The Municipality of Saint-Josse made a breakthrough Monday night towards instating four-day workweeks for municipality workers. The Municipal Council approved the motion presented with this aim by the PS-cdH-sp.a majority, which decided to work towards the general reduction of worktime.
“The problems posed by the loss of 3,500 jobs at ING, which add to the list of 8,500 jobs sacrificed in the name of the profits of multinationals since the beginning of 2016 are a reminder of how much we are right in working on a project for a society where workers, the quality of their jobs and their personal wellbeing are at the heart of our concerns. In this regard, the debate on the four-day week and the redistribution of worktime constitutes veritable progress,” stated Tuesday the Mayor of Saint-Josse, Emir Kir.
Specifically, the mentioned majority recommends the establishment of four-day weeks, conditioned to maintaining salaries, to compensatory hiring in proportion to the time freed up by the public servants, and to the absence of any kind of financial repercussion on the population of the municipality. The College of Aldermen will shortly establish a workgroup made up of the different services affected by the establishment of a reform of this nature, in order to consider all possibilities and their limits. It will also open up social dialogue with unions of the municipality.
According to Emir Kir, contacts will also be sought with the Brussels Region, to which the municipality will propose its candidacy for a pilot trial to be realized in the framework of the study launched by the Region regarding the reduction of worktime. The municipality will also approach the Federal Government in order to request the establishment financial compensation due to the positive budgetary effects of a reduction in unemployment, stated the mayor.
The Brussels Times
