The 2004 and 2014 staff regulations reforms introduced discrimination towards colleagues hired in the post 2004 generation, most of them from the – at the time – ten new Member States, which later got to 12 and eventually 13. These reforms introduced many changes affecting a wide range of working conditions for these newer colleagues while not touching most of the benefits of the already existing civil servants. Noteworthy are:
- the lowering of career entry-point grades [1] and slowing of career progression,
- the increase of retirement ages and decrease of pension accrual rates [1] and
- the introduction and extensive (ab)use of the Contract Agents (CA) category of staff, which, not being counted as staff in financial terms, is effectively used to hide the real size of the EU public administration [2].
There are however, other less-visible effects, which we are still discovering nearly 16 years on:
Recently, in a letter from one of our newsletter readers we had word of another of those negative effects, which we believe is worth telling, to show how injustice permeated Commission staff working conditions and how these effects are and will still be felt for the many years to come.
The colleague, reacting to our analysis of the recent European Court of Auditors [2] (ECA), first noted that all the recommendations by the ECA seem to have nothing to do with the very first human basic need that needs to be satisfied, i.e. survival, which equates to a reasonable and fair salary for the duties performed [3]. It is only after the satisfaction of this need that we, as human beings, then look further at other needs related to our working conditions.
Said colleague has been working for the Commission in a 2004 new Member State capital (of which he is a national) since the mid-90s, first as a Local Staff member and after 2004 as a CA.
Before the accession of his country to the EU he contributed to both his national pension scheme and also to the EU staff pension scheme. On the eve of 1 May 2004 all local staff contracts [3] at non-EU (‘third’) countries who were about to join the EU were cancelled and all personal and Commission contributions to the EU pension scheme were repaid with interest to the persons affected.
On 1 May 2004 they all reported to work with new CA contracts, while their jobs and their employer were exactly the same, and from that day onwards they were all once again members of the staff pension scheme.
At the time, the colleague further reports, there was no information provided to staff as to what colleagues could do with the lump sums they received from the EU pension scheme. Worse, there was no mention whatsoever of the possibility to do a transfer in [4] of those lump sums back into the staff pension scheme. As a result, the colleague in question has lost 8 years of accrual to the staff pension scheme, which will seriously impact his pension when he retires later this year.
In 2014, another staff regulation reform further negatively affected the same colleague: this time, his yearly home travel allowance [5] was removed. The colleague was born and raised in a third country on the other side of the planet and, since he was hired as a Local Agent from that location and had it set as his centre of interests, the 2004 reform still granted him the maximum yearly travel allowance. In 2014 however, Article 7.4 of Annex VII [6] of the Staff Regulations states: The effect of such a change shall not, however, be such as to recognise as the centre of the official’s interests a place which is outside the territories of the Member States of the Union…. In effect, his centre of interests can no longer be outside of the EU. Since he is also national of the country where he lives and works, he effectively saw 100% of his travel allowance scrapped overnight, with all the financial impact it has on his yearly budget when travelling around the globe to visit his family and relatives [4].
If you have, other personal stories that you believe are worth telling about the impact of the past two reforms, please do not hesitate to contact us [7] and we will give them a voice!
[1] ‘Annual accrual rate of pension rights: The rate at which an employee build up pension benefits whilst working (2 %, 1.9 % or 1.8 % per year). For example, an annual accrual rate of 2 % means that, for each year of service, the employee accumulates 2 % of pension benefits.’ ECA, 2019, Special report no 15/2019 [8]: Implementation of the 2014 staff reform package at the Commission – Big savings but not without consequences for staff
Annual pension accrual rates and retirement age were made worse with each staff reform (see Slide 13 [9]).
[10]
[2] As of October 2020, officials are only 63.84% 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 [11]: Staff by Employment Type and Directorate-General)
[3] For example, note that an AST1/1 wage is considered a ‘subsistence’ figure, while AST/SC1 staff earn less than this [12].
[4] When the UK left the EU 31.12.2020 (Brexit) this loss of travel allowance [13] also affected staff with the UK as their place of origin since the UK became a third country.