Doc. 9698

12 February 2003

Unemployment benefit for temporary staff members

Written question No 423 to the Chairman of the Committee of Ministers

presented by Mr Jung

 

Considering that the 520 or so Council of Europe staff members recruited on fixed-term contracts do not at present receive any monthly unemployment benefit at the end of their contract, and thus find themselves without income,

Almost 300 temporary staff members are to be dismissed sooner or later and are placed in an insecure position just like those dismissed in the autumn of 2000, who should come under the same arrangements as their colleagues who are now in the process of being dismissed. These suppressions of posts are part of a sweeping policy to reduce contractual appointments,

Mr Jung

To ask the Chairman of the Committee of Ministers,

When does the Council of Europe intend to provide the temporary staff it recruits on fixed-term contracts with insurance covering the risk of unemployment, by setting up its own compensation benefit scheme or by joining an existing scheme such as the ASSEDIC in France?

Why, in its own internal management, does the Council of Europe not apply the texts it calls on its member states to apply in particular, the principles set forth in the European Social Charter, which is a legal instrument initiated by the Council of Europe and for which the Organisation is the custodian? It is the credibility of the Council and of the standards it upholds which is at stake.

Whether he does not feel that by behaving in this way towards its own staff, the Council of Europe violates the principles of European social law.

Signed : 1

Jung, France, SOC


1        SOC: Socialist Group

      EPP: Group of the European People’s Party

      EDG: European Democratic Group

      LDR : Liberal, Democratic and Reformers’ Group

      UEL: Group of the Unified European Left

      NR: not registered in a group