WRITTEN QUESTION E-3552/02

by Jean-Maurice Dehousse (PSE) to the Commission

(12 December 2002)

Subject: Workplace discrimination in the European Schools

To the knowledge of the author of this question, the European Schools are governed, subject to the terms of the Staff Regulations, by public law. These establishments employ three categories of staff: teaching staff seconded by a government, part-time teachers and administrative and service personnel.

If the author is correctly informed, the teachers are employed by the heads of the Schools and are subject to the law of the country in which they work.

It seems that in Belgium, where four European Schools are located, the part-time teachers' working conditions are, from a statutory point of view as well as in terms of daily working practice, in violation of a good many terms of Belgian employment law.

It should also be pointed out that the status of seconded staff is in no way comparable to that of part-time teachers, even though the work and the job description are identical.

1. Is the Commission aware, firstly, of the non-observance of numerous aspects of Belgian employment law by the European Schools and, secondly, of the fact that this kind of situation is contrary to both the principle of equality before the law and that of equal pay for equal work?

2. If so, what does the Commission intend to do to remedy this state of affairs?

3. How, in particular, does it intend to apply the Directive establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation (2000/78/CE)(1)?

(1) OJ L 302, 2.12.2000, p. 16.

Answer given by Mr Kinnock on behalf of the Commission

(10 February 2003)

1. The Convention defining the Statute of the European Schools, signed on 21 June 1994, gives the Board of Governors, the intergovernmental body responsible for the schools on which the Commission has one seat, the decision-making powers in educational, budgetary and administrative matters necessary for application of that Convention.

2. Using these powers the Board of Governors approved on 26 and 27 April 1994 the Regulations for Assistant Teachers and on 23 and 24 April 1996 the Regulations for Personnel Seconded to the European Schools. Both are still in force.

There are three separate categories of assistant teacher:

- those recruited by the Headteachers, who provide a service on a temporary basis, either part-time by giving lessons outside the hours assigned to the seconded teachers or full-time in occupation of posts not filled by the latter

- substitutes recruited by the Headteachers to replace teaching staff absent from time to time,

- teachers of religious knowledge appointed by the competent authorities.

3. It is not the case that assistant teachers are only subject to the legislation of the country in which they are working.

They are subject to the Regulations indicated above, which contain specific provisions on certain matters such as salary, career of religious knowledge teachers etc. On matters such as rights, obligations, responsibilities, tasks, appeals etc. these Regulations make reference to the Regulations for Seconded Personnel, and on others such as social security, taxation etc. to the legislation of the country in which the school is located.

4. It is true that the Regulations for Assistant Teachers differ from those for seconded personnel. These differences cannot, however, be interpreted as infringing the principle of equality and that of equal pay for equal work. They reflect differences in employment circumstances between the two groups. For example, it would be difficult to apply the length of service and career structure provisions for seconded teachers to staff recruited to answer a temporary need.

5. Under the abovementioned Convention of 21 June 1994 and the Regulations of 26 and 27 April 1996 assistant teachers may dispute acts of the European Schools to which they object before, as appropriate, the Complaints Board or the courts of the country in which the school is located. These are the only bodies competent to pronounce on the legality of disputed acts.

The Commission has no knowledge of the cases claiming failure by the Belgian European Schools to comply with national labour law, or of failure by them to respect Council Directive 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000 establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation.