Social elections 2024: adaptation of legal framework text

October 2023 - A new law of 5 June 2023 amends some measures regarding the appointment of employee representatives to works councils and committees for prevention and protection at work. The next social elections will take place from 13 to 26 May 2024.

• The amendments better cover:

• The suspension of the electoral procedure

• Voting rights for temporary workers

• Alternative means of convocation

• Electronic voting

1. Suspension of electoral procedure

If certain conditions and formalities are met, the electoral procedure may be suspended if the company faces a strike or a high level of temporary unemployment between the day of the posting of the notice announcing the date of the elections and the day of the elections.

The law of 5 June 2023 clarifies the date of resumption of the election procedure. That date is determined by mutual agreement between the employer and the representative workers' organisations that can nominate candidates. If no agreement is reached, the suspension ends the day on which the conditions required for the suspension are no longer met.ext

2. Voting rights for agency workers

The new law provides that temporary workers, in order to participate in the vote: must have performed 32 actual working days in the user's legal entity or in the user's technical business unit formed by several legal entities;

during the 3 calendar months preceding the calendar month in which the notice announcing the date of the election is posted, or during the period from 1 November 2023 to 31 January 2024.

3. Alternative modes of convocation

The law of 5 June 2023 facilitates the modes of summoning voters as the employer can summon by means other than handover: if there is a unanimous agreement, within the required deadline, within the Works Council or CPBW or, in the absence of a Works Council or CPBW, with the trade union delegation;

only for voters with a professional mail address or access to a computer (laptop) provided to them at their usual workstation by the employer or user.

If the employer is unable to provide proof of such alternative dispatch and of receipt by the addressee, the notice must be sent by registered mail within the stipulated period or, subject to certain conditions, by an alternative means.

4. Electronic voting

The new law facilitates remote electronic voting. It gets rid of the requirement that the voting software must be installed on the company's network. However, an encrypted network connection must ensure reliable voter authentication. Without that security, electronic voting is not possible.

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