Generation 2004 wishes to congratulate all Contract Agents 3a for their well-deserved advancement (‘reclassification [1]‘), together with the officials [2]and local agents in representations [3] who were promoted. We trust our webinar on drafting self-appraisals [4], our support to individual requests from colleagues to review their self-assessments and our advice on how to draft an appeal [5] helped in the reclassification exercise.
We remind you again that the June ‘appeal’ is a misnomer: it is a way of having access to an additional pot of promotions or reclassification; it is not calling into question a decision taken by your line manager. We understand that a significant number of appeals were accepted in 2024, which may signal a positive response from DGHR to the trade union and professional association (OSP) demand to increase the number of reclassified Contract Agents [6] and promoted AST/SC colleagues [7] and to reduce the average time required time for reclassification in each grade.
What is normal for promotion/reclassification?
| Staff | Appraisal | Reward possible? | Minimum time in grade (‘seniority’) to be eligible | Average speed of reward |
| Officials | Yes | Promotion [8] | 2 years | staff regulations Annex I.B [9] and our chart [10] with those percentages converted to years |
| Temporary agents [11] (2a and 2d) | Yes | Reclassification (JRC/GROW/RTD [12] only?) [*] | 2 years | Staff Regulations Annex I.B [9] |
| Temporary agents (2b, 2c, 2e, 2f [13] ) | Yes | no[**] | Not applicable (N/A) | N/A |
| Contract Agents [14] 3a | Yes | reclassification [15] | 2 years | Page 3 of Ares(2021)2467829 – 12/04/2021 CSC note on CA 3a [16] |
| Contract Agents 3b [17] | Yes | no | ≥ 3 years | N/A |
Generation 2004 is always available to advise you and looks forward to the next evaluation exercise in 2025. Join us [4] to know how it works!
Congratulations!
Chart
[*] There is a joint committee on reclassification (not promotion) for Temporary Agents (TAs) of JRC/GROW/RTD [18] only. We also see TAs with permanent contracts (yes, mental gymnastics are necessary here: to be permanently temporary) 2a and 2d [13] listed for reclassification.
[**] 16.01.2023 HR response to our questions on TAs: Conditions of Employment of Other Servants (CEOS [19]) (Article 15(2)) which states that only the provisions on annual reports [appraisal] from the Staff Regulations [20] (SR) (Article 43) apply by analogy to TAs. By contrast, there is no such provision concerning promotion (SR Article 45). This means that, in principle, TAs are not subject to promotion. This principle is confirmed in the case-law of the General Court (e.g. T-366/15 P [21], paragraph 48).
toolTips('.classtoolTips19','Staff Regulations of Officials and the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Union (\'Staff Regulations [22] (SR)\') are rules stating:
• fundamental conditions of service
• basic rights, duties and obligations of staff.
The SR have been reformed x 2 (so far):
• 2004 (Kinnock White paper)
• 2014 (Regulation 1023/2013 [23])
For a summary of stated intentions and real outcomes of those two reforms check out: European Court of Auditors, 2019, Special report no 15/2019 [24]: Implementation of the 2014 staff reform package at the Commission – Big savings but not without consequences for staff
'); toolTips('.classtoolTips23','
Contract Agents (CAs) were created by the 2004 Staff Regulations Reform. There are two types of CA: those with unlimited contracts, 3A [25] (‘indefinite’) and those with time-limited contracts [26], 3B [27]. CAs can belong to 4 different function groups (\'GF\') with different responsibilities and salaries [28].
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 [24]: 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 [29] (here is the cover e-mail [30]).
As a background you can see the report of the Commission to the Council regarding the recruitment of the contract agents in 2010 [31] (in French, COM(2011)802 final 23.11.2011).
Our articles on Contract Agents [32]
'); toolTips('.classtoolTips26','A committee whose members are from two or more different organisations. In the context of the staff representation at the Commission this means that the committee members are:- 50% HR (\'the administration\')
- 50% trade unions and staff associations (OSPs).
Joint Committees at the Commission can be attached to the Central Staff Committee (CSC [33]) or to the Local Staff Committee (LSC): Brusels, Luxembourg, Ispra/Seville, Karlsruhe, Petten, Geel, France and Outside the Union (\'hors Union\'/\'CLP-HU\').'); toolTips('.classtoolTips44','Conditions of Employment of Other Servants [19]'); toolTips('.classtoolTips47','Trade union or staff association (OSP) [Organisation syndicale et professionnelle]');