The General Workers' Union said yesterday that local council executive secretaries on a fixed-term contract for four continuous years should be guaranteed a job by the government if a local council dismisses them.

The union said it was satisfied that the European Commission had stopped infringement procedures against the government with regard to the issue of fixed-term contracts for civil servants.

The EU Commission had deemed discriminatory the government's decision to grant automatic indefinite contracts to private sector employees who had been on a fixed four-year contract. When transposing EU laws, it had inserted a clause barring public service employees from the provisions of the EU regulations. This has now been removed.

The union said it hoped the decision would cover executive secretaries who had lobbied in the EU to safeguard their interests, adding that the government and the Local Councils' Association should make their positions clear on this issue.

The Association of Local Council Executive Secretaries had raised the issue at the end of 2005 through an official complaint and numerous questions tabled in the European Parliament.

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