Rail strikes over as unions approve accord

The threat of a rail strike this week was averted as unions and the rail authority SNCB reached an agreement on the issue of credit days. Unions had previously issued the intention to begin a week-long strike on Sunday evening.

The last-ditch effort to find a compromise took two days of negotiations and ended with the unions accepting a revised proposal from the SNCB. Credit days are given to rail staff as compensation for them being required to work longer than the official 36-hour week.

The SNCB wanted to change the system of acquiring credit days, which allows days not worked (holidays, sick days) to be counted towards credit days. The change would mean that the average rail worker would lose one or two days off a year, but it could be more for some workers, depending on the situation.

The new agreement sees the scrapping of the public holiday on 15 November, which only affects public services, and an extra holiday added on 2 November. In addition, unions have agreed to remove one credit day for anyone who is off sick for more than 27 days in the year. In return, SNCB management has agreed to suspend any new proposals to reduce the number of days off until 2019.

“This is an improvement on the original proposals, which would have cost [some] people six or seven days,” said Ludo Sempels, chair of the Flemish socialist union ACOD.

“The workers have made a significant contribution to the increase in productivity,” said Michel Bovy, director-general of HR-Rail, the legal employer of SNCB workers. “We asked the unions to offer alternatives, and that is what they have done. Their joint proposal was good enough for us.”

Prime minister Charles Michel took to Twitter to welcome the agreement. “I’m delighted at the social agreement reached between unions and HR-Rail,” he wrote. “Fantastic news for social negotiation and for commuters.”