The ACV/CSC and NSPV/SNPS police unions will not be filing strike notices for Brussels Airport, they confirmed on Monday.
Over the weekend, police representatives threatened to strike in protest against the relaxation of passport controls at the national airport. The announcement came amid allegations of an internal memo sent to aviation police which reportedly went against current guidelines for border control.
After initially denying it, the Federal police acknowledged on Sunday evening the existence of an internal memo that appeared to contravene guidelines.
The SNPS announced that it will not file a strike notice as it is satisfied with the police's acknowledgement of the directive's existence.
Similarly, the CSC Police union will not strike. For the union, as things stand, a strike notice would only put pressure on passengers travelling for their summer holidays.
"The problem of long queues at security checks must be resolved internally, in consultation between the police unions and the Federal police hierarchy," added the ACV union representative, Joery Dehaes.
Reports of the internal memo initially made headlines on Friday. The memo to staff revealed that the director of the Brussels Airport police had ordered border controls at the national airport to be relaxed when there are large numbers of passengers, systematically invoking an article of the Schengen Borders Code.
When this article is activated, border police are limited to visually checking passports and stamping the document for flights from countries outside the Schengen area. However, if passports are not scanned, it is not possible to search databases, in particular to identify wanted persons.
On Saturday, the Federal police "strongly" denied having ordered any relaxation of border controls at Zaventem. However, the unions confirmed that this memo had indeed been communicated to staff and considered it "unacceptable" for the Federal police to distance themselves in this way.
The Federal police eventually acknowledged the existence of an internal memo. It has launched an investigation.
