Welcome to the Generation 2004 Newsletter. We continue on the topic of the career development review (CDR) process with a look at the options available in response to an evaluation of ‘unsatisfactory’: we’re here for you! Career development is also one of the issues we raised in our contract agent petition: it is with the European Parliament, please sign it (again)!

We warmly thank all of you who voted in this last year, particularly those of you who voted for us! Generation 2004 presents the results of the most recent election: Brussels and representations. We also present the mixed messages on the working time and hybrid working decision concerning the core time used by many DGs in Luxembourg. Does this affect you? Please remember too (particularly those who’ve seen utilities and accommodation increase in price) that our Survey on rise in energy bills for those working from home is still open, please participate!

Generation 2004 is again recruiting! We have an opening for a secretary to join our team.  We would also like anyone in delegations who is interested in getting involved in elections there to get in touch.

We continue to offer training and events: there are new training dates for those planning to retire soon. And any of you finding yourselves in Brussels or Luxembourg (even just for a day!), come for a walk with us; let’s get outside and away from our screens!

So, that’s it for this edition, thanks to all of you for your support, ideas and feedback: please keep it coming! If there’s a topic you’d like to see us tackle, whether as an article or as an event, please get in touch!

Take care, stay healthy and enjoy reading!

Welcome to the Generation 2004 Newsletter. We invite you to join us on Monday 15 for a discussion on the new HR strategy, a big part of which relates to the attractiveness of the Commission as an employer, which brings us to the new decision on working time and hybrid working (WTHW). We pushed for the WTHW negotiations to be continued since the current text does not yet contain all of the requirements you gave us, but we were alone in this.  On this same topic, in this newsletter we address the current gap in provision for the 10 teleworking-from-outside-the-place-of-employment days by suggesting a simple solution, we also show you how to make the best use of the leave options and flexibility days available. Please remember that our Survey on rise in energy bills for those working from home is still open, please participate! Work/life balance is important and Generation 2004 will continue to do its best to keep informing you on your rights in addition to inviting those of you finding yourselves in Brussels and Luxembourg (even just for a day!) to come for a walk with us; let’s get outside and away from our screens!

So, that’s it for this edition, thanks to all of you for your support, ideas and feedback: please keep it coming!

Take care, stay healthy and enjoy reading!

Welcome to the third Generation 2004 Newsletter of 2022. Those of you who joined us in taking action against the internal competition will have received confirmation that you are not eligible, we set out the next steps here.  Having found nothing out there already that serves the needs of AST/SCs we have decided to launch a forum: why not join? We have a look at the rules for activities outside the Commission (or after the Commission).

We again invite you to participate in our ongoing survey on your utility bills, this is your chance to provide concrete examples! Get your bills out, tell us how the additional costs of teleworking are affecting you!

To those of you still working on writing your self-assessment, we are still here to help! And to those of you preparing for the dialogue part of the process, we remind you that we have some tips.

Again, remember that you have only until Monday 31.01.2022 to request the transfer of annual leave remaining from 2021: please don’t lose days if you can avoid it!

So, that’s it for this edition, thanks to all of you for your support, ideas and feedback: please keep it coming!

Take care, stay healthy and enjoy reading!

Welcome to the second Generation 2004 Newsletter of 2022 and to the end of the third week back at work for most of us. We invite you to participate in our only-just-published survey on your utility bills and to read our corresponding article on the additional costs of working from home, this time in the context of the rising energy prices. We have an event planned for next week (27.01.2022), where you can discuss all and everything related to this topic, bring your bills! Tell us how the costs are affecting you!

To those of you writing your self-assessment, we are still here to help! And to those of you preparing for the dialogue part of the process, here are some tips.

We have a further event organised on the ongoing move to an open-plan, hot-desking set-up (03.02.2022): while this may not seem to be particularly relevant while the vast majority of us continue to work from home, this process continues unchanged and this may well be the set-up that many of us will go back to.

We remind you that you have until 31.01.2022 to request the transfer of annual leave remaining from 2021: please don’t lose days if you can avoid it!

A big thank you to those of you who got in touch about the article on the increase in step to give us a concrete example of how Contract Agents might see no additional salary even after several steps (we added the example to the article).

So, that’s it for this second edition, thanks to all of you for your support, ideas and feedback: please keep it coming!

Take care, stay healthy and enjoy reading!

A very happy and healthy new year to you all and welcome to the first Generation 2004 Newsletter of 2022! Thanks to all of you who took the time and the energy to participate in our December call to action on the internal competition: we have an update for you on a recent amendment. We appreciate that this is a busy moment for you all at the start of another out-of-the-ordinary year. Between getting back into the swing of things, writing your self- assessment and navigating the promotion/reclassification process, sometimes there’s not much time left over to ensure that you’re not missing out on what is due to you. Nevertheless, please do take a moment to check your annual leave remaining from 2021 and the options open to you. Annual leave days are precious, please don’t lose them! We’d also like to know about any sickness/leave difficulties you’ve had (if and when you find the time, there’s no rush! For those of you who have moved up a step we have a look at how and whether this affects your take-home pay: unfortunately for many staff it doesn’t.

So, that’s it for this first edition, thanks to all of you for your support, ideas and feedback: please keep it coming!

Take care, stay healthy and enjoy reading!

Welcome to the last Generation 2004 Newsletter of 2021 and to the end of another very unusual year: enjoy your end-of-year days and we wish you all a healthy and happy start to 2022!

Apologies in advance for adding to your potentially already-very-busy last week of work, but we’d like to ensure that you get 2022 off to the best possible start and don’t miss out on anything you’re due! We have a list of thing to check before closing down your computer for the last time in 2021 (a wonderful thought, we know!). Note that the deadline for participating in our collective action against the exclusive internal competition is Tuesday 21 December and also that we also have two events already organised for 2022: CBT training and our annual presentation on the self-evaluation.  We recount the experience of one of our intrepid colleagues in building an office chair with no instructions and we have a look at the changing attitude of the administration towards addressing Luxembourg housing costs. Lastly, we have a story to show what a ‘new normal’ might be without any real staff representation.

So, that’s it for 2021! Thanks to all of you for your support, ideas and feedback throughout the year, thanks to everyone who voted and let’s keep up the good work in 2022! Take care, stay healthy and enjoy reading!

Welcome to this latest edition of the Generation 2004 newsletter, where we present our take on the recently announced internal competition and we invite you to come and discuss it with us or to sign up for training.  We look at the 3 ongoing elections: the low voter turnout, and the unicorns being promised and we encourage you to please use your vote! We’ve also collected all of your recent questions in a FAQs on ASTs and provided updates on our September petition to stop the obligatory return to the office and on the recent changes in compulsory presence.  We’ve even run through (almost) the whole alphabet to answer (almost) any question on the staff representation: dive in!

Enjoy the reading and, as usual, let us know if we can help with anything!

Welcome to this latest edition of the Generation 2004 newsletter. We announce the annual salary adjustment, provide updates on the current situation and future developments with the canteens and take a look at what’s happening with the greening of the Commission. We’ve organised several (virtual) meetings with different groups over the next few days, please come along!  The working time and hybrid working rules FAQs now incorporates updates from the last meeting and one of our members is making history by challenging the publishing of a post at AST/SC level when it should be a higher level.  The Promotion/reclassification exercises 2021 has officially ended, but if you appealed and were unsuccessful, we can help you with an Article 90 complaint.  We offer training for those transitioning towards retirement. We also discuss the mediation service annual report showing fewer cases: is this something to be celebrated or an incomplete picture?

Enjoy the reading and, as usual, let us know if we can help with anything!

Welcome to this latest edition of the Generation 2004 newsletter. We take a look at the latest version of the working time and hybrid working rules and at he latest casualty of the ‘dynamic open spaces’ movement. 2021 is an unprecedented year in terms of elections 6 in one year! A special mention for Karlsruhe which has its LSC election today! There are 4 more to go this year: those delayed because of the pandemic are now planned and coincide with those that would have happened this year anyway.  We thank you for your help in making some election rules fairer and more transparent.  We highlight the case of a colleague who finally gained access to their medical file: it’s important to see the information being used to make decisions about you.  We also update you on the long-standing issue of the flawed promotions system, we debunk a myth about internal competitions and track the declining numbers of ASTs. If you haven’t already, please take a minute to participate in our workload/burnout survey, we’d like to know how you’re doing. We’re also still open to shows of support for our note to Mr Hahn on the obligatory return to the office before the worries and issues voiced by staff were addressed.

Enjoy the reading and, as usual, let us know if we can help with anything!

There is a lot going on right now in the Commission.

Staff are being pushed back to the office without any regard to the specificity of sites like Brussels, where the pandemic is still making the Brussels region to be considered red – please help us stop it.

Teleworking from anywhere (TWA) is also a hot subject that has finally caught the eye of other trade unions… (too little too late?) This is also a matter that is currently being discussed in the context of the New HR Strategy and that we would like to have your opinion on.

Furthermore, in this edition we publish four articles related to staff’s health and  well-being. We cover the annual medical check-up, the situation when you may fall ill during leave, what the state of play is in accessing your medical service records and finally how the Commission discriminates against persons with disabilities.

Enjoy the reading and, as usual, let us know if we can help with anything!