Generation 2004 has participated actively together with other Staff Organisations in the recent Social Dialogues concerning Contract Agents (technical consultation on the new general implementing provisions = GIPs and administrative consultation on the unemployment benefit scheme).
In parallel, Generation 2004 has closely monitored the quantitative evolution of the various staff categories. In particular, we don’t agree with the increasing number of contractual staff members used for permanent tasks in the EU public service. According to our last CA conference and individual consultations with contract staff, this practice seems to be more and more common, it is even judged by most to have become an everyday practice in the EU Institutions.
The 2004 reform of the Staff Regulation in the European Union increased the number of CAs very significantly, from 1.500 CAs in 2004 to more than 7000 CAs in 2017. As result, the balances of the EU Unemployment Benefit Scheme for CAs, TAs and Assistants in the European Parliament is not evolving as initially planned and DG HR now claims that new complementary measures are needed to fill the funding gap.
According to HR’s new proposal, an increase in the contribution rate for the unemployment fund is inevitable. Practically, it implies that CAs will have to pay more to the fund (+0,1 percentage point at this stage, but probably much more in the future) to ensure the sustainability of the fund.
During the discussions with DG HR, Generation 2004 has instead highlighted the importance of revising the EU Staff Policy and the importance of reflecting on the status of the future Public Service. Fiddling with the contribution rates of precarious staff members is not the way out of the trap that the current staff policy is leading us to.
If you are a precarious staff member and need to ask for advice or feedback, to express a complaint or a concern, to raise awareness for a problematic situation, to ask for resolution to an internal dispute or conflict or to make suggestions for change, please don’t hesitate and contact us here.
toolTips('.classtoolTips23','Contract Agents (CAs) were created by the 2004 staff regulations Reform. There are two types of CA: those with unlimited contracts, 3A [1] (‘indefinite’) and those with time-limited contracts [2], 3B [3]. CAs can belong to 4 different function groups (\'GF\') with different responsibilities and salaries [4].
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 [5]: 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 [6] (here is the cover e-mail [7]).
As a background you can see the report of the Commission to the Council regarding the recruitment of the contract agents in 2010 [8] (in French, COM(2011)802 final 23.11.2011).
Our articles on Contract Agents [9]
'); toolTips('.classtoolTips24','Formal negotiations and meetings between the representative trade unions and staff associations (OSPs [10]) [Organisations syndicales et professionnelles] and HR.'); toolTips('.classtoolTips27','Formal negotiations and meetings between the representative trade unions and staff associations OSPs (Organisations syndicales et professionnelles) and HR.');