A reasoned (and partly smiling) opinion on a recent conference organised by the local section Brussels of the Commission Staff Committee

On 17 October 2019, under the trendy and self-explanatory (or Freudian?) title “#staffrepresentation&you” (of course, one thing are staff representatives (i.e. the Elected), another is you (i.e. the mere Staff), the Chair of the local section Brussels of the Commission Staff Committee pushed the organisation of a 3 hours lunchtime debate. The event enjoyed the presence of the DG HR’s Director responsible for social dialogue, Mr. Moricca and these were the debated questions: Continue reading Is Staff Representation a Fake? →

With the start of the Ursula von der Leyen Commission on December 1st 2019, Johannes HAHN also took up his appointment as the new Commissioner for Budget and Administration. This appointment concerns staff enormously since he is in charge of Administration, which includes HR policy.

On 16 January, Generation 2004 sent a welcome letter (EN version) to Mr. Hahn. In this letter, we not only welcomed the Commissioner but we have also raised some of the most important aspects of our policies as a staff representation organisation:

• the principle of equal pay for equal work at the same place and;
• the heavy decline of the conditions of employment and the consequent increase of the precariat for some categories of staff.

We closed the letter by offering Commissioner HAHN to constructively and positively work with him on these and other staff related matters.

The big day finally arrived. On 23 January 2020, the until now severely neglected social dialogue in the Executive agencies (EAs) was finally resuscitated through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by all the Directors of the EAs and all the trade unions and staff associations of the Commission.

The MoU was achieved in a relatively short period and following numerous meetings and discussions where the input from the Staff Committees (SC) of the six EAs: EACEA, EASME, ERCEA, CHAFEA, INEA, and REA was particularly important. Continue reading The social dialogue is coming to the Executive Agencies →

Art. 2 of Annex VII of staff regulations provides for an allowance for dependent children to be paid to officials. The allowance is granted automatically for children under 18, and on application for children between 18 and 26 in education or training, with supporting evidence, and provided the child is deemed to be dependent on his/her parents within the meaning of the same Article. If the child has his/her own income, this must be below a given threshold in order to be regarded as dependent. PMO decides whether the child fulfils income requirements according to Revised Conclusion 223/04 by the Heads of Administration. Continue reading Are unpaid services received to be considered part of income? →

Last December, Generation 2004 reported on the malfunctioning of the Brussels Local Staff Committee (LSC). As stated, at the 11 February 2020 LSC plenary session we eventually proposed a motion of censure to call for a vote of no confidence.
We are glad to announce that shortly after our intervention the President of the LSC resigned from the post with immediate effect.
Generation 2004 finds it very unfortunate that during the last few months, the situation at the LSC Brussels became so critical that DG HR took the spontaneous decision to appoint an observer to the LSC plenary sessions. An unprecedented move in staff representation history, which will hopefully end when a new president is elected.
As usual, Generation 2004 will conference with all other elected members and constructively discuss the way forward towards the proper functioning of this very important body. We have proven during the 2015-2018 mandate of the LSC how well it can and should perform for the good of Brussels staff.