Meeting with the President

The President invited a delegation of the CSC to discuss the conflict issues underlying the current planned strike actions.

The meeting began in a tense atmosphere maintained so until the end. The President addressed the five strike issues covered by the acronym LIFER (Legal Protection - Investigation Guidelines - Fair Strike Regulations - E-mail freedom to communicate - Repair the career system by removing the bottleneck to promotions). No single concrete progress can be reported on any of the above five issues.

The proposal of the SR to withdraw or suspend any of the contentious decisions was rejected by the President. In respect of the Investigation Guidelines and the Legal Protection issues the President dismissed the proposal by the SR to set up independent committees of legal experts entrusted to review the existing provisions. He also refused to withdraw the disciplinary threats against staff and their representatives. Furthermore, he threatened anew to restructure the Staff Representation challenging its functioning.

The only move which can be reported is a proposal from the President to discuss individual provisions of the current strike regulations. Unfortunately he is neither prepared to propose amendments to the Council nor to suspend the effects of Circ. 347.

We regret that the President seems to not have understood the clear message of staff.

Your Delegates of the Central Staff Committee