Newsletter – 2023-11-14

Newsletter editorial – 14-11-2023

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Welcome to the eleventh edition of the Generation 2004 newsletter. We’re currently contributing to the drafting of the new mission guide. There is some (measured) good news in that staff salaries will indeed be updated in December (backdated to July). We give you an update on EPSO pause on testing and invite you to our event. On the subject of EPSO, we also look at the monolingual English competitions together with the new restriction clause applied only to Luxembourg. We are also following the situation for  Local Agents: their pension (‘provident’) fund has lost value, reducing payouts for colleagues who are already very low on the pay scale.

That’s it now for now! Enjoy the reading and get in touch if you believe we can help!

When “EPSOnic” hits the iceberg

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*Update 12.04.2024: On the processing of personal data: the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) European Commission’s use of Microsoft 365 infringes data protection law for EU institutions and bodies.* *Update 21.02.2024, Politico picked up this story.*

Original article: Generation 2004 held a conference on Internal and external competitions: what (legal) action to take? on the 15th of November. Continue reading When “EPSOnic” hits the iceberg →

Flash report on the Local Agents’ Provident Fund

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The pension benefits system for local staff in Delegations (Provident Fund for Local Agents (‘PFLA‘)) has lost over 5% of its value. This means that the amount of money local agents (LA) receive at the end of their career (through employer and employee contributions) is falling. Continue reading Flash report on the Local Agents’ Provident Fund →

Annual salary update 2023 

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*Update 13.12.2023, those who took time credit leave  while also making full pension contributions will have seen a (small) drop in salary in December.* Update 17.11.2023 many of you got in touch to mention the end of the solidarity levy. Unfortunately, this is extremely unlikely to happen, but we do always appreciate your input, please continue to send us your ideas and sources thanks!*

Original article: The news is out, Eurostat has published its report on the 2023 annual update and the residual salary update amounts to +1.0%, after the intermediate update from June.  This is far better than what we had hoped for, so this good news. Continue reading Annual salary update 2023  →

Language choice in EPSO competitions – beware the consequences of automatic translation

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*16.11.2023, thanks to the colleague who confirmed that the disinformation/misinformation issue outlined in footnote 1 has since been fixed.* Original article: For some time already, EPSO is moving towards monolingualism: we are seeing  competitions that are by-and-large English-only. This appears to completely disregard the 16.02.2023 outcome of the EPSO case where the Court of Justice confirmed the unlawfulness of artificially restricting the choice of the second language of competitions to 3 languages: English, French and German. Continue reading Language choice in EPSO competitions – beware the consequences of automatic translation →

New guide for Mission: Impossible

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Going on business travel soon? Beware, it could become Mission: Impossible!

Generation 2004 is currently negotiating the new draft mission guide tabled by the administration, and we believe that the proposed changes to mission rules create additional burden for the mission performer that is simply unacceptable. Continue reading New guide for Mission: Impossible →

Welcome to the Hotel Commission

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*Update 23.11.2023, thanks to the colleagues who shared their ideas on this situation, we have added their observations below.*

Original article: Luxembourg is a great place to work,  you just have to find somewhere to live first! In its increasingly desperate attempts to do nothing of substance (12 actions for Luxembourg, for example), while still claiming to be working on increasing the attractivity of Luxembourg as a workplace, the Commission now seems to have resorted to the roadmap set out in a classic song. Continue reading Welcome to the Hotel Commission →