European Central Bank (ECB) officials have gone to the Court of the European Union to challenge a method of salary indexation that they consider unfavorable, an embarrassment for the institution that advocates limits on salary increases due to inflation.
The appeal to European justice was presented on November 13 by some 40 employees, supported by the IPSO union, with the aim of annulling the ECB’s decision to grant a salary increase of 4.07% last January, when the Inflation in the euro area more than doubled in 2022 (8.4%), according to a document cited by AFP.
The controversy over inflation compensation for some 3,700 ECB employees has been going on for a year and the union even threatened a strike.
To calculate salary increases, the ECB uses an indexation formula called GSA (“General Salary Adjustment”) which, according to IPSO, does not give sufficient results.
The object of the appeal is limited to the alleged misapplication of this formula.
If used correctly, it would have led to an additional increase of 0.5 percentage points in 2023 and an additional 3.3 points since it came into force in 2009, according to the complainants.
The ECB, which has two months to present its position in writing, does not comment on this judicial process, according to a spokeswoman, also cited by AFP.
In May 2022, ECB President Christine Lagarde refused to index the salaries of the institution’s employees to rampant inflation, at a time when the ECB was already stating that it wanted to avoid an inflationary spiral fueled by the increase of wages in the euro area. , an intention that has been repeated.
Source: TSF
