2024 Employee representative elections: day X-60 is drawing near

Within about three weeks most companies will start putting in place the relevant steps in the run-up to Day X-60. Depending on the company’s choice of election day, this day falls between 15 and 28 December 2023. No later than by said day, the employer is to make sure he communicates:

• the date of the elections;
• the technical business unit(s) (TBUs);
• the number of employees;
• which positions make up the managerial staff and which are the executive positions if there is a Works Council;

After the above information has been communicated comes a period of consultation within the organisation

On election day, between13 and 26 May 2024, employees are set to elect their representatives to the CPBW (Health & Safety in the Workplace Committee). For larger organisations, with more than 100 employees, the representatives to the Works Council are also elected on that day.

Employees who feel called upon to sit on either or both of these bodies can put their name forward to be elected. In which case they will need to be members of one of the recognised trade unions in our country. They nominate the candidates to the employer (note from the translator: the NL sentence is not very clear + in essence, it says the same thing as the sentence above starting with ‘Employees who feel called upon...’ Please feel free to get back to me with an amended NL version or a brief word of explanation for an appropriate EN translation by return of mail)The order in which these unions come forward has to be decided with each new election. This is done by the drawing of lots. On Wednesday November 22 2023, Labour Minister Dermagne was assisted by an impartial innocent child to draw the lots. The results are as follows:

1 ACLVB   

2 ACV       

3 ABVV    

4 NCK

In January, the protection against dismissal takes effect for those coming forward as candidates. However, the final candidates will not be announced until March, hence the term occult period. Because of the uncertainty about those protected against dismissal, a dismissal is usually avoided.

The elections are then set to be held in May, for the CPBW (Health & Safety in the Workplace Committee) and possibly also for the OR (Works’Council). Of the organisations receiving guidance from Acerta Consult, 37% will have their representatives elected onto the CPBW . In the remaining 63% of organisations, representatives to the works council are also elected on the day.