The Union Haddiema Maghqudin is insisting that people working with local councils should have an indefinite contract.

In a statement, the UHM referred to Legal Notice 51 of 2007 through which those working with the government or public entities will have their definite contracts change to indefinite ones after four years of employment. However, this legal notice has not come into effect yet.

The UHM said it had long been insisting that the government could never exclude public-sector employees from having definite contracts changed to indefinite ones after four years of employment. This, it said, would be in breach of the European Union’s directive on definite contracts.

The union said a primary example was the executive secretaries and clerks working at local councils. It said that thanks to sectoral agreement, the union managed to change definite contracts to indefinite ones but in some workplaces it found resistance and employees in these workplaces were still having their contracts renewed periodically.

As administrators of local councils, the executive secretaries should have indefinite contracts, even because this was in the national interest. The union said it would continue insisting that executive secretaries be employed on indefinite contracts and it would continue supporting the Association of Local Council Executive Secretaries (ASKLM) in its efforts.