Two rounds of social dialogue bilateral discussions between Director Francoise Collet of the European External Action Service (EEAS) and the Trade Unions (TUs) and staff associations (SAs) of the EEAS and the European Commission (EC), as well as one round with the Director General Gianmarco Di Vito (EEAS) were held through videoconference from our homes during the confinement. Continue reading “Nihil de nobis, sine nobis!” at the EEAS social dialogue
z Newsletter article
Covid-19 – we are raising your problems with the Administration
While we are at home teleworking, Generation 2004 has not stopped working hard for you. During the past few weeks, we have engaged a lot with DG HR to raise awareness of your problems under the current confinement. In this article, we would like to inform you about the current state of play, what DG HR is planning, where we still see room for improvement and, most importantly, what we are doing about it. Continue reading Covid-19 – we are raising your problems with the Administration
Teleworkers need help
Mandatory teleworking has become the rule for thousands of colleagues in the Commission and it is likely to remain so for weeks if not months to come. Generation 2004 fully supports this measure in the interest of public health and the protection of staff, but we are also concerned that the measure may place a disproportionate burden on some staff. Continue reading Teleworkers need help
“Generation 2004 stands by staff on standby” yet again
*Update 16.01.2025 unfortunately, we’re unable to find anything written, so this is an unwritten rule, stated in a committee meeting in late 2024. Those of you well enough to work but not well enough to do ‘voluntary’ standby duty (DGT, for example) can be (temporarily) excused from standby: get in touch with the Medical Service. Again, the mental gymnastics needed to continue to insist that this unpaid standby duty is ‘voluntary’. This is especially frustrating when we see that this time doesn’t even count towards the time already ‘gifted‘ to the Commission (which we believe to be the tip of the iceberg.
Continue reading “Generation 2004 stands by staff on standby” yet again
Generation 2004 requests suspension of staff rotation in Representations during COVID-19 crisis
Some Commission staff in European Commission (EC) Representations to EU Member States are subject to rotation. Under normal circumstances the exercise is already complex to manage. If you have any doubts about that, then think about the last time you moved house and then add to it: Continue reading Generation 2004 requests suspension of staff rotation in Representations during COVID-19 crisis
Newsletter editorial – 16/04/2020
Welcome to the latest Generation 2004 newsletter. In this issue, we will keep covering the working conditions changes related to the COVID-19 crisis. Alongside this we will complete our series of articles on JSIS complementary health insurance, give you some insight into the transfer of pension rights, remind you why Generation 2004 must exist and finally ‘retract’ our recent article on positive change at the Local Staff Committee Brussels. We are also looking for a new secretary for our Brussels headquarters.
On a different note, as you may have noticed, the number of articles in this issue is lower than usual and the time since the previous issue is also shorter than usual; this is not an accident and is part of a new format we are introducing to our newsletter and communication strategy.
In general, especially when compared with other Commission staff organisations, Generation 2004 has always taken a frugal approach to emailing colleagues. Apart from announcing some events and actions here and there, throughout our near 8 years of existence, we have refrained from spamming colleagues with individual union tract mass emails and we have ‘stubbornly’ stuck to our policy of publishing and producing a newsletter, which sees, on average, 6 to 8 issues per year, and prides itself on the quality of its content. We have however come to realise that this policy has led us to publish issues of the newsletter which are too long, and where some of the articles are already a bit aged.
Today we introduce a reduction in the length of the list of articles per issue and an increase in frequency to one or two issues per month. We believe this will allow us to serve you better without reducing the quality of our articles: something we have always striven for!
Generation 2004 is hiring a Secretary at the European Commission in Brussels
For our daily work ‘For the many, not the few’ Generation 2004 employs a team of committed and hardworking colleagues. Due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus, our last call for interest has not allowed us to find a candidate and we invite you again to apply for this full-time secretary post. We offer a Contract Agent FG II contract. If you are not eligible but you know someone that is and that you believe could be interested in the job, please feel free to forward the message on. Continue reading Generation 2004 is hiring a Secretary at the European Commission in Brussels
Positive change at the Brussels Local Staff Committee?
It seems our article on the Brussels Local Staff Committee (LSC) positive change from last month was perhaps given the wrong title. Following the latest March plenary session, we now believe a question mark is needed. The correct title would then be: Positive change at the Brussels Local Staff Committee?
We believe this is so because of the positions and actions of some trade unions during the March plenary session, held with the single point of electing a new president of the LSC Brussels and this despite the request by Generation 2004 to include other points of more relevance for staff in the agenda. Continue reading Positive change at the Brussels Local Staff Committee?
A little reminder why Generation 2004 MUST exist
The 2004 and 2014 staff regulations reforms introduced discrimination towards colleagues hired in the post 2004 generation, most of them from the – at the time – ten new Member States, which later got to 12 and eventually 13. These reforms introduced many changes affecting a wide range of working conditions for these newer colleagues while not touching most of the benefits of the already existing civil servants. Noteworthy are:
Continue reading A little reminder why Generation 2004 MUST exist
Updated conversion coefficients for transfer of pension rights
When you start in the European Institutions, you might already have worked somewhere else and gained pension rights that you can transfer into our pension scheme of European officials (PSEO), a so-called transfer-in. The same is possible or even compulsory when you leave the Institutions, a so-called transfer-out. For a transfer-in, your previous pension scheme transfers a certain amount of money to the PSEO: in return, you get credited with some more time that is used for the calculation of your future pension paid by the PSEO. For a transfer-out, the PSEO calculates what your accumulated ‘years’ are worth and transfers this sum to your next pension scheme.
Continue reading Updated conversion coefficients for transfer of pension rights
