Personnel commission

Election

At the request of a number of employees, the employer must hold a vote by which the employees must decide whether they want to create a personnel committee. If so, an election must be held. This personnel committee will be the employer's contact in certain situations.

Benefits

The personnel committee allows employees to organize themselves and to defend their collective interests. For the employer, it is a question of simplifying the social dialogue with the employees of his company when they are too numerous.

Procedure

The law provides for a certain number of cases where the personnel committee, if it exists, must imperatively be consulted. This will be the case in particular in the event of collective redundancies, company transfers or on questions of health at work. This is also the case when the employer wants to introduce a simplified working time registration.

The personnel committee is of great importance in the case of consultation procedures imposed by law. It simplifies communication between employees and the employer and facilitates social dialogue. These are mainly consultation procedures in connection with the transfer of a company or when the employer is planning to make collective redundancies.

Collective redundancies

Economic crises often rhyme with restructuring and, sometimes, collective redundancies. The employer must follow a specific, delicate and formal procedure before doing so.

It is imperative that the personnel committee be consulted as soon as an economic dismissal is being considered. This procedure must allow the personnel committee to formulate proposals in order to avoid collective redundancies, to limit the number of redundancies or to mitigate their consequences. This procedure must be respected even if the decision to make collective redundancies is taken by the parent company and the company has no influence on this decision.

Depending on the size of the company, the employer will have to negotiate a social plan with the personnel committee in favor of the dismissed employees.

Transfer of the company

When the employer announces that the company will be transferred, many employees are concerned. They are concerned about what will happen to their employment contracts, the legal, economic and social consequences of the transfer and the date on which the company will actually be transferred.

In any case, the employer must provide the personnel committee with a whole range of information concerning the transfer of the company. In addition, if the employer who takes over the company is planning to take unfavourable measures towards the employees, the personnel committee must be consulted. It must be able to formulate proposals to mitigate the negative effects of these measures.