In May 2028, all employers employing, on average, at least 50 workers (for the Committee for Prevention and Protection at Work) or 100 workers (for the Works Council), must organise social elections to elect employee representatives to these consultative bodies.
May 2028 may sound far off, but the clock is already ticking. If your company is anywhere near the 50- or 100-worker threshold, now is the time to start making strategic choices.
Indeed, the headcount that matters is not the number of workers on the election date itself, but an average calculated over a reference period that already started on 1 October 2026 and runs until 30 September 2027. For temporary agency workers a shorter reference period applies, running from 1 April 2027 until 30 June 2027.
In other words, every hire and every departure during this window directly shapes whether you cross the threshold, and thus whether social elections become mandatory.
Forewarned is forearmed!
1. Who must organise social elections?
In Belgium, a private-sector company that habitually employs, on average, at least 50 workers is required to organise social elections to compose the workers’ delegation within the Committee for Prevention and Protection at Work (CPPW). Where the company habitually employs, on average, at least 100 workers, it is required to organise these elections to compose the workers’ delegation within the works council.
The works council and the CPPW must be established at the level of the so-called ‘technical business unit’ (‘TBU’). The TBU does not necessarily coincide with the legal entity. If different legal entities show a sufficient level of economic and social dependence, then they can form one single TBU and so only one works council and/or CPPW must be established. Therefore, it will be important for employers to determine the TBU, especially if structural changes (e.g. mergers, corporate restructurings) have taken place since (or shortly before) the last social elections in 2024.
The headcount to determine whether or not a TBU must organise social elections is calculated on average over a reference period.
2. What reference period applies?
The calculation is based on the workforce employed during a given reference period, which differs depending on whether the workers concerned are the company’s own workers or temporary agency workers.
- For the company’s own workers, the reference period covers four quarters and runs from 1 October 2026 until 30 September 2027. 1
- For temporary agency workers, the reference period is shorter and will run from 1 April 2027 until 30 June 2027.
3. Which workers are taken into account to assess the thresholds?
To assess whether the thresholds of 50 or 100 workers are met, all workers need to be taken into account, including:
- Full-time and part-time workers
- Students
- Flexi-job workers
- Employees whose employment contract is suspended (e.g. employees on sick leave)
- Workers employed under an apprenticeship contract
- Temporary agency workers, except where they are replacing a worker whose employment contract is suspended
By contrast, workers employed under a replacement contract are not taken into account for calculating the thresholds.
4. How is the average workforce calculated?
To obtain the average number of workers employed during the reference period, the employer must make a calculation based on the number of calendar days each worker is in service during the reference period (based on the Dimona declarations). Where a worker’s actual working schedule does not reach three-quarters of a full-time schedule, the total number of calendar days is divided by two.
Therefore, in practice, the following steps should be taken, as we will demonstrate using an example.
Step 1: identify the workers and their working situation
- Worker A: is in service during the whole reference period from 1 October 2026 until 30 September 2027 and works on a full-time basis.
- Worker B: only starts service on 1 January 2027 and leaves the company on 30 June 2027. He works full-time.
- Worker C: is in service during the whole reference period, but works part-time (schedule below three-quarters of a full-time schedule).
Step 2: calculate the calendar days counted for each worker
- Worker A: from 1 October 2026 to 30 September 2027 = 365 calendar days divided by 365 = 1. This worker counts as one.
- Worker B: from 1 January 2027 to 30 June 2027 = 181 calendar days divided by 365 = 0.5. Worker B thus only counts for 0.5.
- Worker C: from 1 October 2026 to 30 September 2027 = 365 calendar days, but since their schedule does not reach three-quarters of a full-time schedule, this total is divided by two, i.e. 365 days : 730 days = 0.5. Therefore, worker C also counts for 0.5.
5. Takeaways
If your workforce is hovering near the 50- or 100-worker threshold, or you are planning important headcount changes, the smart move is to start tracking your numbers now and keep watching them throughout the reference period, in order to determine whether or not they reach the thresholds.
To avoid having to organise social elections, it can, in some cases, be important to postpone any hirings and/or to call upon temporary agency workers instead of hiring a permanent employee.
When structural changes have occurred since (or shortly before) the last social elections in 2024 or structural changes are contemplated to take place in the coming months (e.g. mergers, corporate restructurings) it is worthwhile to assess their impact on the determination of the TBU for the organisation of social elections.
Footnote
1. Provided that the election date will be set in May 2028, which we may assume.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
