Parliament acts to boost assistants’ rights

Date: 20/04/2000

By Gareth Harding

THE European Parliament has taken its first major step towards improving the treatment of MEPs' assistants after its ruling body agreed a set of rules to govern how aides are employed.

The new guidelines, which will take effect from the start of next year, require members to draw up a work contract detailing the identity of the aide, the length of the contract, the amount of pay, the place of work and the description of the assistant's functions. If MEPs do not provide Parliament officials with properly drawn up contracts, they risk losing their monthly €9,765 secretarial allowance.

For the first time ever, the Parliament will also publish a list of assistants working in the institution. The number of aides is currently unknown, although it is estimated to be somewhere between 600-800.

Other changes agreed by the leaders of the assembly's political groups last week will require MEPs to provide proof that their assistants have health and accident insurance.

The new rules may appear a small step for modern-day employers but given the way members' aides have been treated in the past, they represent a major advance. A recent study revealed that more than a quarter did not have a work contract and over half had no medical, travel, or personal injury insurance.

Under the current rules, a simple declaration of employment is enough for deputies to claim their generous secretarial allowance. This opens up a plethora of possibilities for abuse, such as employing relatives on a fictitious basis.

Assistants have waged a long-running campaign to be treated in the same way as other EU officials and appeared to have won their battle last year when MEPs and the European Commission agreed a statute which would have radically improved their working conditions.

But almost all EU governments are fiercely opposed to the move because they fear the creation of another class of civil servant.

Parliament President Nicole Fontaine says the rules which have now been agreed represent a "significant and concrete step forward", adding that as a result of the changes, MEPs are "on a surer footing to continue negotiations with the Council [of Ministers] aimed at a rapid adoption of an assistants' statute".

However, members of the institution's assistants association gave a more guarded response. Carlotta Besozzi said the new rules were "certainly an improvement", but added that they were vague and left many shadowy areas. The assistants are particularly concerned that employment contracts will still be drawn up according to 15 different national laws and argue that they will be difficult to enforce. They are also unhappy that proposals to provide aides with set travel allowances were rejected by political group leaders.

The European Parliament has taken its first major step towards improving the treatment of MEPs' assistants after its ruling body agreed a set of rules to govern how aides are employed.