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!

Welcome to the first post-summer newsletter. We look at digital overload, burnout and back to the office, we thank all of those involved in the Afghanistan evacuation and we present two promotions-related articles, one on the unfair distribution of quotas and one on the promises made to our colleagues in the medical service. We also have articles on the changes which have already taken place related to the post-Brexit annual travel allowance and the financial rights related to breakups.  We propose electoral changes in order to improve transparency and propose further dates for CBT training, ready for new competitions.

That’s all for now, we hope you will enjoy the reading and, as usual, we invite you to let us know what you think or to get in touch if we can help you in any way or there’s something you’d like to see us address.

Welcome to this latest edition of the Generation 2004 Newsletter.  In the last two weeks we’ve been looking at the HR decision on the ‘new normal’ (the introduction of a ‘disconnection bandwidth’ but the abolition of core time), at the IT kit available for teleworking (what kit/sites are still missing?) and at the pilot delegation teleworking project. We update you on our November contract agent petition (it’s now with the European Parliament), on our May DG GROW survey on the reorganisation and we consider the usefulness of a lingua franca at SCIC. We remind you of the offer of CBT training (deadline tomorrow 12.00) and lunchtime coachinge (9 July).  We ask you to sign our petition against the limitations of the AST/SC function group while we evaluate the stated aims of the creation of this function group against what actually happened.

That’s all for now, we hope you will enjoy the reading and, as usual, we invite you to let us know what you think or to get in touch if we can help you in any way or there’s something you’d like to see us address.

Welcome to this latest edition of the Generation 2004 Newsletter. The promotions list should be published tomorrow  (Thursday, 17 June): if your name is not there and you would like to appeal we have a conference on how to do so at 12.00 (17 June). We are here to help! In this edition we share with you the updates on vaccination, digital certificates, the return to the office and the home IT kit. We also consider future teleworking from abroad options.  We have an in-depth look at the career  potential of AST/SC colleagues and offer more CBT training and new lunchtime coaching.  We note recent events at Karlsruhe and Geel general assemblies and observe the enforcing of social dialogue secondment rules.

That’s all for now, we hope you will enjoy the reading and, as usual, we invite you to let us know what you think or to get in touch if we can help you in any way or there’s something you’d like to see us address.

Welcome to this latest edition of the Generation 2004 Newsletter. This edition showcases the ingenuity and dedication on display among the winners (so far) of our ‘Wild West of Teleworking’ Photography Contest and we invite you to continue to send us your photos, bills and input. Local agents, you have until the end of June to decide whether to sign up to the working-conditions-reform package, we look at what’s involved. We have a lunchtime workshop on decoding and communicating with your co-workers. We report back on our discussions with HR and the administration on operation ‘return to the office’,  hot-desking/open spaces and on the provision of canteens in the future. We also ask you about your experiences of doing the annual medical outside the medical service.  This edition outlines the outcome of a case on age discrimination with regards to the survivor’s pension and describes what has changed with corporate credit cards.

All of us at Generation 2004 want to express a big Thank You to all our members who appreciate and support our work. Particularly touching was for us to see recently the following message on our bank account from one of our dear members : ‘Membership fee doubled – donation. Thank you for your great work’. Thanks for your feedback, it makes it all worthwhile!

Welcome to the Generation 2004 Newsletter of 28 April 2021.  In this latest edition we invite you to get involved:  why not show us your kitchen-table or cupboard-under-the-stairs office space in our ‘Wild West of Teleworking’ photography contest or sign up to our lunchtime coaching session on how to efficiently work digitally?

We also take a look at what any future teleworking set-up might mean for a ‘new normal’ and the potential unintended consequences. We provide you with a summary of what needs to change with the electoral rules to make the staff representation better represent the staff, we look at recent events with the Interpreters’ Delegation and we explain our response to ‘sofagate’. This edition of the newsletter then turns to consider the not-yet-seen AST/SC SC6 staff: the Loch Ness monster of staff grades.

That’s all for now, we hope you will enjoy the reading and, as usual, we invite you to let us know what you think or to get in touch if we can help you in any way or there’s something you’d like to see us address.