Generation 2004 is glad to inform you that the deadline for Local agents to decide whether they would like to accept the new Local Agent conditions is now extended to 31 December 2021.
If you wish to have any questions, please feel free to contact us. Continue reading Deadline extension: LA employment-conditions reform
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!
Thanks to all of you who submitted photos of your home-office/kitchen-table/cupboard-under-the-stairs/garden IT setup and your increased bills and accommodation costs. We always appreciate your interaction and comments and you can still send us your teleworking photos and evidence of costs incurred: let us know where and how you are working! Continue reading ‘Wild West of Teleworking’ Photography Contest: winners!
At last, on Wednesday evening (19.05.2021) HR announced a date for the start of operation ‘return to the office’: from Wednesday 9 June onwards the Commission anticipates moving from phase 0 to phase 1. In practice, this means that while teleworking will remain the norm, staff will be encouraged to go to the office, still on a voluntary basis. The maximum presence in the buildings – to be complied with at all time – will be raised to 20%. The canteen in the Berlaymont building will be reopened. Continue reading Get ready: the return to the office is starting in June
*update 22.02.2022: we’re hearing that colleagues are changing DG in order to avoid open space/hot-desking. Is this you? Get in touch, we’d like to hear from you!*
In the COVID information meeting of 30 April 2021, the Director of Office for Infrastructure and Logistics in Brussels (OIB), Mr Marc Becquet, accused trade unions and staff associations (OSPs) of spreading fear and discontent among staff by sending too many messages and tracts on hot-desking and workplace arrangements. Continue reading Hot-desking: do not mistake the finger for the Moon!
If you were fantasising about returning to the office one day and resuming the usual lunch with colleagues [1], think again!
The new L107 (the ONE, Brussels), apparently the role model for all Commission buildings in the very near future – will not have a canteen, even though it will house more than 1500 staff – indeed, such a large number of people would fully justify the presence of a canteen. So, it seems that with the ‘new normal’, everybody who wants to eat in this showpiece Commission building will be treated to the following choice: either try to run faster than the others to get a spot at the – very small! – cafeteria in the building or lose a lot of precious time to go to possibly overcrowded canteens in other buildings. Continue reading The future: no more lunch in Commission buildings
*One colleague was successful with a related Article 90 complaint*
Under Article 59(6) of the staff regulations, staff are obliged to undergo a medical check-up every year either via the institution’s medical officer or by a medical practitioner chosen by them. Continue reading Reimbursement of the annual medical check-up during COVID
DiSC is a behaviour-assessment tool based on the theory of psychologist William Moulton Marston. It focuses on four different behavioural traits, which could be summarised as decisiveness, interaction, stability and conciseness. Each of these traits refers to a pillar of someone’s personality. The more you have of a particular trait, the more you are likely to appear a certain way. Continue reading How to decode and successfully communicate with your co-workers?
Here are updates and the review process of the salary-revision decision. Subsequent to the conclusion of the social dialogue for the local agent (LA) employment conditions, which should replace the Framework Rules, all LA colleagues will have until 30 June 2021 to decide whether to sign the package of conditions. If you have any questions or need any assistance, you can contact Generation 2004. Continue reading Local agent employment-conditions reform
The purpose of this short piece is not to repeat what is already available on Staff Matters under Survivor’s pension but to make you aware of the outcome of a recently decided case (T-374/20 – KM v Commission: available in German and French) that might be of interest to you or your loved ones. Continue reading Survivor’s pension: discrimination
