EU civil servants were on strike today over salary matters.
As the EU Council prepares to discuss the budget framework for 2014-2020,
Germany and a couple of other countries have expressed the view that the
European bureaucrats are dearly paid. They consider that their salary and
compensation packages are excessive. Therefore, in line with the austerity that
is being implemented in many states, the EU functionaries should accept some
cuts to their pay.
Nobody likes to see his or her salary chopped. But it is
also true that many middle ranking EU staff are much better paid than the
cabinet ministers in their home countries. But that is the rule of the
international game. Salaries are always compared with the best in the sector,
not with payments made in low income countries.
However, that is not a justification for a strike by privileged
people. They should express their dissatisfaction at their desks and through
other means without calling for a strike.
In my 32 years at the UN we had several situations of discontentment
with the level of the pay slip. Particularly in New York, where the cost of
living is extremely high and the UN salaries barely cover the reasonable needs
of a family. But I do not remember we ever engaged on a strike.
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