Social elections 2020: vote, closing of the minutes, posting

Social elections will take place between 16 and 29 November 2020.

On election day (Y), several operations take place and from day Y + 1, different formalities must be completed.

These formalities can be summarised as follows.

Voting modalities

The president of the polling station transmits one (or several) ballot paper(s) to the voter who presents himself with his convocation letter on election day (day Y, between 16 and 29 November 2020).

Voters may not cast more votes as there are full mandates to be allocated. They can vote in two different ways:

• either in favour of one single list and at the top of the list (= box at the top);
• either in favour of one single list, but with nominal votes, next to the name of the candidates.
  'Mixed voting' (the possibility to vote for candidates on different lists) is not authorised. This method of voting results in an invalid vote.

Closing of the voting and tabulation of the votes

The polling station carries out the tabulation of the votes. This must take place separately for each category of candidates to be elected.

The ballot papers will then be classified into the following categories:

• valid ballot papers;
• suspicious ballot papers;
• invalid ballot papers;
• blank ballot papers.
  The members of the station also count the number of nominal votes that each candidate has obtained.
  The minutes of the elections must be completed.

Distribution of the mandates - designation of the elected representatives - ranking of the non-elected candidates

The polling station distributes the mandates and designates the full and alternate members immediately after the tabulation of the votes has been closed.

The operations (which must take place separately for each category of workers to be elected) take place in multiple phases (described in the Social Elections Act of 4 December 2007):

• determination ofthe electoral figure of each list; determination of the useful quotients; distribution of the mandates between the lists.
• (as soon as the number of seats to be allocated to each list has been determined) designation of the full members - designation of the alternate members and ranking of the non-elected candidates.

Closing of the minutes

The results of the general vote count, the names of the full and alternate elected candidates and the ranking of the non-elected candidates shall be recorded in the minutes.

Communication and keeping of certain documents

For the works council or the committee for prevention and protection at work, the president of the station immediately sends the minutes to the Federal Public Service Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue, to the employer and to the organizations concerned representing the workers and the organizations concerned representing the executive staff.

The employer must keep all documents which have been used for the election.

Posting of certain information

No later than 2 days after the voting operations have been closed (i.e. on Y + 2, between 18 November and 1 December 2020), the employer posts, on the same locations where the notice mentioning the date of the elections was displayed, a notice with the results of the vote and the composition of the works council or the committee for prevention and protection at work.

In the absence of the posted notice announcing the date of the elections, the notice with the results of the vote and the composition of the works council or the committee for prevention and protection at work is posted where it would have been posted if the notice announcing the date of the elections had not been made available by electronic means.

The notice must remain posted until the 84th day following its posting (i.e. until Y + 86, between 10 and 23 February 2021).

After every social election, the employer must provide the works council or, in the absence thereof, the trade union delegation, with an overview of the proportion between the female and male candidates who appeared on the final lists of candidates, as well as the proportion between the female and male elected representatives who sit on the works council or the committee for prevention and protection at work. This overview will be provided and discussed in the course of the 6 months following the posting of the election results.

Remark - The notices indicating in particular the date of the elections, the lists of candidates, the lists of the members of the polling stations, the distribution of the voters and the handing over of the convocation letters must also remain posted until the fifteenth day following the posting of the results of the vote (i.e. until Y + 17, between 3 and 16 December 2020).

N.B.! The possibilities of appeal against the result of the elections and the detailed rules for the first meeting of the works council and the committee for prevention and protection at work will be set down in detail later.

Source: Social Elections Act of 4 December 2007.