Définition
A works council is set up by means of an election organised in companies with 50 employees or more. This threshold must be reached for 12 months, either consecutively or not, over the previous 3 years and may be lowered by means of a collective agreement or convention. The council is then renewed every four years (unless the company has an agreement stipulating a shorter term) following new elections; this has been the case since the law in favour of SMEs of 2 August 2005 (previously, renewal was every two years). However, the employer must take the initiative of organising partial elections if an electoral college is no longer represented or if the number of staff delegation members is cut by half or more (unless these events occur less than six months before the end of the term of the works council members).