The Works Council has a chairperson, a deputy chairperson and a secretary. They have tasks to perform for the Works Council. But what are their tasks, and what should they do?
– klik hier voor de Nederlandse versie van deze tekst –
During the Works Council elections, you will have elected the chairperson, the deputy chairperson and the secretary. In many cases, there will be a meeting with the former Works Council members (the members who sat on the previous Works Council) about what the chairperson and secretary did during their term in office. This gives you a broad idea of the tasks and roles. But more helpful information may be available, so we decided to write this article.
chairperson, deputy chairperson and secretary: their duties
Article 7 of the WOR (Works Council Act) (Dutch) states that electing a chairperson and a deputy chairperson is mandatory.
The Works Council rules of procedure (Dutch) set out many of the duties of the chairperson (such as chairing the meeting) and also include the duties of a secretary regarding reporting and their role during the Works Council elections. In the chairperson’s absence, the deputy chairperson shall take over all duties.In addition, article 23a of the WOR (Dutch) states that the secretary reports on the consultation meeting (OV = OverlegVergadering) and is responsible for the meeting agenda.
what or who is the Works Council’s ‘Dagelijks Bestuur’?
The ‘Dagelijks Bestuur’ (also called DB) is a team consisting of the chairperson, the deputy chairperson (a.k.a. the vice-chairperson) and the secretary.
The Works Council may, in some cases, decide that the DB requires more members. In that case, you can also elect a vice-chairperson or a vice-secretary. Some Works Councils have an ‘additional DB member’. Other Works Councils may decide that a two-person DB is sufficient. In many cases, Works Councils choose to have the duties of the vice-chairperson and the secretary carried out by the same person.
The reason to expand or reduce the DB can differ: there are many tasks to be divided, you want to see different groups from the Works Council represented in the DB, or it is more convenient.
These individuals together form the Works Council’s ‘Dagelijks Bestuur’ (DB). In this article, we use the term ‘DB members’ when discussing these roles.
how do you elect the chairperson (or secretary)?
All the roles of the DB (not just the chairperson, secretary or other positions) are chosen ‘from your midst’. This is stated in article 7 of the WOR (Works Council Act) (Dutch): “The Works Council shall elect a chairperson and one or more deputy chairpersons from among its members.”
And according to your Works Council rules of procedure (Dutch), you elect individuals anonymously. This means the election is not done by raising hands but with ballot papers without anyone seeing who wrote down which name. If you do not make any other rules, the chairperson and secretary (the DB members) are appointed for the entire term of office (Dutch) of the Works Council.
when do you elect the chairperson (or secretary)?
After each Works Council election (whether the Works Council is elected whole or in part), a new Works Council term begins. As with parliamentary or city council elections, the new Works Council must (again) divide the roles and tasks of the Works Council: any new composition of the council may mean that there are different goals or points of view. It is up to each new Works Council to decide on these issues for themselves.
Immediately after the elections, the new Works Council elects its chairperson and secretary. The result of that vote is recorded in the minutes of the Works Council meeting, which marks the appointment of the chairperson and the secretary. It is wise to inform the ‘Bestuurder’ (Director) and all employees in the organisation about the (new) chairperson and secretary as soon as possible.
Conversely, if, for example, a chairperson is not living up to their expectations, it is difficult to ‘depose’ that person without a disagreement.
what are the tasks of the chairperson and secretary?
chairperson
As a Works Council, you must elect a chairperson (Dutch) who represents the Works Council. This means that the chairperson is the only officially authorised person competent to sign documents on behalf of the Works Council (unless you make other arrangements in your Works Council rules of procedure (Dutch)). The chairperson is also the chair of the Works Council meetings.
In addition, according to the WOR (Dutch), the chairperson of the Works Council and the ‘Bestuurder’ (Director) share the role of chairing the consultation meeting (OV, the meeting between the Works Council and the Director).
In practice, this means that the chairperson of the Works Council will act on behalf of the Works Council and represent the Works Council when necessary. For example, the Director invites the chairperson (and preferably one or more other members of the DB) to a meeting if there is something they would like to discuss urgently with the Works Council. Minor issues can wait until the next OV.
If you used the SER’s model rules of procedure (see also the article “Works Council rules of procedure: how, why and adjusting” (Dutch)) as a guide for writing your Works Council rules of procedure, the secretary has a clear role in organising the Works Council elections. The Works Council secretary is also responsible for taking minutes at the Works Council meeting, for any correspondence and for managing the Works Council archive. In practice, we notice that chairing the Works Council can cost (extra) time. The chairperson must prepare the meetings they are chairing or determine the agenda of the meeting. The secretary’s work also takes extra time. For example, processing the notes from a meeting into readable minutes takes at least one to two times the meeting time. In general, if an average Works Council member in your organisation spends an X number of hours, you should calculate two times that number of hours for the chairperson and three times that number of hours for the secretary. That is often why more members are appointed to the DB, or an administrative secretary (AS) is hired. Although some tasks are specific to the chairperson or the secretary, letting the DB members decide how best to share the tasks makes sense. They often work together as one team. Regardless of how the tasks are divided in the DB, no matter what the Works Council has decided on the size or interpretation of the DB, the Works Council remains responsible for the content as a group. This is also apparent from the articles in the WOR and case law on this issue: the chairperson and the secretary have not been given any actual powers. Therefore, the interpretation of these positions is entirely up to the Works Council. All Works Council members are equal. The members of the ‘Dagelijks Bestuur’ do not have more or less influence than the other Works Council members. The Works Council members who are part of the DB are the only Works Council members with an additional task: organising the Works Council work for the Works Council. This means that the members of the DB can only share, organise or implement process-related matters on the order of the Works Council. The DB cannot make independent decisions on content-related matters without the Works Council’s ruling on it first. You should discuss what you expect of the chairperson and secretary before you elect people for these roles. You should also discuss the expectations for different situations and what tasks need to be performed, including the knowledge, attitudes and skills that are considered relevant for the chairperson/secretary. The Works Council should also assess how well these people can delegate or lead meetings. Many issues between the Works Council and the ‘Bestuurder’ (Director) are a matter of negotiation, so the question is: what level of negotiating skills do you expect? You must also discuss how much time and facilities the chairperson and secretary need and how this is (being) arranged between the Works Council and the ‘Bestuurder’ (Director). A Works Council can also have a so-calBed administrative secretary (AS) who carries out tasks for the Works Council and the DM. You can read more about this in the article ‘The Works Council’s administrative secretary: their role, tasks and powers‘. If you want to know more about this subject, please contact us; we are happy to answer all your questions! Note: Please note that we are a Dutch organisation and that all our information is originally composed in Dutch. For the benefit of our English-speaking customers we have translated some of our online information. We are still in the process of translating even more of our information. It could therefore be that you will come across Dutch pages on CT2.nl. Please contact us if you would like more information.secretary
extra hours for the DB
dividing the DB tasks
DB = responsible for the process
Works Council = responsible for the contentwhat about an administrative secretary (AS)?
[…] – click here for the English version of this text – […]