Social elections bring little change in union support

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The four-yearly 'social elections' of employee representatives on works councils and committees for prevention and protection at the workplace were held in Belgium in May 2004. Provisional results indicate that there were very few changes in the relative support for the candidates put forward by the main trade union organisations.

On 6-19 May 2004, social elections (BE0309302F and BE0405302F) were held across the private sector to elect workers’ representatives on enterprise-level information and consultation bodies, both works council s (conseils d'entreprise/ondernemingsraden, CEs/ORs) and committees for prevention and protection at the workplace (comités pour la prévention et protection au travails/comités voor preventie en bescherming op het werk, CPPTs/CPBWs). The elections occur across the private sector every four years and are based mainly on trade union slates of candidates. All private sector companies employing more than 100 employees are obliged by law to set up a works council and a CPPT/CPBW, while businesses with over 50 workers only have to establish the latter (BE0309304T).

Two days after the end of the elections, the State Secretary for Work Organisation and Well-being at Work, Kathleen Van Brempt, unveiled official results based on 83% of the votes cast. Enterprises had until the end of May to file their results electronically, and final percentages are unlikely to be announced until September.

Combining the results for 'for-profit' and 'not-for-profit' businesses, in 2004 a little under 3,200 enterprises organised social elections for works councils and slightly over 5,600 for CPPTs/CPBWs. These elections affected a little over 1.2 million workers in the case of works councils and almost 1.4 million workers in the cases of CPPTs/CPBWs. The participation rate, at 75%-80% of employees eligible to vote, was slightly up on the 2000 elections (BE0006316F) for both works councils and CPPTs/CPBWs.

The main results were as follows.

• The Confederation of Christian Trade Unions ( Confédération des Syndicats Chrétiens / Algemeen Christelijk Vakverbond , CSC/ACV) and the Federation of Liberal Trade Unions of Belgium ( Centrale Générale des Syndicats Libéraux de Belgique / Algemene Centrale der Liberale Vakbonden van België , CGSLB/ACLVB) have emerged slightly stronger from these elections with small increases to 53.7% and 9.8% of the vote respectively in the CPPT/CPBW elections and 52.5% and 9.2% in the works council elections. The Belgian General Federation of Labour ( Fédération Générale du Travail de Belgique / Algemeen Belgisch Vakverbond , FGTB/ABVV) recorded a slight fall in its share of the votes to 36.5% in the CPPT/CPBW elections and 35.7% in the works council elections.

• In terms of seats, FGTB/ABVV’s share on CPPTs/CPBWs rose from 35.2% in 2000 to 35.5% in 2004, while CSC/ACV fell back to 58.4% form 58.8% in 2000 and CGSLB/ACLVB remained steady at 6%. Seats on works councils were distributed as follows: 56.6% for CSC/ACV (no change); 34.5% for FGTB/ABVV (down from 35% in 2000); 6.2% for CGSLB/ACLVB; 1.2% for the National Confederation of Managerial Staff ( Confédération nationale des Cadres / Nationale Confederatie voor Kaderleden , CNC/NCK); and 1.6% for independent managers' lists.

• In sectoral terms, the CSC/ACV increased its share of seats in enterprises in the for-profit sector, winning 53.6% on CPPTs/CPBWs and 51.8% on works councils, while FGTB/ABVV lost ground on both CPPTs/CPBWs (39.6%) and works councils (38%), and CGSLB/ACLVB lost seats on CPPTs/CPBWs (6.7%) but kept a stable representation on works councils (6.8%). In the not-for-profit sector, FGTB/ABVV increased its share of seats from 18.5% to 21.1% on CPPTs/CPBWs, and from 20.1% to 21.4% on works councils. CGSLB/ACLVB, too, registered a small increase from 3% to 3.6% on on CPPTs/CPBWs, and from 3.7% to 3.8% on works councils. CSC/ACV lost seats on both bodies, winning 75.3% of CPPT/CPBW seats, compared with 78.4% in 2000, and 74.2% of works council seats, compared with 75.7% in 2000.

• In regional terms, in Brussels: FGTB/ABVV lost seats on both CPPTs/CPBWs (to 41.9%) and works councils (38.9%); CSC/ACV gained on CPPTs/CPBWs (47.9%) and lost on works councils (45.9%); and CGSLB/ACLVB increased its share to 10.2% on CPPTs/CPBWs and 9.4% on works councils. In Wallonia: CSC/ACV lost seats on both CPPTs/CPBWs (50.2%) and works councils (50.7%); FGTB/ABVV made gains on CPPTs/CPBWs (46.2%) and losses on works councils (43.1%); and CGSLB/ACLVB gained ground on works councils (3.8%) and maintained its position on CPPTs/CPBWs (3.6%). In Flanders, FGTB/ABVV made small gains, while both CSC/ACV and CGSLB/ACLVB fell back slightly.

• The share of women among representatives elected to CPPTs/CPBWs stood at 36.3% for CSC/ACV, 31.4% for FGTB/ABVV and 29.8% for CGSLB/ACLVB. On works councils, the proportions were 32.9% for CSC/ACV representatives, 28.2% for FGTB/ABVV, 27% for CGSLB/ACLVB, 21.6% for independent managers' lists and 13.8% for CNC/NCK, Minister Van Brempt commented on the proportion of elected women candidates that 'there has been some progress, but still too little' , and appealed to the social partners to continue improving the situation.

The leaders of the various union confederations reacted to the figures, but stressed the fact that they were provisional and that there could be differences when the final results are available in September. The FGTB/ABVV president, André Mordant, said that the inclusion of further results was likely to reverse the small decrease in the number of seats that his union won on works councils and produce a stable situation. Mr Mordant also remarked that, although the variations in support for the trade unions overall were slight, they concealed major changes in industrial structures. Luc Cortebeek, the president of CSC/ACV again deplored the fact that Belgian law provides for employee representative bodies to be elected only in enterprises over a certain size, and called on political and social actors to find solutions (BE0304301N). According to Mr Cortebeek, these thresholds meant that 1.5 million workers in small and medium-sized enterprises were unable to vote in the 2004 social elections.

While noting the general lack of change in the positions of the trade unions, the Federation of Belgian Enterprises (Fédération des Entreprises de Belgique/Verbond van Belgische Ondernemingen, FEB/VBO stated that that efficient management of social elections took up a lot of time and energy and was therefore expensive for enterprises, 'which alone bear the cost without any public subsidy'. The employers' organisation is calling for the electoral procedures to be simplified.