crabtastic said:
The fire-fighters want the same conditions to apply to all recruits joining the service and for people to have the same promotion opportunities.
At the moment remuneration also varies from one municipality to another.
The unions also want the job of fire-fighter to be recognised as a high risk job and for fire-fighters to receive better training.
People employed in high risk jobs can take early retirement at the age of 55 or 56 instead of 58.
The recognition of fire-fighters as a high risk job is also important for volunteer fire-fighters.
If they are unable to work due to a work accident, they would receive a higher benefit.
Sounds fair enough, to be honest.
It will never happen because of the language barriers. The Walloons (French speakers) and the Flemish (Dutch speakers) have their own governments (as well as the Federal one). The two governments allocate different funds for the same things. For example, in the Flemish area, more money is put into education than their Wallonian counterparts. And then you have the regional government in Brussels who does things differently. But to confuse it even more, the town halls can do their own thing as well. I live in a Dutch speaking commune of a French province, but the commune allocate funds as per the Flemish system, so the schools are better than the surrounding areas, but the bin collection/recycling is not.
Getting Belgians to agree on anything is a considered to be nothing short of a miracle!!!!
Here everyone is paid differently due to the area in which they work and live.
