PARIS (March 11): French Civil Servants will be offered bonuses to be deployed across Paris during the Olympic and Paralympic Games in an effort to avoid threatened strikes, Minister for Transformation and Public Administration, Stanislas Guerini says.
Eligible employees will get a bonus ranging from €500 ($A827) to €1,500 ($A2,480), in
addition to their salaries, for working during the Olympics and the Paralympics,
Mr Guerini (pictured) said. He did not provide details on the criteria for the
payments.
The announcement came after a major French union warned of possible strikes, including at hospitals, during the Olympics, when a massive influx of people is expected in the French capital.
The social situation in France remains tense, amid recent protests from teachers, police officers and farmers that followed huge demonstrations last year against the rise in retirement age.
Last month, employees at the Eiffel Tower shut down one of the world's most visited sites for six days with a strike, demanding not only salary increases, but also better maintenance of the historic landmark.
The 135-year-old tower will feature prominently in the Summer Games. The Olympic and Paralympic medals are being embedded with pieces from a hexagonal chunk of iron taken from the historic landmark.
The Paris Tourism Office estimates that close to 16 million people will visit the region between July and September.
Mr Guerini said the Government would set up nurseries for Civil Servants on duty during the Games, and would allocate 1,000 places in summer camps to help working parents with children on school holidays.
In addition, employees with children would receive a bonus of up to €200 ($A330) per child, and €350 ($A578) would be allocated for each child to single-parent families.
“The whole country wants to avoid strikes during the Olympic Games. The Games have to be a success for the whole nation,” Mr Guerini said.
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President seeks to axe State news agency
BUENOS AIRES (March 11): Argentina’s far-right President, Javier Milei says he will close the State news agency, Télam, as it is “an instrument of propaganda”, suspending the Agency’s 700 workers on full pay and fencing off its headquarters in Buenos Aires.
Senior officials at Télam say they have been authorised to offer a voluntary retirement program. However, the workers have voted to reject it and have set up a website in an attempt to keep publishing.
Some onlookers say that achieving the Government's goal of closing the 80-year-old organisation will not be easy.
Lawmaker, Margarita Stolbizer said it was not possible to eliminate by decree bodies created by law.
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Lawmakers split over three-term limit
OSLO (March 8): Months of scandal and conflicts of interest surrounding top Norwegian politicians appears to be at an end after Parliament voted unanimously to “strongly criticise” former Prime Minister, Erna Solberg and “officially criticise” several other MPs and Ministers.
However, Parliament is split over a proposal to limit MPs to no more than three terms after proponents pointed out Ms Solberg had spent 34 years in Parliament and had become “entrenched”.
Socialist Left Party MP, Ingrid Fiskaa said Ms Solberg and her long-serving colleagues had formed an elite class of politicians living and working in Oslo who risked losing contact with the people who elected them.
However, 79-year-old Carl Hagen, of the Progress Party, said he felt no obligation to give up his seat in favour of younger politicians, citing the value of his experience.
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Contrasting results in human rights research
TBILISI (March 8): A survey of Georgian Public Servants has found them to be in strong support of human rights and equality principles, advocating for robust State responses to violations and discrimination.
However, the research by the United Nations Development Program also uncovered persistent stereotypes and prejudice, particularly in regard to gender roles, persons with disabilities, ethnic and religious minorities, and LGBTQI+ communities.
The research also spotlighted several human rights that bureaucrats considered most frequently violated in Georgia, including the right to equality, living in a healthy environment, the right to life, inviolability of personal and family life, and inviolability of honour and dignity.
Notably, sex-disaggregated data showed that female Public Servants were better informed and more sensitive to issues faced by vulnerable groups.
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Strike ballot follows four-day week rejection
LONDON (March 9): The United Kingdom’s largest Civil Service union will launch a strike ballot for its 160,000 members after the Government rejected its claim for a four-day working week for the same pay.
The Public and Commercial Service Union also said the Government had refused to meet its demands on pensions, justice and job protection.
In refusing to consider the four-day week proposal, Cabinet Office Minister, John Glen said evidence in favour of it was “slim at best”.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson encouraged unions to continue to engage with officials as part of the usual process, saying this year’s pay remit guidance would be published in due course.
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PM in favour of shorter hours for women
KUALA LUMPUR (March 10): Current reforms to the Malaysian Civil Service Remuneration System will include shorter working hours for women employees to enable them to better care for their families, Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim has predicted.
"I will discuss with the Chief Secretary to the Government and the Director-General of the Public Service to provide flexibility for women, even with slightly lower salaries,” Mr Anwar said.
Mr Anwar, who is also the Finance Minister, said Malaysia would become the first country in the world to provide such flexibility to female Civil Servants.
“It is time to change the conventional thinking because there are women who have to leave valuable careers to take care of their families,” the Prime Minister said.
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‘Millions’ for women’s health research
THE HAGUE (March 10): Netherlands Health Minister, Pia Dijkstra plans to earmark “a substantial amount of money” for research into improving the treatment of health problems specific to women.
Ms Dijkstra was reacting to an earlier report by the Dutch Association of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians that highlighted the lack of attention to women-specific health problems, such as endometriosis, severe menstrual pain, menopausal complaints and pelvic floor problems.
She said there were 8.8 million women in the Netherlands, and sooner or later they would have to deal with health problems related to their sex — “without the proper knowledge we cannot treat them properly”.
It is not clear how much the Minister is setting aside for the research, but it is thought to be several million euros a year.
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Bureaucrats drafted for election training
SINGAPORE (March 9): The Singapore Government plans to draft in 50,000 Public Servants to manage its next General Election, not scheduled until November 2025.
The Elections Department (ELD) has already begun to single out key officials from the ranks of Government employees, with many saying they had been notified by email.
In a statement, the ELD said it appointed and trained public officers on an ongoing basis to perform election duties and to prepare the Public Service to conduct elections.
It did not respond to questions about the length of time between Public Servants being notified and an election being called.
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Photographers negative over passport plan
BRUSSELS (March 9): A plan to offer Belgian residents with free passport photographs in an effort to curb identity fraud has run afoul of professional photographers who say it is a theft of their income.
Under the Live Enrolment project, spearheaded by the Federal Government, residents will no longer need to provide a passport photo when applying for identity cards or travel passes.
Instead, they can have their photos taken on the spot at the municipal counter, free of charge. This move aims to streamline the application process and enhance security measures against identity fraud.
However, photographer, Mieke Coppieters labelled the initiative as "robbery" and has launched an online petition emphasising the impact on photographers' livelihoods.
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