Social elections 2028: the countdown starts

Social elections 2028: the countdown starts

New year, new deadline on the horizon. The next social elections will take place in May 2028, within a two-week window fixed by law. May 2028 feels far away from January 2026 — but the procedure does not begin on voting day. It begins in late 2027, on day X-60, around December 2027. Here is the countdown, mapped backwards from day Y.

The anchor: day Y, in May 2028

The whole calendar is built around day Y, voting day. In the previous edition, the vote ran from 13 to 26 May 2024; each company picked its own day Y within that window. For 2028, the window stays May 2028, with the exact dates fixed by law and confirmed by the FPS Employment (SPF Emploi / FOD WASO).

From day Y, the law counts backwards: the other milestones are defined as "day Y minus X" or "day X plus a number of days".

The countdown, backwards from May 2028

• Day Y (May 2028) — Voting, counting and seat allocation for the Works Council (WC) and the Committee for Prevention and Protection at Work (CPPW).
• Day X (±February 2028) — The election date is officially announced in each company. This is the legal pivot: day X sits 90 days before day Y.
• Day X+35 (±March 2028) — Candidate lists are submitted by the unions.
• Day X-60 (±December 2027) — The procedure effectively starts: the employer communicates the technical business units, headcount and management functions.

In other words: the first legal obligation falls in late 2027, not in 2028. A company that discovers the topic in spring 2028 has already missed the opening steps.

What this means for 2026 and 2027

The countdown means the next two years are not dead time:

• 2026 — reflection and budget. Should you move to electronic voting? For which colleges? At what cost? This is the moment to add a budget line, before decisions become urgent.
• 2027 — decisions. Choosing a provider, getting the WC or CPPW to agree on online voting, running a tender where required. These steps take weeks.
• Late 2027 → May 2028 — execution. The legal procedure runs, with no second chance.

In short

The 2028 social elections play out in reverse: voting day is in May 2028, but the first obligation falls in late 2027 (X-60), and the real decisions are made from 2026 onward. Starting early simply means not doing everything at the last minute.

To understand which companies are concerned and who votes, read Which elections take place in Belgium in 2028?. And if you want to start planning your timeline now, let's talk.