No less than three pieces of legislation have been proposed in recent months to open up certain key positions in different public sector organisations and in secondary schools to candidates from the private sector.
The General Confederation of the Civil Service (CGFP), which requested an emergency meeting on the matter with the Prime Minister a fortnight ago, criticised these bills, in which neither professional experience nor skills were specified.
The CGFP claims the legislation serves only to facilitate "political favouritism" and that the bills were drawn up without first consulting the union.
Steve Heiliger, the CGFP's Secretary, expressed regret over the fact that the authorities had not yet reacted, not even through an acknowledgement of receipt of CGFP's complaints. This is why the CGFP has decided to enter an official arbitration procedure on this subject, which it hopes will force the government to listen and engage in a debate with them.
The presidents of the 65 sub-organisations supported the CGFP's announcement. The latter's demands to Prime Minister Xavier Bettel are clear: the bills opening certain key posts to candidates from the private sector must be withdrawn. The CGFP also insists that such a situation must be avoided in the future.
According to CGFP President Romain Wolff, the trade union is not bent on escalating this dispute to a strike. Wolff hopes that entering arbitration will force the Prime Minister to react and that conciliation will not be necessary.
The CGFP also campaigns on other priorities such as a new regulatory framework for teleworking and the abolition of the evaluation system.
The report (in Luxembourgish):
