Dear Colleagues,
Being member of CAS [1], and as a strong defender of the rights of parents and the well-being of the children in the Study Centre and the Garderie (CPE), I’ve lost a battle. After several years of opposing certain parts of OIL’s management, the CAS has voted almost unanimously in favour of an important raise in the parental contribution. I was the only one to vote against.
CCPE [2] is examining and advising on the rules of the CPE/Garderie.
During its meeting on 19 July the CCPE has proposed to raise the parental contribution, by 14% to 28% for about 83% of the parents from 1.1.2014 onwards. (For those with the highest incomes the parental contribution will be raised by 85%). (Only for those with the lowest incomes (< AST1), will the price go down).
This decision in the CCPE was taken by 6 votes against 2. The two representatives of the EP Staff, Hugo ARELLANO (SGPOE) and Justyna TLAGA (Яevolution) were absent. However this latter colleague was part of the small working group drafting the proposal for the rise in the parental contribution…
During its meeting last Friday (27 September) the CAS had to pronounce itself on this proposal coming from the CCPE. It could either reject or approve this proposal.
OIL explained that the main reason for the rise was the … creation of the CPE5 on the Mamer-Bertrange site and that the prices hadn’t gone up for 20 years.
Despite my strong opposition, the raise was approved by 11 votes in favour, 2 abstentions (a.o. Sandra GARCIA, FFPE) and 1 vote against (myself). The chairs of the two other representatives of the EP staff were empty… : Hugo ARELLANO (SGPOE) and Elisa CHIARELLO (Яevolution), but strangely despite her CCP, still member of CAS and the Staff Committee) !!! The staff representatives of the other institutions belong mainly to the Union Syndicale…
Some of my arguments against this rise were the following :
– our salaries are not adapted to the indexation for the past three years ;
– in all cases the rise in the parental contribution can never be higher than the indexation ;
– OIL should already have proposed this adaptation many years ago ;
– OIL should and could have foreseen the supplementary costs for the Mamer-Bertrange site ;
– parents who have their children in Mamer-Bertrange are penalised twice : firstly they have no other choice than to accept the ‘deportation’ and secondly they even have to pay extra costs for this “privilege” ;
– OIL, the Commission and the other institutions should have rejected (at the beginning of this century) the choice of the horizontal split ; they didn’t move an inch…
If you want to have a word to say in deciding committees, see that you are well represented by the most appropriate colleague.
[1] “Comité Action Sociale” : CAS is a committee composed by an equal number of representatives of the Administration of the different institutions and of Staff.
[2] « Comité du Centre Polyvalent de l’Enfance »
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