Teleworking has been on the Commission HR work patterns menu for many, many years as a valuable tool to ensure a good work-life balance. With the Covid-19 pandemic, we have witnessed an unprecedented use of this way of working.
Obviously, at some point a question arose: Why not teleworking from anywhere? Continue reading Teleworking from Anywhere: facts vs. fiction
At Generation 2004 we make no secret of the fact that we would like to see electoral reform. A standardisation of the electoral rules would make the staff representation not just simpler and significantly more user friendly for all, but also much more transparent.
That transparency would, ideally, also be extended to groupings of trade unions and staff associations (OSPs). It is imperative that staff know for whom they are voting: the voting system is already opaque and any agreements in place between OSPs should be made clear in order to allow staff to make informed decisions when voting. [1] Continue reading Electoral reform proposals: transparency in the ballot lists
Despite being in the period of summer holiday, the July 2021 Geel local staff committee election has been successfully concluded with your support! You gave us 294 votes in total, which corresponds to 7 out of 14 elected representatives [1]. Generation 2004 thanks each and every colleague who took the effort to participate in the paper voting (no electronic voting for Geel as yet). Continue reading Geel elections: Generation 2004 staff representatives 2021
What does it mean when your interlocutor refuses to use the only language you both have in common? Is it a (repeated) oversight? Forgetfulness? Something else?
Why on earth would anyone do this on purpose? They wouldn’t, right?
Regardless of the motivation, it’s awkward, isn’t it, being spoken at in a language you don’t understand, especially when you know you have a language in common and you’ve asked several times to use it. Continue reading Lingua franca, what? SCIC
*Here are the 2021 Karlsruhe election results.* Original article: The infinite depths of (Commission) space. The final frontier: the Joint Research Centre (JRC). Its mission: to boldly go where noone (Commission official) has gone before: research, innovation, digitalisation, green deal … Really? Also at the JRC Karlsruhe and Geel?
What happened there? Continue reading The old guards maintaining the status quo in Karlsruhe and Geel
To start with, lets clear the air and get this out in the open: the discussions between the administration and the staff (‘social dialogue (SD)’) via the elected representatives (‘staff representation (SR)’) and the trade unions and professional staff associations (OSPs), are necessary. As DG Human Resources and Security (DG HR) puts it on the Staff Matters website, the social dialogue: Continue reading On career unionism and the fallacy of irreplaceability (long read)
Uniform and fully democratic electoral rules throughout the Commission, synchronised electronic elections at all sites and, last but not least, a separate local staff committee (LSC) for Seville: these are the key elements of a proposal for staff-representation reform developed by Generation 2004. We have been raising these issues in one form or another since at least 2013 and have actively led on related efforts to address these three points on several occasions. Continue reading The same electoral rules for all!
The Renouveau & Démocratie (R&D)-controlled majority in the Central Staff Committee (CSC) has rejected proposals from Generation 2004 to make the work of the Central Staff Committee more efficient, transparent and inclusive.
Under the guise of business continuity, it voted for the status quo, and to address none of the pressing problems that have hampered the work of the CSC for years. Continue reading Central Staff Committee voted to continue Business as Usual
Luxembourg staff has voted for a new Local Staff Committee (LSC) and the results of the elections have been published. Three lists were competing for the favour of voters: Generation 2004, Union Syndicale Luxembourg (USL) and a composite list made up by 6 entities, one of which (RS) is already a grouping of trade unions and staff associations (OSPs) naming themselves “Ensemble Luxembourg” (EL). Continue reading Luxembourg has elected a new Local Staff Committee
As you may know, Generation 2004 scored highest in the last Brussels local staff committee elections with 30% of votes. It was not only a big surprise to the administration, but foremost to the other trade unions. Despite the huge gain in votes and representativeness and due to preferential votes to smaller trade unions, G2004 did not obtain due number of seats in the Local Staff Committee Brussels (LSC). The new President Continue reading On the functioning of the Brussels LSC
