Vilvoorde (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Mayor Jo De Ro (Open VLD) from Vilvoorde attempts to resolve conflicts at waste inter-municipal Incovo through collaboration with the mayors of Londerzeel, Mechelen, Meise and Zemst.
Five mayors from Vilvoorde, Londerzeel, Mechelen, Meise and Zemst have started mediating a long-standing conflict at waste inter-municipal Incovo, where workers have led multiple strikes due to social unrest. Employees embarked on multiple walking strikes during the previous week as they expressed concerns about excessive workload alongside intimidation practices and inadequate managerial dialogue. Vilvoorde Mayor Jo De Ro declared that
“The social unrest is deep”
While expressing the importance of
“we have to restore social peace.”
After the appointment of a new director, services remained peaceful for a short time, yet subsequent tensions revived, causing spontaneous walkouts and backbone-wide stoppage of work across multiple industries.
According to De Ro, these are deep-rooted problems that cannot be solved quickly.
“There are complaints about the work organisation and the communication from the board. The employees feel that their expertise is not sufficiently heard by the management.”
“Many employees have been working in the company for a long time. They are people with experience and expertise who now feel that they are not being taken seriously. This clearly has an impact on the atmosphere and trust within the organisation,”
The mayor said.
In addition, the employees are bothered by the lack of investment in better resources.
“They indicate that they are still working with old route plans, without GPS, for example. According to them, this makes the work unnecessarily complicated, especially when replacements have to step in,”
De Ro adds.
In order to mend the rift between staff and management, the mayors of the municipalities involved want to take responsibility, says De Ro.
“We want to mediate to restore social peace, not only for the staff, but also for our municipalities that depend on good service provision.”
De Ro, therefore, wants to convene an additional board of directors to discuss the problems together. According to him, the staff has agreed not to take any further action in the meantime.
“We want everyone involved to have the opportunity to make their voices heard, without this leading to further strikes,”
Said the mayor.
“It is important that we tackle the underlying problems and not just treat the symptoms. That is the only way we can ensure a stable working environment for everyone.”
What is the background of the conflict at Incovo?
Waste collection company Incovo serves the communities of Vilvoorde, Mechelen, Meise, Zemst and Londerzeel while dealing with continuing problems from its workers who face heavy workloads, intimidation and insufficient communication from the managers.
The situation deteriorated, leading to several disruptive strikes. The crisis reemerged following the installation of a new director but resurfaced when workers pointed out the outdated tools, such as route plans without GPS features, which complicated their duties.
Multiple longstanding issues involving workplace trust stem from the way long-term experienced staff members feel undervalued at work. The local mayors are currently acting as mediators to deal with fundamental service sector problems while working to restore social stability across the area.
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