Legal innovations

Amended regulations apply to this year’s works council elections taking place from March 1 to May 31, 2022. Pursuant to Section 24 (2) of the Election Regulations of October 8, 2021 (BGBl. I 4640/2021), HR departments are required to provide, in addition to the typical employee data used to draw up the electoral list (surname, first name, date of birth, etc.), details of those employees who are expected to be absent from the workplace after  the election committee letter has been issued and prior to  the election for non-work related reasons (“in particular due to suspension or incapacity for work”). This refers in particular to employees on long-term sick leave and employees on care or parental leave. Furthermore, meetings of the election committee may in future also be held by video or telephone conference subject to are solution by the election committee agreeing to this. However, certain tasks, such as checking lists of candidates or processing absentee ballots must be carried out in person.