11th-hour talks set to halt strike at Commission

By Martin Banks

Date: 13/11/03

A THREAT of industrial action by thousands of European Union civil servants over changes to EU recruitment policy appears to have been averted.

Officials were to be balloted over strike action after MEPs demanded that new staff rules include a provision to give their employees preferential treatment when applying for other jobs in the institutions.

The clause would have allowed staff from the Parliament's political groups to fill vacant posts in any EU institution on the same footing as existing officials and with priority over applicants who have passed open competitions.

The move incensed civil servants in other institutions, who claimed it would "pollute" EU recruitment policy.

However, in talks last night (12 November) with the main staff union, European Commission Vice-President Neil Kinnock was expected to announce that the offending clause has been dropped.

Along with Alan Hick, the president of Union Syndicale, Horst Reichenbach, the Commission's director-general of personnel and administration, was also present at the talks.

Hick said: "The Commission's compromise means that members of Parliament's political groups will not, as was proposed, be allowed to apply for any job in any institution without having to go through a normal selection process. Instead, Parliament will have the opportunity to organize internal job competitions, possibly once every five years, for staff who have a minimum of ten years' experience.

"We could have lived without this, and still believe that the proper way of getting into EU institutions is through open competitions. But it is a compromise and is better than what was originally proposed. Hopefully, it means that the threat of strike action has been averted."

• THE Commission's revised staff regulations are due to be rubber-stamped at a meeting of all 20 commissioners in Strasbourg next Tuesday (18 November).

A threatened strike by European Commission civil servants over changes to European Union recruitment policy appears to have been averted.