Euro-Parliament staff warn of pay strike

(BRUSSELS) - European parliament trade unions on Friday called for strike action next month, when hearings are scheduled for new EU commissioners, unless their pay dispute is settled by the end of the year.

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, has recommended a 3.7 percent pay rise for 44,500 EU staff, but several nations feel the inflation-busting increase is too much during a time of belt-tightening and lay offs elsewhere.

Most of the 3,200 staff at the European Council, which coordinates work and meetings between the 27 EU nations, took strike action on Thursday.

The council workers allowed a core staff to handle a ministerial meeting but made it impossible for some 20 experts groups to meet.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso argues that the executive is bound by European law to grant the pay rise as it is statutorily calculated on the basis of the previous year's public salary pay awards in Brussels and eight EU nations, including Britain, France, Germany and Italy.

However Britain, France, Germany, Poland and others are angry that EU staff -- often considered better paid than their equivalents in national civil services and enjoying special expatriate allowances -- are demanding this payment in full at a time of post-recession belt-tightening.

Annual inflation in the 16-nation eurozone currently stands at 0.5 percent.

EU nations have suggested a two percent pay rise, something the unions reject as "illegal."

The EU council (the 27 member states) continues to block" the pay rise, four unions representing EU parliament staff said in a joint statement.

"If it refuses to apply the method (for calculating pay increases) by the end of the year, they will be infringing the law," the union statement said.

"If the council refuses to respect the law, we will have no alternative but to go on strike," the unions underlined, under the banner 'Common Front EP'.

Some 7,500 people at the parliament are affected by the pay issue. On top of them, the 736 elected Euro MPs are taking an interest as their salaries are linked to the staffers' pay scales.

Throughout January the EU parliament is due to meet and approve the team of new commissioners, one from each member state, who will serve under commissioner chief Barroso for up to five years.

The biggest group of EU functionaries -- the 33,700 staff at the commission, the EU's executive arm -- have voiced solidarity for their fellow workers but have not yet decided to take any strike action.