Around sixty employees of the Anderlecht CPAS demonstrated on Tuesday to denounce their working conditions. Mayor Fabrice Cumps promised refinancing of one million euros to reorganize the service, which is under great pressure.
Around sixty employees and social workers from the Anderlecht CPAS demonstrated on Tuesday morning at the Anderlecht Municipal House in a tense atmosphere to sound the alarm about their working conditions.
They demanded and finally obtained a meeting with the mayor Fabrice Cumps (PS). He promised that an additional million euros would be released for the reorganization of a service subject to high demand and whose staff are subject to strong pressure, even aggressiveness from the share of users. He stressed that the municipality was having difficulty finding candidates to complete the workforce.
The problems of the Anderlecht CPAS were highlighted in a report on the VRT program Pano. Two undercover journalists managed to obtain social integration income from the CPAS without fulfilling the conditions giving entitlement to it and without living in Anderlecht. The report also revealed the pressure weighing on social workers due to excessive workload.
An emergency plan drawn up by the unions
The CSC, the SLFP and the CGSP then developed with the staff an emergency plan containing 11 measures aimed at “adjust current workload”. These concrete short-term measures deemed necessary by the unions do not address the structural problems that staff members have been facing for years.
This plan, transmitted to management on December 18, has, however, remained a dead letter until now, which justified the strike action carried out on Tuesday.
“We have been complaining about the problems at the Anderlecht CPAS for years, both in terms of work pressure and lack of resources”declared Maxime Nys, CGSP delegate. According to him, the mayor has not yet responded to the requests, but will do so by the end of the month. Mr. Nys particularly insisted on the urgency of strengthening the workforce by recruiting around fifteen full-time administrative agents.
A determined mobilization
The demonstration began at 9:30 a.m. in front of the Municipal House.
At the initiative of Dyhia Elmaouhab, a very lively social worker, the demonstrators placed themselves on the ground at around 11:00 a.m. and called the mayor to come and speak to them. “We’ll keep waiting here until he comes down to talk to us, but he tends to hide in his office instead.”she said.
Led by them, around sixty people went up to the second floor shortly after, storming the mayor’s office.
Finally, Fabrice Cumps spoke to the CPAS staff a little later. Not without denouncing the mode of action adopted, he pleaded for a return to calm while awaiting a solution in this matter. “difficile”. He also indicated that he was in discussions to find a solution with the CPAS, the unions and the staff.
Structural reform in sight
Mr. Cumps proposes structural refinancing of the CPAS, accompanied by a structural reform of its internal functioning. “I can tell you that we have decided to release an additional million euros for an internal reform of the CPAS”he promised. It remains to be seen what this means exactly and what conditions the reform must meet.
The brand new president of the CPAS, Guy Wilmart (PS), in office for three weeks, also tried to calm things down. “Even if it is very complicated, we are doing everything in our power to improve the situation fairly quickly. But for that, we need financial resources. This requires additional resources, and as the mayor said , now they are there with this million euros, we are not going to buy Bics, we are going to hire people.he insisted.
A new consultation with the union common front will take place on January 21.
anderlecht CPAS d’Anderlecht Fabrice Cumps
