The unions have left the negotiations held at the Federal Justice in Brussels with the minister of Justice Koen Geens. The negotiations concerning a wave of strikes in Belgian prisons were cancelled on Thursday morning (28 April), a source told Belga news agency.
On Thursday all francophone prisons were still on strike besides the one in Nivelles. The strikes on national level started on Monday at 22.00 and were expected to only last 24 hours.
The unions representing employees in the public sector, CSC Public Services, CSPF Amio and SLFP, decided to interrupt the social dialogue with the employers.
"We expected a strong commitment by the political authority but have only received information already known," said Laurence Clamar, Permanent Secretary of CSC Public Services.
The only commitments given concerned terrorism, according to the union, that believes that the response to the shortage of staff in prisons is inadequate.
According to the union, although the prison service is already short off 500 prison officers at national level, staff was reduced by 286 persons in 2015. The total number of prison officials should be reduced with 10% by 2018, according to the union.
The Brussels Times (Source: Belga)
