EU staff to strike in bid to keep 3.7 per cent pay rise

(BRUSSELS) - European Union staff said on Tuesday that they will strike next week for their right to pocket an inflation-busting 3.7 percent pay rise which member states say shows double standards.

Employees of the European Council -- the body that represents the EU's 27 member states -- will down tools between 9:00 am (0800 GMT) and 12:00 noon on Monday, December 14, a meeting of staff decided on Tuesday.

The stoppage will involve a demonstration within the building that houses EU summits and will call on national governments to "respect the rules" governing EU staff pay awards.

"We are inviting our colleagues from the other institutions (namely the European Commission and the European Parliament) to join our movement," said workers' representative Renzo Carpenito.

However, Carpenito said employees would not directly target a meeting of bloc-wide agriculture ministers in the building on Monday.

According to a commission official, a majority of member states are blocking the pay award -- drawn up by statisticians measuring living costs in eight EU states -- on the grounds the EU is itself demanding budget cuts affecting public sector staff in most of its member states.

The issue is likely to confront ambassadors during talks due to run through until Wednesday to prepare a year-end summit of heads of government and state starting on Thursday.

Some 38,000 EU staff are in line for the pay rise -- even as the bloc is ordering member states to bolt down public budgets.

Basic gross monthly salaries for EU commission staff range from 2,550 euros (3,800 dollars) for a secretary to around 17,700 euros for a department head -- even before calculating remuneration for the 27 commissioners plucked from each member state.

There are also various allocations and bonuses depending on family circumstances, and staff -- who are considered expatriates -- pay less social security contributions and income tax than domestic Belgian workers.

A commission spokesman reiterated on Tuesday that the decision is not "arbitrary."

The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as Greece, Ireland and Hungary, have each applied pay freezes to civil servants since the financial crisis battered their economies.