The Commission still does not believe in the intelligence of its staff!

Contract Agents, Internal Competitions, Newsletter #32 - Dec 2018, z Newsletter article Print This Post

Internal competitions should be conceived as a challenge and an opportunity, rather than as a source of problems. Obviously, it should be a tool to motivate staff at all levels and to retain the most talented and motivated employees from different categories. Internal competitions should provide an opportunity for staff to apply their skills and knowledge to areas beyond of their current jobs, should give the feeling that the institution is concerned about staff growth and at the same time provide avenues to reach individual career goals.

However, like any weapon, internal competitions need to be handled with care!

This time, again, the recently announced Internal Competitions show how the public institution treats and consequently demotivates talented and qualified staff. It seems that big EU slogans like Talent management and Career development are just empty words without any meaning. Continue reading The Commission still does not believe in the intelligence of its staff! →

Promotions (Article 90)

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First we would like to congratulate once again those of you who received their well-deserved promotion during the 2018 promotion exercise. If you were one of the promoted colleagues, then it means you were lucky not to be penalised by a leaving Head of unit, by a restructuring of your DG or by many other factors which have nothing to do with merit and performance but that often negatively influence the outcome of the promotion exercise.

Yet, even not considering those unexpected factors, year after year most of us feel the uncertainty and injustice of the Commission’s very opaque and arbitrary promotion system and, unsurprisingly, many of you have contacted us for support on their intended Article 90 complaint concerning non-promotion. To that end, we have created an Article 90 template for you to use (deadline to submit is 10 February 2019). Continue reading Promotions (Article 90) →

7-year rule for non-permanent staff – What does it imply?

Contract Agents, Newsletter #32 - Dec 2018, Temporary Agents, z Newsletter article Print This Post

Generation 2004 has clarified the new provisions following the social dialogue with HR and trade unions!

The 7-year rule applies to non-permanent staff for specific tasks or for specialised tasks (if the skills are not already available within the institution):

 

  • temporary agents (TAs)
  • contract agents (CAs)
  • agency staff (‘intérimaires’) (up to 3 years of services are not taken into account for the 7-year rule)

Continue reading 7-year rule for non-permanent staff – What does it imply? →

Shorter annual leave for officials posted in a third country violates their fundamental right to paid annual leave

Newsletter #32 - Dec 2018, z Newsletter article Print This Post

During the 2014 reform of the staff regulations, all the unions of the European Union institutions, including Generation 2004, established a platform in order to help the EU staff challenge the reformed measures before the General Court of the European Union (as far as annual leave, pensions, career, annual travel payment or travelling time are concerned).

 One of the challenged measures was the reformed Article 6 of Annex X to the Staff Regulations, which provides for a reduced number of annual leave days (24 instead of 42 per year) of staff members posted in a third country (Judgment Francisco Carreras Sequeros and Others v European Commission (CaseT-518/16)). On 4 December2018, the General Court issued a judgment, in which it declared the provision illegal. Continue reading Shorter annual leave for officials posted in a third country violates their fundamental right to paid annual leave →

ABC of Staff Representation and Social Dialogue at the EC

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Election time – Let’s cast an informed vote!

A somewhat sarcastic alphabetical guide of Staff Representation and social dialogue at the EC

This special edition of Generation 2004 Newsletter is devoted to colleagues in Brussels or working in delegations Outside the Union now called to vote for their local sections of the Staff Committee. It recollects however essential information for all other colleagues who have already voted this year (Ispra and Seville), will vote next year (Luxembourg) or later on (Karlsruhe, Geel, Petten, France), unless a new structure of the Staff Committee is put in place through a reform in preparation. It sheds light on several aspects of staff representation and social dialogue at the EU, and offers some reality checks for your better awareness. Continue reading ABC of Staff Representation and Social Dialogue at the EC →

Generation 2004’s position on pensions

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First, Generation 2004 welcomes the debate with Union for Unity (U4U) [1], which so far seems to be the only staff organisation in the ongoing electoral campaign in Brussels, besides Generation 2004, capable of coming up with clear and unambiguous positions on a range of topics. As far as pensions are concerned, we note the following interesting points made by U4U:

  1. U4U’s position is to defend acquired rights at all costs
  2. U4U argue that our pension scheme is fair to everyone
  3. U4U argue that our pension scheme is sound
  4. U4U recognises (end of their document) that “The worsening outlook for pay changes and career prospects and consequently the foreseeable decrease in pensions following the revisions of the staff regulations in 2004 and 2014 has already resulted in a fall in the contribution of active workers to the pension scheme (from 11.6% to 9.8% for employee contributions…)” [2].

Continue reading Generation 2004’s position on pensions →

Fact checking: Outside Union Elections

Elections, Newsletter #31 - Nov 2018, z Newsletter article Print This Post

You might be bothered by all the emails in last couple of weeks asking you to vote. With all the promises and all credits that everybody claims to have exclusive rights.

Well, we are bothered with the non-factual parts of those messages as they really sometimes sound to good or bad to be true.

This is the latest of the Outside Union elections.

The candidates of so called independent and free trade union for the staff employed outside the European Union are saying Continue reading Fact checking: Outside Union Elections →

Spamming & walls covered with election posters!

Newsletter #31 - Nov 2018, z Newsletter article Print This Post

You are probably annoyed by all the messages sent by the staff organisations asking you to vote for them. Generation 2004 has been rather moderate with no more than a handful of targeted messages. The same cannot be said of Union for Unity (U4U) which seems to have taken a very significant lead in the spamming competition. Between mid-September and end of October, we have counted more than 40 messages sent by the official U4U functional mailbox (REP-PERS-OSP-U4U) and their satellite mailboxes (Collectif des Contractuels, Union for Unity U4U, G. Vlandas the leader of U4U and the Reflection Group on the Future of the European Civil Service (GRASPE)). That’s about one message per day since the middle of September. As far as Generation 2004 is concerned, just read our manifesto, everything is there, no need for spamming! Continue reading Spamming & walls covered with election posters! →