Brussels CPAS Staff Fears Job Losses: Impact of Subsidy Reduction on Vulnerable Communities

2023-12-05 14:45:00

Staff at the Molenbeek-Saint-Jean and Schaerbeek CPAS stopped work on Tuesday to express their fears of job losses following the announcement of the elimination, for 2024, of 20 million euros in subsidies from the Brussels Region intended for the management of additional energy cost aid for the vulnerable public.

This boost granted to the most vulnerable was accompanied by a certain number of hirings as a result, particularly in the Molenbeek CPAS, a municipality faced more than others with the precariousness of part of the population.

According to the common union front CSC public services-CGSP-SLFP, social workers in Brussels CPAS have been facing unprecedented challenges for several years: covid pandemic, energy crisis, situation in Ukraine, “and now, a financial crisis due to the reduction in subsidies granted by the Brussels Region. The recent government announcement of a reduction of 20 million euros in subsidies represents not only a severe financial constraint but also the threat of the loss of 200 essential jobs across all our services.”

For the municipality of Molenbeek alone, the unions estimate that this prospect augurs the loss of around forty workers, more than half of whom are on the front line (reception, general social service, etc.) and as a corollary, an increase in the burden of work of the remaining employees, at the price of the quality of the service provided.

In Schaerbeek, there are added the feared consequences of a significant accounting error observed since 2017, which the local authorities have so far refused to discuss with the unions. The announcement, Tuesday morning, of the date of January 31 for a first meeting did not help to calm the spirits, according to the representatives of the CSC Benoît Lambotte and the SLFP Sophie Faut.

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