The Free Union for Public Service (VSOA) supports the initiative to provide only minimum services in prison from 1 December, said VSOA's secretary Eddy De Smedt, who is responsible for penitentiary services.
From 1 December, ACOD union members will perform only the most essential tasks in prisons. Members will then only perform the nine basic tasks that must be guaranteed even in the event of a strike.
These are providing meals, hygiene (showers), medical care, at least one hour of outdoor time, contact with family, lawyer visits, consular visits, religious contact, and release.
With this action, the unions want to urge Federal Justice Minister Annelies Verlinden (CD&V) to address overcrowding and staff shortages.
Extreme overcrowding
VSOA will support ACOD's action and also switch to minimum services, De Smedt said. "We have called on our staff to work in the same system as ACOD. The action is initiated by them, but we support it."
With the action, the unions want to urge the Federal Government to address the "extreme overcrowding, the 541 ground-level residents, the failing security equipment, and the unsafe and inhumane conditions."
"By the end of this year, there will be 13,500 inmates in our prisons, and we fear that this figure will rise to 14,000. This is unacceptable to us," ACOD wrote in a letter to Verlinden.
This overcrowding causes "daily tension and stress, provokes aggression towards the staff and among the inmates, who are forced to live in inhumane conditions."
"Additionally, Belgium has already been repeatedly condemned for these proven conditions," the union added.
