Suspension of the social elections and postponement

24 Mar 2020
Subject Tax alert
Categories Covid-19
Jurisdictions Belgium

Although some uncertainties remain, an important decision has been taken by the Belgian social partners: the social elections that were due to be held in May 2020 are put on hold and postponed due to the COVID-19 virus. This has been decided during a videoconference held on Monday 17 March. The whole process is suspended and will resume most probably after the summer 2020.

Social elections in Belgium

Social elections were to be held between 11 and 24 May 2020 in companies all across Belgium. It concerns approximately 1.8 million employees in the country.

The aim of those elections is for employees to choose their representatives in the works councils and the committees for prevention and protection at work for a period of 4 years. Social elections need to respect a specific procedure and a calendar, provided by law. There are several phases laid down in the law and companies have ranges of dates to determine when one step has to take place (reason why the dates are generally referred to as “X”, to which a number of days is added).

Currently, we are in the phase X+35, X being the date where each concerned company had to announce its date of social elections. At X+40, the employer must display the names of the candidates to the elections in a visible place at the company. Conversely, the employees have until X+40 to introduce their candidacy to the social elections (they have thus 40 days to communicate their candidacy to the employer).

In most companies, it means that a first display of the candidates has already taken place. For the companies where this did not yet happen, the decision taken by the Belgian social partners will have a concrete impact (see next point).

We would like to remind you that candidates to the social elections enjoy a very large protection against dismissal provided by the law of 19 March 1991. As soon as their candidacy to the elections has been filed, both elected and non-elected candidates can only be dismissed for a limited number of reasons listed by the law of 19 March 1991. The infringement of the protection entitles the employees to very large indemnities.

Suspension of the social election procedure and its effects

On 17 March 2020, the Belgian social partners held a conference meeting and took an important decision: the ongoing social election procedure is suspended and will start again after the summer. The legal procedure applicable is suspended as from X+35. Although another meeting from the National Labor Council must take place to specify the consequences of the decision, we can already consider that this decision means that :

  • the date X+40, which is the latest day where the employer must display the candidates, is postponed;
  • if the employer has received a list of candidates but did not yet publish it (did not yet reach X+40), the employer cannot display the candidates until the end of the suspension of the procedure, most likely after the summer;
  • if there are no candidates now at X+35, the employer must wait until the end of the suspension of the procedure to announce it and the stop of the procedure by lack of candidates;
  • there will be no social elections between the 11 and 24 May 2020.

It has not been explicitly put forward in the communications of the Belgian social partners but this decision also practically means that the period of protection against dismissal for candidates to the elections is prolonged.

We will have to wait the meeting from the National Labor Council to have a more detailed view of the concrete consequences of this suspension/postponement.

We will of course keep you informed.