EU staff chiefs to 'look into' legal action over pay award
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(BRUSSELS) - Bosses for European Union civil servants will "look into" legal action on behalf of angry staff after the 27 EU countries decided to halve a 3.7 percent pay settlement, officials said on Monday.
Almost 45,000 EU employees and contractors expect to be told on Tuesday that the countries that fund the bloc's budget have overruled an inflation-busting salary rise, deemed inappropriate amid national economic belt-tightening.
Ministers from the 27 nations are due to vote through a 1.85 percent increase agreed in talks between ambassadors on Friday night, ignoring a formula for calculating pay awards previously agreed between EU countries.
Annual inflation in the 16-nation eurozone currently stands at 0.5 percent.
A mass meeting of staff at the European Commission -- the body that proposes and enforces bloc-wide laws, and far and away the largest EU employer -- was held on Monday, at which unions vowed to maintain pressure.
The commission must "keep its promises and drag the member states through the courts," according to cries from union officials, but a letter to staff seen on Monday was "ambiguous," they said.
In the letter, commission chiefs say only that "should the (member states) fail to respect the proposal -- as it seems to be the case -- the commission must look into the legal steps which can be taken."
Most of the 3,200 EU staff at the body that gathers the member states, the European Council, went on strike on Thursday in defence of an award that applied to salaries ranging up to almost 18,000 euros (26,000 dollars) net per month.
So far, though, the 33,700 engaged by the commission have only shown their solidarity and it is unclear how many would be prepared to initiate legal action either individually or collectively through their unions.
Unions representing some 7,500 who work at the European Parliament, meanwhile, said Monday they would strike next month when EU lawmakers are due to hold confirmation hearings for 26 new EU commissioners, or cabinet chiefs.
On Friday, staff at the European Court of Justice -- whose judges would be asked to rule on the legality of member states' decisions -- also downed tools.
Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso argues that the award, based on the previous year's public salary settlements in Brussels and eight EU nations, is legally binding.
In 1972 a similar case reached the European courts and ended in victory for the European Commission.
Legal action could be brought either by the commission, by the unions or by individuals.
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