TELEGRAPH / B.WATERFIELD
When calls for widespread austerity are the rage...union leaders for the EU's 55,000 civil servants refuse to even discuss proposals for a 40 hour working week...an extra 2.5 hours.
It is the key measure to save taxpayers $1.33bn/E991mn a year by 2020.
"The attractiveness of the European civil service would deteriorate. It would be a socially-backward step that the unions and staff associations reject emphatically," claims the trade unions association.
An EU conservative leader says: "Public sector staff the world over are facing cutbacks and wage freezes. But here in Brussels they seem to think they live in an economic microclimate where money grows on trees and the world owes them a very comfortable living. They need to get real and start to talk to us about how they can help Europe out of this crisis."
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