Wildcat train strikes more severely punished

Both the Council of State and Antwerp’s employment tribunal found in favour of railway operator SNCB in a dispute pitching the company against some of its workers who had been disciplined after embarking on wildcat strikes. On January 10, 2012, thirteen SNCB agents and their boss laid down their tools without any prior notice, breaching the strike procedures agreed in 2008. Their actions resulted in 180 trains being late for a combined total of 2,354 minutes. Consequently, SNCB had disciplined them and fined them, docking money off their bonuses; their superior had also been suspended for a month. The unions cried foul and denounced what they called an “attack on the right to strike”, but this latest ruling says otherwise.