Social elections to be held in May 2000

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In May 2000, Belgium will organise its 13th set of "social elections" of employee representatives on works councils and health and safety committees. In a country where social dialogue retains a pivotal role, this poll is essentially an indicator of the relative strengths of the two main trade union confederations. Since 1975, the Christian-oriented CSC/ACV has been the stronger of the two overall, but with considerable regional and sectoral differences.

Between 8-21 May 2000, the 13th round of "social elections" will take place in Belgium, involving some 1.3 million employees and 2,000 enterprises in the private sector (in both the profit and non-profit sectors). Initially scheduled to take place in May 1999, on the normal four-yearly cycle, these elections were postponed by one year to avoid interfering with the federal and regional legislative elections which took place on 13 June 1999 (BE9805144N). Workers will be voting to elect representatives, nominated by trade unions, on workplace health and safety committees and works councils. The election of a workplace health and safety committee is mandatory for firms (or establishments) employing 50 workers or more, whereas a works council is required in enterprises employing 100 workers or more. For the purpose of the elections, the workforce of each enterprise is divided into four electoral colleges: "white-collar workers", "blue-collar workers", "managerial and professional staff" and "young workers".

Theoretically a meeting ground for "ideological" confrontation between employers and trade unions, the works council is in reality more a forum for information and consultation of workers on their enterprise's financial status and strategy and on personnel movements. Work rules and hiring and dismissal procedures are also discussed in the works council. Furthermore, since 1996-7, enterprises are required to submit a detailed annual report to the National Bank of Belgium, covering the developments in personnel issues, employee turnover, vocational training and the use of public employment incentives. This "social balance sheet" must be drawn up and discussed within the works council.

For its part, the workplace health and safety committee has a right of control over anything that has an impact on health, hygiene and safety, as well right of initiative for the improvement of working conditions, once a consensus is reached between trade union representatives and management. In enterprises or establishments where there is no works council, the workplace health and safety committee often takes over its prerogatives de facto. Decisions made by the workplace health and safety committee are compulsory for the enterprise and are legally binding.

Over the long term and at the federal level, social elections show an erosion of the scores obtained by the Belgian General Federation of Labour (Fédération Générale du Travail de Belgique/Algemeen Belgisch Vakverbond, FGTB/ABVV) to the advantage of the Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (Confédération des Syndicats Chrétiens/Algemeen Christelijk Vakverbond, CSC/ACV) - which has been ahead of FGTB/ABVV since 1975 - and the Federation of Liberal Trade Unions of Belgium (Centrale Générale des Syndicaux Libéraux de Belgique/Algemene Centrale der Liberale Vakbonden van België, CGSLB/ACLVB). The decline of the socialist FGTB/ABVV can be explained, among other factors, by the dismantling (mostly in the Walloon region) of major heavy industry establishments, its traditional stronghold. In 1995, the average national scores in the social elections were 53.5% for CSC/ACV, 38.1% for FGTB/ABVV and 8.4% for CGSLB/ACLVB. However, a regional breakdown showed a decline for CSC/ACV in Flanders and a decline for FGTB/ABVV in Wallonia. In the non-market sector, CSC/ACV was the clear winner (particularly in Wallonia). A breakdown by electoral college showed that blue-collar workers were those that most continued to favour FGTB/ABVV, whereas young and white-collar workers tended to flock to CSC/ACV and managers gave some support to the National Confederation of Managerial Staff (Confédération Nationale des Cadres/Nationale Confederatie voor Kaderleden, CNC/NCK), which however lost ground. It is important to note that the relative strengths in social elections of the two main trade union confederations do not in any way reflect their number of members (active and non-active). Although FGTB/ABVV has a majority in the Walloon region in terms of number of members, it has an electoral minority – owing to the fact that non-active members do not vote in social elections.

The two main union confederations now confront two challenges for the 2000 elections. The first is to increase the electorate: in 1995, 10% of enterprises legally obliged to organise social elections had no candidates for the available positions, and the size of enterprises is moreover declining. The second is to confirm the declining trend in support for the lists of candidates presented by CNC/NCK. A final noteworthy point is that the trade unions have agreed on rules of conduct forbidding the inclusion of any racist or sexist arguments in the campaign.