If your company has several small workplaces that, combined, employ more than 50 people, it's very likely that works councils will come into play… and with them, new obligations for you. Works councils can be a tool for dialogue… or a source of conflict if they aren't managed well from the start. The key is to know their rules and anticipate potential issues. Let us explain…
In many medium-sized companies, the same pattern is repeated: one or more work centers, none of which reach 50 employees, the activity grows, new points of sale or branches are opened... and, almost without realizing it, the total workforce is above that number that is so often mentioned in labor law: 50 workers.
From there, the question usually arises, sometimes with a certain nervousness: "If my centers are small, can they really organize a works council? And what should I do if the workers or the unions promote it?"
Let's take it one step at a time.
- When can a works council appear in your organization?
The classic rule is well known:
- In each workplace with 50 or more workers, employees can elect a works council.
- In smaller centers, representation usually falls to staff delegates.
So far, nothing new.
What many business owners don't keep in mind is this: when a company has several workplaces in the same province or in neighboring municipalities, and each one has fewer than 50 employees, but the total number of employees exceeds that figure, the workers can form a joint works council that represents all of those workplaces at the same time.
In other words: it is not necessary for an individual center to reach 50. If they all add up, the workers have the opportunity to organize.
And if, in addition, there is a center in that same province that does reach 50, this mixed situation can occur:
- That "large" center has its own committee.
- Small centers in the same province, when combined, can have another joint committee.
- Is the company required to have a committee?
There is often confusion here. Even if the numbers are right, the company is not obligated to "create" a works council. The decision to form one rests with the workers and the unions, through an electoral process.
However, and this is important, once someone formally promotes elections and communicates this to the company and the corresponding public office, you are indeed obliged to cooperate:
- Facilitate the census of workers.
- Allow the formation of the electoral board.
- To make voting possible during working hours, at the workplace itself.
- Do not interfere with or obstruct the process.
Ignoring a call, "looking the other way" or putting obstacles in the way is usually a bad idea: it opens the door to conflicts, electoral challenges, complaints to the Labor Inspectorate and a tense work environment.
- What role does a works council really play?
Beyond theory, in the day-to-day life of a works council:
- He is the point of contact with management on issues that affect the entire staff.
- You must be informed and consulted on certain decisions: restructurings, changes in working hours, collective transfers, training plans, equality measures, implementation of control systems, use of algorithms, etc.
- Its members have reinforced guarantees (protection against dismissal, priority of permanence, paid union hours…).
If managed well, it can be a useful channel for anticipating conflicts, explaining complex decisions, and structuring social dialogue. If managed poorly, it can become the starting point for challenges, deadlocks, and rulings that overturn business decisions.
- And what is this inter-center committee?
In companies with several works councils (from different centers or joint committees), the collective agreement may provide for the creation of an inter-center committee.
This organ:
- It is made up of members drawn from existing committees, in proportion to union results.
- It has a maximum of 13 members.
- It only has the powers that the agreement expressly assigns to it.
Why should this concern you as an employer? Because if the joint works council is improperly constituted (incorrect composition, misapplied union criteria, misinterpreted collective agreement), the agreements signed with it can be annulled in court.
In other words, you can negotiate an agreement thinking it is "protected" and discover, later on, that it wasn't due to a formal defect in the representation.
- The real problem for the company: where things get complicated
Theory is orderly; practice, not so much. In companies with multiple locations, it's common to encounter issues such as:
- Doubts about which centers are included in the 50-employee count and which are not.
- Confusion between staff representative, center committee, joint committee and inter-center committee.
- Electoral processes promoted by unions without prior notice to management, which "catch the company off guard".
- Agreements signed with interlocutors that were not exactly those specified by the rule, with the risk of subsequent nullity.
- Information demands that go beyond what is actually appropriate.
- Discrepancies between what the collective agreement says and what is being applied in practice.
In this scenario, improvising often comes at a high price.
This is where expert advice makes all the difference. Our job is not just to "translate articles of the law," but to help you organize your situation and minimize risks.
In a case like yours, we can:
- Review the staff, location, and number of workers center by center to determine if there is a potential obligation for a joint committee.
- Analyze the applicable collective agreement and see if it provides for an inter-center committee and what rules apply.
- Designing a labor relations strategy: what representative bodies may appear, how to organize information and consultation channels, how to document meetings and agreements.
- Accompanying you in the electoral processes: from receiving the pre-notice to the proclamation of results.
- Review the formal validity of existing committees to prevent a technical defect from ruining an important agreement.
If your company has several locations, a workforce approaching or exceeding 50 employees, or you suspect that elections may be called soon, it's a good time to sit down with a labor advisor and organize the representation map before someone else does it for you.
We can review your specific case, calmly explain what options are available and what obligations you actually have, and help ensure that committees—if they arise—become a manageable interlocutor and not an added problem.
With minimal planning, many conflicts can be avoided before they arise.
You can contact this professional office for any questions or clarifications you may have.
Warm regards,
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A Àmbit Assessor, SL has 40 years dedicated to the tax, comptable and labor consultancy of the Pime.
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