In the 2021 exercise Generation 2004 noted that following the conclusion of the first phase of the mobility exercise, a significant number of Contract Agents (CAs) [1]:
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- did not receive an invitation for an interview from any of the five countries in which they had expressed an interest:
- did not receive an offer for any of the five countries in which they had expressed an interest.
- In the second phase
- a number of CAs received an offer for a post and the job description did not match their professional profile.
- CAs received an offer for a place of posting in which schools do not offer curricula in the learning language of their children (e.g. lack of English/French-speaking school choice).
- Ad hoc vacancies were being published outside the mobility exercise, instead of including those posts in the pool of available countries.
- Generation 2004 noticed the presence of a number of vacancies in the EU Delegation (EUD) organigrams. Such vacancies could be included in the pool of available posts.
- CAs were not informed of the available countries, the administration was unilaterally offering posts without disclosing the underlying criteria.
- It appears that only posts with a Living Condition Allowance of 30% and above are available in this phase.
In view of the current and up-coming mobility exercises, Generation 2004 seeks your opinion, comments and suggestions on this matter. Also, if you are in a particular or exceptional situation, please let us know of your issues and we will assist you.
Please feel free to contact us [1] with your experiences of this process.
Generation 2004 is the only EU staff association that unequivocally gives a voice to the interests of staff recruited to the EU institutions after the staff reforms of 2004 and 2014 with diminished career prospects and employment conditions.
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[1] As of October 2020, CAs are 22.65% of Commission staff
Officials: 20 933
Temporary staff: 1 745
Contract staff: 7 428
Others: 2 685
Total: 32 791
(DG HR, Statistical Bulletin – HR – 1/10/2020 [2]: Staff by Employment Type and Directorate-General)
toolTips('.classtoolTips23','Contract Agents (CAs) were created by the 2004 staff regulations Reform. There are two types of CA: those with unlimited contracts, 3A [3] (‘indefinite’) and those with time-limited contracts [4], 3B [5]. CAs can belong to 4 different function groups (\'GF\') with different responsibilities and salaries [6].
As the use of contract staff becomes increasingly common, there has been a corresponding increase in the diversity of status and pay of the Commission’s workforce. For example, GFIV contract staff meeting the same minimum recruitment requirements (education and experience) as junior administrators may earn 28 % less. (European Court of Auditors, 2019, Special report no 15/2019 [7]: Implementation of the 2014 staff reform package at the Commission – Big savings but not without consequences for staff, point 61, page 34)
We have a working group dedicated to the dossier, and in December 2012 we addressed the first of many letters (\'notes\') about Contract Agents to Human Resources of all Institutions and agencies [8] (here is the cover e-mail [9]).
As a background you can see the report of the Commission to the Council regarding the recruitment of the contract agents in 2010 [10] (in French, COM(2011)802 final 23.11.2011).
Our articles on Contract Agents [11]
'); toolTips('.classtoolTips47','Trade union or staff association (OSP) [Organisation syndicale et professionnelle]');