Planned police strikes could bring chaos to Carnival holiday travellers

People taking holidays during the half-term Carnival break at the end of February may face disruption after police unions announced on Thursday that a series of strikes will take place in response to the breakdown in negotiations with the government over pay.

Spontaneous trade union actions by the federal police on Friday 25 February could cause problems for travellers using Brussels Airport in Zaventem and Brussels-South Airport in Charleroi, warned a spokesperson for the CGSP Police union.

In the absence of an agreement on improving wage and working conditions, the union last week activated its strike notice, which has been effective since 15 February and will remain in force until the end of May. The SNPS and SLFP police unions have reached an agreement with Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden on the salary increase but the CGSP and the CSC, both minority unions within the police force, have rejected the government’s offer.

Through these actions, the CGSP aims to achieve two objectives. First, the union is asking for further negotiations to discuss the second phase of wage revaluations scheduled for early 2024. "This is the year of the legislative and communal elections, which usually leads to a tightening of the budget," said the CGSP spokesperson. "We cannot imagine that this will be in time for serious wage negotiations." Secondly, the CGSP wants the salary revaluation to include staff working for the police under the administrative and logistics framework (CALog). ‎About 20% of the employees of the local and federal police hold civilian positions under this framework and are not covered in the current negotiations.‎

The agreement reached between the SNPS and SLFP police unions and Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden, includes a structural wage increase of 5%, which will affect more than 48,000 police officers from January 2023. "This will result in a linear increase of €1,000 gross per year not indexed", an increase between €44 and €74 for a large part of the operational staff," according to the CGSP.