The socialist trade union ACOD government services and the liberal VSOA are not pleased with the decision of the Flemish government to only hire employees with a contractual employment contract from 1 January 2023 within the government. ‘What Minister Bart Somers and the Flemish government mean is the abolition of the civil servant statute’
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Earlier, the ACOD and VSOA had already filed a strike notice against the government’s plans. Now the two unions will inform all staff members and then take ‘hard actions’. “We will open the entire register,” said Chris Moortgat of the ACOD.
Somers announced the new step in the ‘modernization and upgrading of the Flemish personnel statute’ on Friday, after negotiations with representatives of the trade unions. In addition to the decision to only recruit employees with a contractual employment contract, it was also agreed to strengthen the contractual status in terms of career and remuneration policy, illness, reintegration, pension and protection.
For example, the contribution to the second pension pillar will increase to 5 percent by 2024. In addition, more than 20 million euros have been committed to strengthen working conditions.
Large additional costs for taxpayers
According to the ACOD and the VSOA, the phasing out of permanent appointments will lead to major additional costs that will have to be borne by the taxpayer. “The minister forgets to mention this.” The unions also denounce ‘that they want to erode the employment conditions of the current Flemish civil servants’ and that ‘the new contractual employees will never have the same conditions as the current statutory civil servants’.
They demand a clear upgrade and modernization of the wage and employment conditions of all employees of the Flemish government. ‘The Flemish government was already adamantly planning in advance to have the statute extinguished. Driven by only ideological motives, people remained deaf to the positions of ACOD and VSOA.’
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