Council moves to head off strike action

Date: 01/08/1996

By Rory Watson

MEETINGS of ministers and national officials in the Council of Ministers face the threat of further disruption next month as staff continue their campaign to improve their working conditions.

Council Secretary-General Jürgen Trumpf will present a restructuring plan in early September outlining proposals to address the complaints and suggesting ways of redeploying staff to cater for the requirements of the institution's new Justus Lipsius headquarters.

“In the light of that plan, we will then consider whether to continue our action or not,” said a staff representative.

Council staff stopped work on 19 July and continued their protest until last Thursday's meeting of budget ministers - the last ministerial gathering before the summer break.

Overtime was banned, staff refused to service extra rooms for negotiations between farm ministers and restricted opening hours were enforced in the building's restaurants.

Staff unions maintain that extra resources are necessary to ensure an efficient operation of the new building, which is 40&percent; larger than the Council's former premises, and to cater for a 25&percent; increase in the number of meeting rooms.

They also argue that spending is urgently needed to bring areas of the building up to minimum health and safety regulations.

“Certain parts of the building do not conform to legal standards to such an extent that the health of the staff in certain departments is in danger, as is that of anyone who uses the restaurants,” said one official.

The unions maintain that conditions in the kitchens do not respect 1985 Belgian hygiene legislation, that certain exits are badly designed and that the air-conditioning system is unsuitable.

To remedy the deficiencies, the staff unions have demanded that 30 extra officials be recruited and 6.5 million ecu spent on improving the premises. In response, governments have offered a combined recruitment and refurbishment package of just 3.6 million ecu.

While the Council is trying to defuse its latest staff dispute, the European Commission has been confronted with a personnel problem of a very different kind.

It has strongly - and semi-publicly - reprimanded one of its senior officials, Swedish Deputy Director-General of DGIII (industry) Carl-Magnus Lemmel, for his outspoken criticism of the way the institution operates.

Lemmel, who took up his post a year ago, was managing director of the Federation of Swedish Industries and a strong supporter of Swedish membership of the Union.

But in an interview with a Swedish newspaper last month, he complained: “Not much is done here to make creativity blossom or to lure out the best among the employees.”

Lemmel also attacked bureaucratic procedures which required ten signatures before an official was given permission to travel from Brussels to Geneva.

While acknowledging that the Commission had many intelligent and hard-working people in its ranks, he added: “No one has questioned whether they do the right thing.”

The unexpected criticism was discussed by the full Commission and prompted a stiff reprimand from Personnel Commissioner Erkki Liikanen.

He told the senior Swedish official his comments had “caused concern and irritation inside our institution as well as questioning outside” and criticised him for displaying “a lack of proper judgement and loyalty”.

He also warned the relative newcomer: “In the case of new officials, I deem it necessary that they first concentrate on familiarising themselves with the new contexts they are working in and on gaining the respect of their colleagues.”

But in a gesture which might indicate that Lemmel's comments have landed on fertile ground, Liikanen continued: “Without such a basis, no sustainable reforms can be achieved. Public denunciations by a senior official of his own administration will only weaken that official's standing in the eyes of his colleagues and complicate any future efforts to implement reforms.”