X+35 can also mark the (partial) end of the social elections proceedings in the company, if one of the following scenarios materialises:
if no candidate list is submitted by any representative employee organisation, the social elections procedure will be fully terminated;
if no candidate list is submitted for a given employee category, the social elections procedure will be terminated for that category only;
if only one candidate list is submitted for a given employee category and the number of candidates is equal to or lower than the number of seats in the employee representative bodies to be allocated for this employee category, the social elections procedure will be terminated for that category only and the candidates will be elected as of right.
On date X+40, the next “to do” on the employer’s social elections checklist is due. Ultimately on this date - situated between 22 March and 4 April 2020 -, the employer must physically post the candidate lists in exactly the same spot where the notification on date X was posted. Alternatively, the information can be made available digitally (e.g. on the company’s intranet) provided that the employees have access to it during their normal working hours.
This notification must follow the template that was used to submit the candidate lists and must include the following wording “to safeguard the representative character of the elected delegation, all employees have a duty to participate in the voting” (“Om de afvaardiging die zal worden verkozen, een werkelijk vertegenwoordigend karakter te geven, hebben alle werknemers tot plicht aan de stemming deel te nemen”/“Pour assurer le caractère vraiment représentatif de la délégation qui sera élue, tous les travailleurs ont le devoir de participer au vote”).
Date X+40 also marks the deadline for appointing the chairman of the polling station(s). The chairman appointed by the Works Council or the Committee for Prevention and Protection at Work (if already present in the company) or, in the absence of such bodies, by the employer in agreement with the trade union delegation. If there's no trade union delegation in the company, an agreement should be reached between the employer and the applicable representative employee organisation.
Following date X+40, a specific procedure is in place to lodge complaints against the candidate lists, with a possibility of appeal with the Labour Tribunal. It’s not until date X+77 at the latest that the final candidate lists must be posted by the employer.
For more information on the 2020 social elections, visit our dedicated social elections website or contact one of our experts.
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