The new election dates will only be set later by Royal Decree. Presumably they will fall in the period from 16 to 29 November 2020.
What does this mean concretely for the company?
All election acts that had to be legally carried out up to and including day X+35 (= first nomination of lists of candidates) must be finalized in all companies. All election acts will be suspended from day X+36. A new election date will be set by Royal Decree. This period will probably take place between 16 and 29 November 2020. The new date of the social elections is automatically determined by your original day Y in May 2020, but can, if necessary, be adjusted with the agreement of the current CPBW/OR.
A new election date will be set by Royal Decree. The social partners had proposed the period from 16 to 29 November 2020, but this has not yet been determined. The new date of the social elections will automatically be determined by your original day Y in May 2020, but can, if necessary, be adjusted with the agreement of the current CPBW/OR.
All further steps in the procedure from day X+36 cannot be continued. However, there is one exception to this principle, namely in the event of complete cessation. There is a complete discontinuation of the procedure if on day X+35 no candidate list for any category has been submitted by the representative employees' organisations.
In concrete terms, this complete cessation means that you may fill in, sign and hang out the model complete cessation form, which can be found on the website of the FPS WASO. The complete termination is only official if you have also communicated the signed complete termination document to the representative employees' organisations, either by sending it to them or via the FPS WASO web application.
What does this mean for the functioning of the existing works council and CPBW?
Until new consultative bodies are set up (day Y+45), the current bodies will remain in office. If the elections take place in November 2020, day Y+45 will fall in December 2020 or January 2021. Until this date, the current works council and CPBW will therefore continue to operate.
What about the protection against dismissal of the employees' representatives?
The occult protection period against dismissal is currently over. It was terminated via X+35. However, a new occult period will start soon. This starts on the new day X and runs until the new day X+76. This is the latest date on which the candidates for the social elections 2020 can be replaced. If the social elections will take place between 16 and 29 November 2020, you should take into account a new occult period starting between 18 and 31 August 2020.
The special protection against dismissal continues to apply to all candidates in the current social elections, to all non-elected candidates of the previous elections and members of the current works council and CPBW.
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Last update: 26/05/2020
