Results of 2008 social elections in private sector

The 15th national social elections were held in Belgium in May 2008 to elect the country’s worker representatives to works councils and health and safety committees. Although the General Christian Trade Union remains by far the majority trade union confederation in Belgium, it experienced slight or very slight losses in a number of economic sectors and regions.

From 5–18 May 2008, the latest round of social elections – also known as workplace elections –was held across the Belgian private sector. This is the 15th time that the elections have taken place since their introduction in 1950 (BE0406301N). In terms of the gender distribution, the election results show a higher proportion of successful female candidates compared with the results four years ago (BE0807029I).

Background

In Belgium, the elections held by a company’s employees to elect members of the works council and the workplace health and safety committee are traditionally referred to as ‘social elections’. All private sector companies employing more than 100 employees are legally obliged to set up a works council and workplace health and safety committee (Comité pour la prévention et protection au travail/Comité voor preventie en bescherming op het werk, CPPT/CPBW), while enterprises with over 50 workers only have to establish the latter (BE0309304T). The social elections are held every four years in Belgium and are regulated by detailed legislation, which is similar in many respects to the rules governing municipal elections.

Significant features of the elections include: separate electoral bodies for blue-collar and white-collar workers, and professional and managerial staff (kaderleden/cadres); the exclusion of employees classified as senior executives from participation in the elections; and restriction of the right to nominate candidates to the most representative trade unions, except in the case of professional and managerial staff, where independent candidates are also permitted.

Main election results

The 15th round of social elections did not result in any fundamental changes in the balance of power between Belgium’s three main trade union confederations – the General Christian Trade Union (Algemeen Christelijk Vakverbond/Confédération des syndicats chrétiens, ACV/CSC), the Belgian General Confederation of Labour (Algemeen Belgisch Vakverbond/ Fédération Générale du Travail de Belgique, ABVV/FGTB) and the Federation of Liberal Trade Unions of Belgium (Algemene Centrale der Liberale Vakbonden van België/Centrale Générale des Syndicats Libéraux de Belgique, ACLVB/CGSLB). At national level, the Christian ACV/CSC retained its dominant position, securing almost 57% of the seats on works councils and just over 59% of the seats on the CPPT/CPBWs (Table 1). The socialist ABVV/FGTB is equally represented in both representative bodies, with just over one third of the seats. Meanwhile, the liberal ACLVB/CGSLB increased its number of seats on both the works councils (6.6%) and CPPT/CPBWs (6.2%).

Table 1 below compares the results of both the 2008 and 2004 elections for the main trade union confederations in terms of votes and seats for the works council and CPPT/CPBW elections.