Many firefighters employed in barracks in the Mons region of Belgium received bad news at the beginning of May. In a registered letter, their management asked them to reimburse sums of up to 20,000 euros in one go, reports The voice of the North Monday. The reason ? An administrative error.
” It’s scandalous “
In the letter, it is thus explained to the firefighters that they had received a much higher salary than that initially planned. A mistake made for seven years, between 2015 and 2021. In total, nearly a hundred firefighters are concerned. “We received phone calls from quite panicked firefighters. The sums range from a single thousand to several thousand euros, ”reacted Éric Labourdette, the representative of the SLFP union.
“It’s outrageous because they were summoned to an interview to settle the debt. All at once, which is contrary to Belgian law. You need an agreement to stagger the payments,” added Éric Labourdette. Even if the error has not yet been found, the president of the relief zone believes that it occurred during the transition “from one municipal regime to another”. An explanation which is however not sufficient for the trade unions. The Court of Auditors should soon be seized.