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Promotions (Article 90)

Newsletter #32 - Dec 2018, Promotions, z Newsletter article Print This Post

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?

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*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

Newsletter #32 - Dec 2018, z Newsletter article Print This Post

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

Elections, Newsletter #31 - Nov 2018, z Newsletter article Print This Post
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

Elections, Newsletter #31 - Nov 2018, z Newsletter article Print This Post

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!

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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! →

The Parliament’s Passerelle – the easy way in!

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If you work for the Commission, you understand that becoming an EU official is hard. You need to survive a tough selection process in open competitions. Tens of thousands of hopeful applicants contend for a hundred spots on the reserve list with no guarantee of finally landing a job. As contractual or temporary agent, you can also try your luck in internal competitions. But they are few and far between, and have an opaque selection process with many spots going to contenders from outgoing Cabinets.

Or, you work for one of the political groups in the European Parliament:

While the staff regulations foresee the possibility of internal competitions for all institutions, wise politicians in 2004 understood the unique need of the Parliament to have a legal requirement of holding internal competitions for you at least each legislative period for AD9 or AST6-level or higher[1] – a process known as “Passerelle”. In the Parliament,  rules on internal competitions make clear that ten years of service are required[2]. However the internal competition notice requires that you have been in the service for the Parliament for only three years while offering a number of places on the reserve list conveniently comparable to the number of “you and your eligible friends[3]”. The Parliament’s Human Resources is refreshingly clear in case you ever doubted if you should apply: “the true purpose of the internal Passerelle competition is to enable Political Group Staff to obtain the security of Official status”[4]. Continue reading The Parliament’s Passerelle – the easy way in! →

Generation 2004 & support for colleagues with cancer

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Did you know that new research finds that, from now 1 in 2[1] people will be diagnosed with cancer? This new estimate replaces the previous 1 in 3 people figure. In the period 2014 to 2025, the yearly number of new invasive tumour diagnoses (excl. nonmelanoma skin cancer) in Belgium is projected to rise from 67,820 to 79,140, an increase of about 17%[2]. In 2015, 1.3 million people died from cancer in the EU, more than one quarter (25.4 %) of the total number of deaths.[3]

That being said it is also promising that e.g. the UK’s cancer survival has doubled over the last 40 years and around half of patients now survive the disease for more than 10 years. But, as more people benefit from improved healthcare and longer life expectancy, the number of cancer cases is expected to rise.[4] However, there are always the side effects of any treatment that someone is exposed to: operation, chemo, radio, immunotherapy, pills…. Continue reading Generation 2004 & support for colleagues with cancer →

Generation 2004 & actions for our colleagues with disability

disability and special needs, Health, Newsletter #31 - Nov 2018, z Newsletter article Print This Post

The UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities sets out the legal obligations on States to promote and protect the rights of persons with disabilities. The European Union signed the Convention in 2010. It is legally binding. In the 2016 staff survey, about 6% of all Commission staff declared having long-standing health issues or a disability that affects their daily activities.

The Commission’s policy on disability was an essential concern for Generation 2004 and we were active in this regard at different levels. Especially, through the current Local Staff Committee (LSC) Brussels of which the President is a Generation 2004 member. Continue reading Generation 2004 & actions for our colleagues with disability →

Fact Checking

News + Press, Newsletter #30 - Oct 2018, z Newsletter article Print This Post

Save Europe’s real position on mobility

In the Save Europe (SE) message of 26 September 2018 you will discover, that without this Trade Union there would be almost no actions related to mobility… SE has only 2 votes, yes 2 votes, out of 27 in the LSC Brussels, and only one of them voted for the Position of the Brussels Local Staff Committee regarding future of the mobility in Region Brussels-Capital: the perspective and recommendations of the Commission’s staff. The other one did not even bother to participate in the written procedure. Nevertheless, if you really would like to see the real position of SE on mobility just watch this video at 36m30s.