Next social elections to be held between 13 and 26 May 2024

At a glance

• On 5 June 2023, the Act setting the dates of the next social elections at between Monday 13 May and Sunday 26 May 2024 was approved.
• The period between the next and the last social elections will only be three and a half years, as the social elections scheduled for May 2020 were postponed to November 2020.

Every four years, staff representatives in the works council and the committee for prevention and protection at work are elected in social elections. Setting the date of the next social elections requires a new Act every four years since the dates of the social elections set by article 9 of the Act of 4 December 2007 need to be amended. Generally, the Act determining the dates of the new elections also introduces some changes to the procedure after evaluating past social elections.

The social election procedure takes 150 days, so employers planning to hold the vote on Monday 13 May 2024 should start the election procedure on 15 December 2023. Employers who want to schedule a vote on Sunday, 26 May 2024, should start the procedure on 28 December 2023. Most employers will probably choose a date in the first week to avoid having to effect the first notification under the social election procedure during the Christmas period.

The Act of 5 June 2023 also introduced some minor changes to the election procedure.

Key changes 

Changes to how voters are invited to vote

The works council or the committee for prevention and protection at work can now agree that the voters will be invited to the vote by email. This is a considerable simplification compared to the previous rule that the invitations were either physically handed over at the place of work or sent by a registered letter. This agreement requires all workers to have a professional email address and that the employer can submit evidence confirming the sending and the receipt of the invitation.

Clarification of temporary agency workers entitled to participate in the social elections

Only temporary agency workers who worked at least 32 working days in the three months preceding day X (the day on which the precise election day is announced) are entitled to vote. For the May 2024 social elections, this reference period will be between 1 November 2023 and 31 January 2024 to participate in the vote. The temporary agency should provide the user with the data in relation to the temp agency workers meeting this condition within five calendar days after the end of this reference period.

Electronic voting

The Act of 4 December 2007 concerning the social elections used to stipulate that electronic voting was only allowed if the software was downloaded on the employer’s IT network. This condition has been abolished to allow voting through cloud-based applications.

Error in counting of votes

The Act of 5 June 2023 finally clarified that there is no need to start a procedure before the Employment Tribunal to obtain a rectification of a material error in the counting of the votes if the employer and all trade unions who presented candidates agree an error occurred in the first counting of the votes.