Belgium
Firefighters organised by all three public sector federations (ACOD-CGSP, SLFP-VSOA and ACV-CSC) organised a demonstration in Brussels on 13 December in protest at plans to change the statutes regulating their employment conditions. The unions are particularly angry about the lack of proper negotiations as well as transparency and information about the proposed changes.
Read more at > Le Soir newspaper (FR)
And at > CGSP/ACOD/SIAMU (FR, NL)
The Secretary of State for the Environment has told the FSC-CCOO and FeSP-UGT public service federations that he will present a draft statute covering forest firefighters to parliament for approval. This has been a long-standing demand of the trade unions who want to see common national provisions covering the wage structure, professional classifications, training, job security and social protection. The unions argue that this will professionalise the sector, help stabilise jobs and contribute to a better coordination across the autonomous regions.
(October 2016) Four union organisations - CCOO, UGT, FSES and CSI-F - are calling for changes in the framework statute covering public sector workers to take account of the recent European Court of Justice ruling on temporary contracts (see last issue of epsucob@NEWS). The ruling related to staff in the health sector in particular and unions want to see changes that ensure that structural staffing needs are covered by permanent jobs and an end to the replacement rates that have reduced employee numbers in recent years.
On 28 February the FSC-CCOO and FeSP-UGT public service federations organised a demonstration outside the Ministry for Ecological Transition in the latest stage of their long-running campaign to secure a coherent, national statute covering the 20,000+ people who work as forest firefighters. The long-promised statute should be confirmed in the coming months but the trade unions want to keep up the pressure to ensure that there are no delays and that some of their remaining issues of concern are addressed. These include qualifications and competences covered by the statute, retirement issues
