Belgium’s ACOD trade union says it is angry and concerned after the federal government decided to introduce minimum prison services during short strikes, a move the union’s secretary Robby De Kaey called “a betrayal” by Justice Minister Annelies Verlinden.
Under the current rules, prison officers can already be ordered to work to maintain a minimum service, but only when a strike lasts more than two days.
During shorter strikes, police officers are deployed instead, but the government says that arrangement is no longer sustainable.
The federal government therefore decided overnight to extend minimum service requirements to short prison strikes as well.
De Kaey, of the socialist union ACOD, reacted angrily to the decision. He said the minister had failed to improve conditions within a reasonable timeframe and was now choosing to have staff requisitioned by provincial governors when strikes occur.
He said this meant prison staff would be forced to keep working in the same conditions even when work was no longer safe or the workload had become unacceptable, if their employer failed to improve those conditions.
De Kaey also described Verlinden as “unreliable and incompetent” and accused the CD&V minister of creating new problems by forcing the unions into what he called “war mode.”
