“The joint union front continues to oppose the new framework decision on legal status regulations for local and provincial authorities,” said unions ACOD, ACV and VSOA.

The new legal status decision has been definitively approved by the Flemish government and will enter into force on March 18. According to the Flemish Association of Towns and Cities (VVSG), this gave local authorities more freedom in terms of hiring, salaries, benefits and benefits and also changed the rules on leave and absences.

The union continues to oppose the framework decision and, following previous actions in Brussels, Antwerp and Ostend, met on Monday in the Ghent University auditorium on Volderstraat. Flemish minister Somers was booed upon his arrival at the congress and in a union pamphlet accused him of “lying against the Flemish Parliament”.

According to the union, a step back

The general union front did not spare Somers. According to them, the decision spells the end of the joint staffing policy and the VVSG goes back 30 years. “With this action, we particularly wish to draw attention to the fact that Secretary Bart Somers has been able to push through the Legal Status Regulatory Framework Decision using deceit and fabrication both in relation to his own coalition partners and in relation to the opposition. in the Flemish Parliament,” said Christel.Demerlier of the VSOA. “For example, he said several times that when recruiting new staff, the written exam had to consist of three parts and therefore could not be administered. The fact is that this is not specified anywhere. Each local government can fill it out on its own.”

“The fact that we unions, as representatives of employees, were completely ignored during discussions about this new decision, also ensured that we took action again and again,” said Christoph Vandenbulcke (ACV). “Minister Somers ignored the consultative model between employer and employee. He would find that logical, because the way the coalition partners in the Flemish government treated each other in the nitrogen document proves that some people don’t value our democratic consultative model.

Unions fear further politicization of city authorities and the remuneration of their members, said Vandenbulcke. “Boards will now be able to devise their own functional pay scale and career system, which will make it easier for them to pay very high wages for one position and very low wages for another. And that combined with the fact that the diploma requirement has been waived and the objectivity of the examination board can be called into question.”

“Don’t leave everything as it was”

Somers himself supported the decision. He responded to the union demonstrations: “Local authorities have been asking for these reforms for 20 years, which will allow them to implement a customized personnel policy. Currently, many local authorities are struggling to find and retain the right staff. They can only pay civil servants who work hard to a certain extent. I want to change the system and give the city government more autonomy, as they asked for.”

“I note that there is a fundamental distrust of trade unions in local democracy. As a result, they are denying local governments the tools they need to implement good policies that serve citizens,” Somers said. There are arguments proving the existence of reform. I don’t believe in the creed of leaving everything as it is,” concluded the Minister of Home Affairs.