The Free Trade Union of the Belgian Public Service seized the Court of Auditors to carry out an audit of the accounts of the institution claiming the funds.
It was a very unpleasant surprise that firefighters in the region of Mons, in Belgium, discovered when they opened their mailbox at the beginning of May. A letter, sent by registered mail by their management, informed them that they had received a higher salary than expected over a period ranging from 2015 to 2021, and that they had to reimburse the surplus.
The Hainaut rescue zone, which includes several barracks including that of Mons, intends to recover its money, to the chagrin of the employees, some of whom have been forced to reimburse up to 20,000 euros in a single payment.
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“Sir, you were incorrectly remunerated during the period from 2016 to 2021 (…). We have unduly paid you the sum of 11,641 euros into your bank account (…) you should voluntarily return what was unduly paid to you“, Can we read on the mail of one of the firefighters recovered by Eric Labourdette, representative of the Free Trade Union of the Public Service. The latter was the first to receive the many calls from disillusioned firefighters after receiving this letter. According to him, some of them would even be asked for more than 20,000 euros.
These volunteer firefighters are struggling to understand how this blunder could have lasted so long, without the rescue zone realizing it. In the letter, the latter mentions an error which would have been “produced when encoding increases in duties for services performed at night and/or on Saturdays“. But faced with this imbroglio, the firefighters remain above all panicked at having to pay such a sum in one go. Eric Labourdette hammers it, “employees have to repay if they overpaid, it’s not a problem“. But the union representative denounces a total lack of response from the authorities in order to reach an agreement, in particular on the method of reimbursement. “You still have to remember that it is the fault of the employer, so repaying, everyone agrees to do it, but the challenge now is to know how much we will repay per month for how of time“, he denounces again.
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Eric Labourdette therefore appealed to the union’s law firm, which sent several letters and e-mails to the relief zone, all of which were left unanswered. Arrived at a point of no return and lamenting a “total lack of explanations and initiativesTo reach an agreement, the representative of the SLFP therefore decided to seize the Belgian Court of Auditors, which must now look into the finances of the relief zone, the institution claiming the funds. “This is not normal, I initiated this request in order to clarify the management of our public funds“, he concludes. For the time being, the firefighters concerned are instructed to go to the summons written in the mail but not to sign anything without seeking advice from their union. The Hainaut rescue zone could not be reached on Tuesday to answer questions from the Figaro.
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