Proposition 54K2064

Projet de loi portant diverses dispositions en matière de fonction publique.

General information ¶

Submitted by

MR Swedish coalition

Submission date

Sept. 29, 2016

Official page

Visit

Status

Adopted

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

occupational accident labour law arrangement of working time pay civil service

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt

CD&V Vooruit LE PS | SP DéFI ∉ Open Vld N-VA LDD MR PP VB

Abstained from voting

Groen Ecolo PVDA | PTB

Contact form ¶

Do you have a question or request regarding this proposition? Select the most appropriate option for your request and I will get back to you shortly.

Discussion ¶

Nov. 23, 2016 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

I refer to the written report.

The draft law covers three major topics. Act of 3 July 1967 on the prevention of or compensation for work accidents, accidents on the road to and from work and occupational diseases in the public sector. Amendments to the Royal Decree No. 279 of 30 March 1984 concerning the payment after expiration of the bets of certain public sector employees. Amendment of the Act of 14 December 2000 establishing certain aspects of the organisation of working time in the public sector.

As Chairman of the Committee, I have been able to conclude that there was a fairly large consensus on this subject during the discussion in the Committee on Home Affairs. The bill was even unanimously approved, although there were still two abstentions at the article-by-article discussion.

It is not about the most revolutionary measures in the field of public affairs. This is not the Minister’s way of working. In the meantime, it is clear that he is not always ahead with the fanfare to carry out his policy. He goes step by step forward and wants to ⁇ small and achievable goals.

The bill deals with some logical measures that include administrative simplifications. In addition, the Government Declaration also provides for concrete measures in the field of remuneration policy, a flexible overtime regime and measures in the field of occupational accidents and illness.

Occupational accidents, the first theme of the draft law, naturally cause very many administrative inconveniences, both for employers and employees, both for the government and for the civil servant. There is also very often a flood of uncertainty about the facts and circumstances. In many cases, this leads to unnecessary “over-administration” which leaves the procedures much longer than necessary and leads many victims to struggle with procedures to obtain certainty in a file. That is not good. For example, the State Council has indicated that the mandatory break-in of the employer testifies to excessive formalism. The draft law provides for this to be removed.

It is logical that victims also have access to their full file. This kind of transparency can only be judged positively.

This is also positive for the strengthening of the audit assignment of the Fund for Occupational Accidents. Finally, it is also logical that at this time we remove as many doubts as possible in the recognition procedure.

During the meeting of the Committee on Internal Affairs, colleague Ben Hamou ⁇ some uncertainty regarding the mention of the Flemish administrative law colleges. The draft law expressly stipulates that the scope of application of the law of 3 July 1967 shall be extended to those Flemish administrative law colleges, which are listed in the decree of the Flemish Council of 4 April 2014. The minister, of course, did not include this in his bill to favor the Flemish administrative law colleges. Indeed, he also asked the other counties whether they would like a similar extension of the Act of 1967 to the bodies falling within their jurisdiction, but they apparently did not respond to that question, so that those bodies were not included.

Now to the adjustment of the payout of the bets. The payment of the December bet will now take place at the end of the month of December. This seems technically logical and it is positive for the employees. A positive advice was given. The adjustment is provided by the Treasury Provision Service and we can therefore agree to it. Technical reasons, such as the accounting program, and coherence again contribute to simplification.

Since the integrated police have a specific status, this also requires an adjustment for the police staff. There is a difference between the federal and local police. Given the number of staff members already in statutory employment before 1 March 2001, in which the permanent employees were paid in advance, it is necessary to provide for a transitional procedure as well. This transitional procedure will give the Social Secretariat of the Integrated Police and the local police zones the opportunity to make the necessary adjustments. In this case, we think of the specific accounting programs, betting calculation programs and others.

In the committee, an amendment was submitted on this subject that takes into account the ministerial letter of circulation concerning the instructions for the preparation of the police budget. It turned out that at present, about 60 percent of police zones had not yet carried out the regularization. The impact on the budgets of the municipalities concerned and the police zones is quite large and could amount to 57 million euros. The amendment aims to preserve the transitional period to ensure that those related to police zones which, in application of paragraph 1, would otherwise have to provide additional credits within an extremely short period to ensure that the bets of the month of December can be paid out on the last working day of the year 2016, would not come into trouble.

The last point concerns working time and the flexible overtime regime. In fact, it happens quite often that unforeseen circumstances but also long-term absences and the use of certain social benefits lead to staff members having to handle tasks of missing colleagues. A smooth handling of a file naturally ensures a well-functioning government.

Here we ensure that staff members are no longer obliged to take overtime in rest, because then we always end up in the same vicious circle. That vicious circle creates too much workload and can lead to depression and burn-outs. By introducing the possibility to pay overtime, we will ensure that the pressure on the boiler decreases and the files no longer build up.

We think that is a very positive measure, and the majority of the committee also thought so.