Imagine you are off for a month over summer… You are having the holiday of a lifetime but it is coming to an end. You really cannot face going back to the office just yet, but you have no more annual leave. Isn’t it tempting to change your flight and call in sick for a couple of days? DG HR thinks you might be tempted and created a specific rule requiring a medical certificate for any sick leave before or after annual leave. Continue reading Sick Leave before or after annual leave
z Newsletter article
Brussels Local Staff Committee Elections
(click on graph to enlarge)
As the majority of you probably noticed the Election of the new Local Staff Committee of Brussels (LSC BXL) took place at the end of October with a turn-out of 66% (14 391 votes casted out of 21 586 eligible voters). Generation 2004 scored some 30.23% of list votes and 23.76% of the preferential votes, which translates into 7 seats out of 27 in the LSC Brussels and continuous climb on the representative charts (line in green). Continue reading Brussels Local Staff Committee Elections
Elections of the Outside Union Local Staff Committee
For the first time in the short existence of Generation 2004 the colleagues based in the EC delegations outside the EU have been able to choose Generation 2004 candidates on their ballot. Traditionally, the delegations have been a stronghold of the established unions. Thus, many (not us!) were surprised with Generation 2004’s good result of about 15% of the votes. This result, because of the electoral system which is different from the one in Brussels and most probably needs to be updated, translates only into 1 seat out of 14 in the Staff Committee of the delegations. Nevertheless, now that we are in the “stronghold”, we are going to do our best to reform it, as we have done in Brussels for the past 3 years.
Generation 2004 would like to thank to all who voted for us and invites the others to engage with us to work in favour of the delegations’ staff.
The Commission still does not believe in the intelligence of its staff!
*Update 22.11.2024 the Parliament allows anyone meeting the experience and education criteria to participate in its internal competitions, regardless of function group or contract type. The European Court of Auditors, 2024, Special report 24/2024: EU Civil service–A flexible employment framework, insufficiently used to improve workforce management recommends that the Commission open its internal competitions (Recommendation 3(c)).*
Continue reading The Commission still does not believe in the intelligence of its staff!
Promotions (Article 90)
First we would like to congratulate once again those of you who received their well-deserved promotion during the 2018 promotion exercise. If you were one of the promoted colleagues, then it means you were lucky not to be penalised by a leaving Head of unit, by a restructuring of your DG or by many other factors which have nothing to do with merit and performance but that often negatively influence the outcome of the promotion exercise.
Yet, even not considering those unexpected factors, year after year most of us feel the uncertainty and injustice of the Commission’s very opaque and arbitrary promotion system and, unsurprisingly, many of you have contacted us for support on their intended Article 90 complaint concerning non-promotion. To that end, we have created an Article 90 template for you to use (deadline to submit is 10 February 2019). Continue reading Promotions (Article 90)
7-year rule for non-permanent staff – What does it imply?
*Update 2024*Update 28.06.2023, note that if you do get the 7th ‘unicorn’ year (well done!), you may have to redo the 9-month probation period. Yes, after 6 years of employment you will have to repeat this step: 9 of your last 12 months in a 7-year career will be spent on probation. Consider how this impacts requests for annual leave or the ability to push back when your workload exceeds what is humanly possible.*
Original article: Generation 2004 has clarified the new provisions following the social dialogue with HR and trade unions! The 7-year rule applies to non-permanent staff for specific tasks or for specialised tasks (if the skills are not already available within the institution):
- temporary agents (TAs)
- Contract Agents (CAs)
- agency staff (‘intérimaires’) (up to 3 years of services are not taken into account for the 7-year rule)
Continue reading 7-year rule for non-permanent staff – What does it imply?
Shorter annual leave for officials posted in a third country violates their fundamental right to paid annual leave
During the 2014 reform of the staff regulations, all the unions of the European Union institutions, including Generation 2004, established a platform in order to help the EU staff challenge the reformed measures before the General Court of the European Union (as far as annual leave, pensions, career, annual travel payment or travelling time are concerned).
One of the challenged measures was the reformed Article 6 of Annex X to the Staff Regulations, which provides for a reduced number of annual leave days (24 instead of 42 per year) of staff members posted in a third country (Judgment Francisco Carreras Sequeros and Others v European Commission (CaseT-518/16)). On 4 December2018, the General Court issued a judgment, in which it declared the provision illegal. Continue reading Shorter annual leave for officials posted in a third country violates their fundamental right to paid annual leave
ABC of Staff Representation and Social Dialogue at the EC
There’s a more up-to-date version of this glossary here.
A somewhat sarcastic alphabetical guide of Staff Representation and social dialogue at the EC
This special edition of Generation 2004 Newsletter is devoted to colleagues in Brussels or working in delegations Outside the Union now called to vote for their local sections of the Staff Committee. It recollects however essential information for all other colleagues who have already voted this year (Ispra and Seville), will vote next year (Luxembourg) or later on (Karlsruhe, Geel, Petten, France), unless a new structure of the Staff Committee is put in place through a reform in preparation. It sheds light on several aspects of staff representation and social dialogue at the EU, and offers some reality checks for your better awareness. Continue reading ABC of Staff Representation and social dialogue at the EC
Fact checking: Outside Union Elections
You might be bothered by all the emails in last couple of weeks asking you to vote. With all the promises and all credits that everybody claims to have exclusive rights.
Well, we are bothered with the non-factual parts of those messages as they really sometimes sound to good or bad to be true.
This is the latest of the Outside Union elections.
The candidates of so called independent and free trade union for the staff employed outside the European Union are saying Continue reading Fact checking: Outside Union Elections
Spamming & walls covered with election posters!
You are probably annoyed by all the messages sent by the staff organisations asking you to vote for them. Generation 2004 has been rather moderate with no more than a handful of targeted messages. The same cannot be said of Union for Unity (U4U) which seems to have taken a very significant lead in the spamming competition. Between mid-September and end of October, we have counted more than 40 messages sent by the official U4U functional mailbox (REP-PERS-OSP-U4U) and their satellite mailboxes (Collectif des Contractuels, Union for Unity U4U, G. Vlandas the leader of U4U and the Reflection Group on the Future of the European Civil Service (GRASPE)). That’s about one message per day since the middle of September. As far as Generation 2004 is concerned, just read our manifesto, everything is there, no need for spamming! Continue reading Spamming & walls covered with election posters!
