Brussels, 18/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - European officials' trade unions gave notice, on 16 November, of their intention to go on strike between 23 November and 7 December to protest against changes to their terms and conditions. The “Common Front”, which brings together staff from the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission, complains that Administration Commissioner Maros Sefcovic ended negotiations on 16 November, and called for these negotiations to be continued. It is of the view that the “positive results” achieved “are still not enough and are weak. The overall result remains unbalanced and, especially, unfair for some grades of staff”. “The European civil service comes out (of the discussions) much weakened”, with staff numbers slashed and fears over working conditions far stronger, while earning less, the Common Front says. The unions are concerned, too, at the publication on 17 November of a document from 17 member states calling on the Commission to go further in its reform.
In a letter to his colleagues, Sefcovic said that the conciliation meeting of 16 November had been the last scheduled stage in the social dialogue procedure and that, despite the concessions he had made, it had not been possible to reach a joint position. Because of the economic situation, a number of proposals quite simply cannot be altered and will remain, he said. The proposal will now be put to the staff committee and the obligatory committee. The College of Commissioners will then come to a decision and it will be sent to the Council and Parliament. (CG/transl.rt)