The Walloon Government has taken a further step towards ending the recruitment of statutory civil servants and the principle of priority for certain categories of civil servants.
"Today, we are opting for a more modern and fairer civil service where skills, commitment and merit carry greater weight than legal ties," said Minister for Civil Service Affairs Jacqueline Galant (MR), whose draft decree has been given the green light by the Walloon government at first reading.
That same government, comprising MR (liberals) and Les Engagés (centrists), had already put an end to the process of granting statutory status last year. This was a mechanism that allowed contractual civil servants to progress to a permanent status.
Subsequently, several structural reforms were set in motion. For instance, senior management was made accountable for strengthening a results-oriented culture within the administrations.
And now the primacy of permanent status is also to be scrapped. The result is that access to all jobs and promotions is open to both contract and permanent civil servants.
"From now on, all recruitment will take the form of an employment contract (with an open-ended contract as the norm). The aim is to achieve equal treatment for all civil servants, harmonise the rules on personnel policy and offer everyone clearer, more motivating and open career prospects," the government said.
Statutory staff will retain their status, Galant clarified. Wallonia currently has around 58% permanent staff and 42% contract staff in the public sector.
