2023-11-21 11:11:08
We need to find more than 20 million euros! This is the scale of the financial chasm that the Schaerbeek CPAS has been facing since the discovery last May of an accounting entry error. An unexpected and abysmal deficit, the bailout of which will be the subject of a three-year plan involving significant savings at all levels.
Discussions are ongoing. But the unions, which organize a general assembly as a common front on November 28, fear measures that risk causing great harm, particularly among staff comprising more than a thousand workers.
Non-replacement of staff
What measures are the unions talking regarding? The elimination of the payment of the end-of-year bonus, the reduction in the face value of meal vouchers (from 8 to 4.10 euros) or even their outright elimination, the non-replacement of departing staff or even the elimination of travel expenses reimbursed to social workers during their professional missions…
Today, officially, nothing has been decided, assures the presidency of the CPAS of Schaerbeek. “But we are not fools“, retorts Benoît Lambotte, regional secretary of the CSC Public Services. “Schaerbeek is not a rich municipality and its CPAS even less so. The majority of its budget is staff costs. And if we cannot touch salaries, my long experience tells me that we risk affecting other areas.“
Benoît Lambotte also recognizes this: today, nothing has yet been decided. “But we want to anticipate things, explain our fears to staff and set non-negotiable limits during discussions with CPAS management…“
It’s not up to the staff to foot the bill
Discussions which should conclude at the beginning of 2024. But for Benoît Lambotte, the future for the staff of the CPAS in Schaerbeek looks bleak. “We have been saying for months that social services are strangled, overloaded… The three successive crises (Covid, Ukraine, energy) have shown that teams must be strengthened and not weakened. And so, if there is a question of not replacing departures, we will once once more overload the boat with the remaining personnel.“
The CSC-SLFP-CGSP common front has not yet mentioned the implementation of actions such as work stoppages or even a general strike. “But we want to send a clear signal: it is not up to the staff, whether from the CPAS or the municipality, to foot the bill following these accounting errors.“
Sustain employment
For the president of the CPAS Sophie Question (Bourgmaster’s List – Liberal), “discussions concerning the 2024, 2025 and 2026 three-year plan are underway with the social action council, also with the municipality to see what savings measures can be taken to limit the deficit of 20 million euros as a result accounting errors.“
Too early today, specifies the president, to announce restrictive measures. “What I can assure you is that we are working to find the best solutions, to guarantee our legal missions and to sustain employment as much as possible, particularly that of front-line workers, social workers but also administrative assistants.“
As we have said, the Schaerbeek CPAS employs around a thousand people, including those attached to the two rest and care homes. The center currently manages more than 9,000 social assistance files.
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