We are happy to announce that in response to our note and collective effort with the central staff committee (CSC), HR has finally taken a significant step forward in improving the career prospects of contact agents (CA) engaged under Article 3a of the Conditions of Employment of Other servants (CEOS)[1]. The quotas available to promote (’reclassify’) CA3a staff are to increase.

Quotas for the reclassification exercise of CAs working in the Commission for the current year have been raised to 500 compared to the 336 initially expected, which represents an increase of almost 50%! All 4 function groups are to benefit from this substantial augmentation. Furthermore, the administration has outlined the plan to sustain this momentum though, as always, it is subject to there being budget available. Yes, budget-conditioned measures are what we have already heard on yet too many occasions.

Executive agencies managing their own reclassification budget follow the wave and some of them have already announced to their staff that this would translate to a reclassification pace sped up by one year (see their methodology). We no such statement yet from the Commission. Indeed, given the size of the CA population in the Commission (c. 25 %[2]) it might take two years to implement this change to avoid that it disproportionately benefits this year colleagues who happened to be approaching the required seniority this year.

Article 6 of the general implementing provisions (GIPs) for Article 87(3) of the CEOS gives the general indications concerning the average number of years spent in each grade before being considered by the authority authorised to conclude contracts of employment (AECCE) during the reclassification process. The average time before reclassification for CAs in each grade corresponds to the middle of the bracket of the grade concerned, except for the entry grades (FGI1, FGII4, FGIII8, FGIV13) where the average time is based, for this exercise, on the lowest value of the bracket.

While now you should expect to be reclassified a bit faster, we would like you to stay realistic, and always stay open to available possibilities outside your current career.  Indeed, despite these changes we believe that a contractual agent career is one of the most unappreciated and unrecognised (especially financially and security-wise) of all the exiting statutory assignments.

We believe that the decision to boost promotion quotas for CA colleagues represent a significant step forward in recognising the invaluable contribution of contact agents, representing now (3a and 3b together) some 25% of the Commission’s workforce and we couldn’t be happier to see that more deserving 3a colleagues see a slight increase in their payslips following this year’s exercise. We announce it as a huge success, but we do realise it is a is a drop in the ocean.

The journey towards equitable careers opportunities continues. In addition to the increase in promotion/reclassification quotas, Generation2004 is determined to focus on measures to improve accessibility for contact agents to other career opportunities offered at the Commission.

If you need more assistance in identifying what options are available to you (or not) or possible implications of changes (in terms of pension or otherwise), do not hesitate to get in touch. If we are not able to answer your (sometimes very specific) HR questions, we will do our best to direct you to available services.

As always, we would love to hear from you. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with us or leave a comment below.

If you appreciate our work, please consider becoming a member of Generation 2004.

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 [1] Note that  3bs (« 3 ter » or « agents contractuels auxiliaires ») make up over half of all contract staff. Unfortunately our 3b colleagues can be evaluated only: they cannot be promoted (‘reclassified’), leading to reasonable questions regarding the usefulness of any such evaluation.  Given that 3bs can only be employed for a maximum of 6 years as CA, there would be limited potential to be reclassified at current speeds, even if they could be.

Figures are taken from Annex 2

[2] Using the ECA calculation method of officials, temporary and contract staff only (Figure 14, ECA Special report no 15/2019) CAs were 24% in 2019 (Point 43, ECA Special report no 15/2019) and are now at least 25% of Commission staff.

July 2022 total of 32233 is reduced to 30073 on removal of staff in category ‘others’ (2160).