In record time, points 1 and 2 of the wage agreement of December 9, 2022 were implemented, and the corresponding law was published in the Mémorial on April 7, 2023. On April 20, 2023, just before the elections, the Minister in charge, Mr. Hansen, sent an e-mail to all civil servants clearly explaining the financial improvements they would benefit from. This is because he want to show the concerned staff what he’s doing for them and what they’re worth. So far, so good.

We ask Minister Hansen to finally implement other legitimate and urgent measures that have already been decided, in 2019, and with the same speed. These are the two points in the June 17, 2019 agreement between the Ministry of Internal Security and the Civil Service on the one hand and the CGFP/SNPGL/ACSP/SPCPG on the other.

Specifically, these are measures that will benefit all civil servants who work shifts, namely the introduction of a compensatory rest of 5 days per year for shift work. This compensatory rest will be applied from the year preceding the entry into force of this regulation. The agreement also provided for a 10% increase in the hourly value of the standby premium, i.e. the remuneration for shift work.

What has happened so far? Nothing at all! These two elements have been lost in an overall law project that has been in the pipeline for a long time.

These improvements were decided on June 17, 2019, the project was presented on July 31, 2020 (after 13 months) and nothing has happened since the position of the Council of State on October 26, 2021 (again 15 months later). It should be emphasized that the Council of State did not criticize the aforementioned measures.

If these provisions had been implemented at the same pace as the financial improvements in the last wage agreement, i.e. after 4 months, the agents concerned would have already received their compensatory rest for the years 2018 to 2022. This means that these agents have already lost 25 days of compensatory rest due to Minister Hansen’s negligence. On top of that, they have also had to do without the 10% increase in their shift allowance for the years 2018 to 2022.

Let’s not forget that these agents accept massive restrictions on their private and family life, not to mention all the other inconveniences associated with shift work, in order to be at the service of the country and the citizens at all times.

Why couldn’t concrete improvements for these personnel be implemented in a separate law?

The delays in the implementation of these measures have already been raised in a parliamentary question (No. 5149) of October 26, 2021. At the time, Minister Kox’s answer only referred to the “future law” and did not address the fact that with each passing year, the concerned agents definitively lose the promised improvements.

ADESP and OGBL have enough! Public sector shift personnel have waited long enough. It’s time to dot the i’s and cross the t’s and remove the part on the working hours of public servants from the overall draft law and vote it through – retroactively, as if the law had been properly passed in 2019 – before the summer break and before the legislative elections.

Press release from ADESP and the Civil Service Department of the OGBL, May 24, 2023