2023-12-28 10:51:00
The DH learns that a professional firefighter from Siamu (Fire and Emergency Medical Aid Service) in Brussels was sanctioned for not having respected, last year, the Covid instructions prescribed during interventions. From corporal, the firefighter was demoted to the basic rank of qualified firefighter. But the person concerned, who contests the sanction, tries to obtain its annulment at the Council of State.
The case dates back to January 9, 2022, a somewhat special Sunday. It will almost be two years since the country struggled with the health crisis. Among the firefighters, memos required specific protective measures to be respected by responding personnel: ambulance gloves, FFP2 facial protection mask, single-use overalls and disposable suit with hood.
The corporal was accused of failing to comply with the “duty of professional conscience” for not having followed the instructions.
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Professional conscience
The date of January 9, 2022 is not insignificant. We forgot it but two years ago, we are still far from having turned the page on Covid. The country is even preparing to face the fifth wave. That Sunday, the Institut Sciensano recorded 17,550 new contaminations, 97% more than the previous week.
The figures are starting to rise once more and this is particularly true in the Brussels Region where Sciensano describes the curve as “stark”.
Of the 1,890 hospitalized patients, 475 are in the intensive care unit. And the federal crisis center, which is navigating on sight, is considering taking new containment measures.
Public opinion is fed up. In the followingnoon, several thousand people marched in the city center of Brussels, the demonstration ended with incidents and the police had to intervene. And in the barracks, a professional firefighter goes on a Covid intervention defying the instructions. The hierarchy considered it necessary to open a procedure.
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Sanctioned, but…
But we feel the hesitation since in terms of sanction, this procedure resulted in a half-measure: the corporal was demoted to the rank of firefighter but there was no financial loss, we did not touch the salary .
Finally, it was limited in time: the firefighter was demoted with the assurance of regaining his rank of corporal following three months.
The man does not accept the sanction which he considers “infamous” insofar as it undermines, he defends, “his credibility and his honorability”. He also considers that the sanction, although temporary, risks having repercussions on his career which it might delay by preventing him from applying for the rank of sergeant and taking the exams.
Retrograde
The professional firefighter filed an appeal for suspension with the Council of State coupled with an appeal for annulment. For the moment, the administrative judges considered that it was not justified to examine the appeals urgently. They will do it later. Which, given the delays and even if a new round of measures intended to accelerate the procedure at the Council of State comes into force on January 1, postpones the decision until next year.
Until then, a qualified and experienced professional firefighter corporal has once once more become, for the duration of three months, a simple firefighter.
“The arduousness of the firefighter profession must be recognized”
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