Works council and CPPW between elections: what these bodies actually do
Social elections elect representatives for four years. But once the seats are allocated, what do the works council and the CPPW actually do? Many people think these bodies mostly "serve" on polling day. In reality, they work all year round, and some of them meet every month. Here is their real role, between two votes.
Two bodies, two missions
First, don't confuse them. They are two distinct bodies, with different thresholds and different missions.
- The works council (WC) is mandatory from 100 employees (it is renewed from 50 if it already exists). Its mission revolves around economic, financial and social information.
- The Committee for Prevention and Protection at Work (CPPW) is mandatory from 50 employees. Its mission revolves around well-being, safety and health at work.
So in a company of 50 to 99 employees, there is only a CPPW. In the absence of a works council, it is this committee that receives the economic and financial information every year and discusses it.
What the works council does all year
The WC is above all an information and consultation body. It does not run the company, but nothing important should be decided without going through it. Concretely, the employer must inform and consult it on:
- the economic and financial situation of the company (including the detailed annual economic and financial information),
- employment and its evolution: hiring, collective dismissals, restructuring,
- work organisation and working conditions,
- sustainability, a strand that has grown in importance in recent years.
The key word is beforehand: information and consultation must happen before the decision, so that representatives can give an opinion with full knowledge of the facts. A works council informed after the fact is a works council stripped of its meaning.
What the CPPW does, at least once a month
The CPPW has a more concrete, more day-to-day mission: improving workers' well-being in the performance of their work. It searches for and proposes every means to achieve that, and it meets at least once a month.
On the agenda of those meetings: risk analysis, workplace accidents and their prevention, workstation ergonomics, hygiene, psychosocial load, protective equipment, the global prevention plan and its annual action plan. The CPPW issues opinions and proposals; it has no direct decision-making power, but on many of these topics the employer must consult it and justify its choices. So its influence is real, even without "power".
Why this matters for the 2028 elections
If these bodies work all year round, it is because electing the right people, under the right conditions, is not an administrative formality: it is what keeps social dialogue running for four years. A well-organised vote, with high turnout, produces legitimate representatives and a solid social dialogue. A rushed vote, with low turnout, weakens the body for the whole term.
That is also why the choice of voting method (paper, electronic, hybrid) is not just a technical question: it drives the turnout rate, and therefore the legitimacy of the representatives who will sit, every month for the CPPW, regularly for the WC.
In short
Between two elections, the works council informs and consults on economic, financial, employment and sustainability matters; the CPPW meets at least once a month on well-being and safety. The WC exists from 100 employees, the CPPW from 50, and below 50, the union delegation takes over. Electing these bodies is not ticking a box: it is choosing the people who will carry social dialogue for four years.
To understand the difference between the two bodies and what happens below 50 employees, read Works council vs CPPW: the differences, and what happens under 50 employees. And if you are preparing to elect these bodies for 2028, let's talk.
