EU civil servants strike over staff reforms, May 2003

Staff at the European Commission staged a one day strike on 20 May 2003 in protest at reforms to the EU's staff regulations, which would see civil servants retiring later and the abolition of the right to automatic promotion.

At a meeting of the General Affairs Council on 19 May 2003, European Commissioner for Administrative Reform, Neil Kinnock, bowed to pressure from European governments to increase the retirement age for EU civil servants from 60 to 63. The contribution period after which a retiring official can claim the maximum payout of 70% of his or her salary - currently 35 years - would also rise by nearly two years.

The reforms, which come at a time when the EU's Member States are under pressure to reform their pensions systems so that they can cope with the pressures of an ageing population, aim to make the European Commission more efficient. According to Mr Kinnock, the changes could save €1 billion over 15 years after they come into force in May 2004.

However, unions representing the EU's civil servants claim that conditions for employees are worse than in other international institutions, such as the United Nations. An estimated 90% of workers at the European Commission participated in the strike, up from 70% at a previous strike on 11 April 2003. The Union Syndicale, who pressed its members to gather outside the Council building on the day of the strike, claims that the Council's proposals are 'conflict-driven, provocative and unacceptable'. According to the Union's President, Alan Hick,

"Eight national delegations in Council, not having contributed for years to the pensions scheme which was financed only by officials now want to trash it, increase annuities so as to make it practically impossible to obtain a full pension and undermine the pay mechanism which has worked correctly in parallel with national adaptations and which has guaranteed social peace in the institutions for more than 20 years".

The main elements of the reforms are as follows:

• Statutory pension age will be raised to 63 years

• Promotion will be tied to performance rather than time served in the Institution

• Modernisation of the system of allowances with the phasing out of certain outdated allowances and the rationalisation of others such as the annual travel allowance or family allowances.

• Contribution period to be increased by two years

• New employees will be required to demonstrate the ability to work in a third EU language within three years from the beginning of employment

The European Parliament is expected to give its opinion on the reform of the staff regulation in June 2003 and this will be followed by meetings between the Council and union representatives. If no changes are made to the proposed reforms, then the unions have promised more industrial action in the future.

Links:
European Commission:
	20.05.03:	Speech: Reform of the Staff Regulations [SPEECH/03/256]
	19.05.03:	Press Release: Agreement in Council on the details of the new Staff Regulations for employees of the EU [IP/03/710]
	10.04.03:	Press Release: Commission determined to achieve satisfactory outcome on Staff Regulation negotiations with Council [IP/03/534]
	DG Personnel and Administration
European Sources Online: Financial Times:
	21.05.03:	EU staff strike over new rules
	21.05.03:	The biter bit [Editorial]
BBC News Online:
	20.05.03:	EU civil servants on strike
Union Syndicale:
	Homepage
	Reform
European Sources Online: Topic Guides
	The European Commission

Helen Bower

Compiled: Wednesday, 21 May 2003

EU civil servants staged a one day strike on 20 May 2003 in protest at reforms to the EU's staff regulations.