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You are a Contract Agent? Share your experience with us!

Contract Agents, Newsletter #24 - Sep 2017, z Newsletter article Print This Post

“In a Union of equals, there can be no second class workers. Workers should earn the same pay for the same work in the same place.” J.C. Juncker, State of the Union address, 13 September 2017.

Contract Agents account for more than a quarter of the European Institution’s population and are increasingly the victims of budgetary restrictions. Limited access to decent employment opportunities in the Institutions, insufficient job security and unfair working conditions are now well documented.

However, what is less documented is that there is a growing gap between the duties performed by CAs and their functional group. Continue reading You are a Contract Agent? Share your experience with us! →

Wind in our sails, but in what condition is our ship?

Contract Agents, Newsletter #24 - Sep 2017, z Newsletter article Print This Post

A wind of optimism is blowing in the EU institutions. Some are beginning to argue that the added-value of the EU has become clearer following the events of the past 18 months. Indeed, recent electoral rounds in France and in the Netherlands have been less negative than expected with respect to the future of the EU. The outcome of the elections in Germany is perceived by some observers as less encouraging. However, it is clear that the eurosceptics will not prevail there any time soon. Unfortunately, the main issues that affect the staff are still very unclear and may be affected by a number of events.

Obviously colleagues who happen to be British citizen are worried by the lack of clarity on their future. The only consolation at the moment is that the Belgian authorities are beginning to realise that EU officials of UK citizenship need assistance. The Brussels Commissioner (not one of our Commissioners but an official appointed by the Brussels region to provide administrative assistance to the expat community in Brussels) organised an info session last June and provides some advice on its website. It is useful to go through this advice if you are a UK citizen working in Brussels. Continue reading Wind in our sails, but in what condition is our ship? →

Promotions: why are some years good and some other years bad?

Newsletter #23 – Jun 2017, Promotions, z Newsletter article Print This Post

You might have been promoted this year, or not promoted… We have argued many times that the current promotion system is flawed but why is there so much uncertainty in the system? Part of the explanation lies in the so-called “wave effect”. Basically, if you are in a grade with increasing population, for instance because of the arrival of a wave of colleagues promoted from the grade below, the mathematical peculiarities of Annex IB of the staff regulations result in a temporary increase in the quota of promotions available for that grade (see Annex 1 below for a theoretical example). Conversely, if you are in a grade with decreasing population, there will at some stage be a temporary decrease in the quota of promotions available for your grade. As a result, if you are lucky to be in “growing” grade, you might be promoted quickly just because “you are riding the front of the wave”. If you are in a “shrinking” grade, you might have to wait longer than normal to get your promotion just because you are “floating” on the “tail of the wave”. Continue reading Promotions: why are some years good and some other years bad? →

Pensions and Brexit

Brexit, Newsletter #23 – Jun 2017, Pensions, z Newsletter article Print This Post

Generation 2004 regularly alerts the staff with respect to the sustainability of our pension scheme [1]. Commissioner Oettinger seems to agree with us (“He therefore recommended a rigorous [budgetary] approach, particularly as there would be a considerable increase in the cost of EU officials’ pensions in the coming years“, see middle of page 14 in the Minutes of the last meeting of the College in May). Some more reasons to worry according to an article in The Guardian: an “EU diplomat” is quoted as saying “we cannot trade pensions for the MFF” [during the Brexit negotiations]. Let us hope that this diplomat really means what (s)he said. The fact that the Brexit Task Force has so far not bothered informing the staff about what is in preparation with respect to the employees of the institutions, not even those who have British origins, almost a year after the Brexit referendum, is not a good sign. The article in The Guardian emphasises that the EU has promised transparency, as opposed to the UK negotiators who apparently want secrecy. We have some doubts about this transparency pledge by the EU, see top of page 4 of our May newsletter. Continue reading Pensions and Brexit →

Social Dialogue on “External Activities”

Contract Agents, Features, Newsletter #23 – Jun 2017, Staff Categories, Temporary Agents, z Newsletter article Print This Post

Update 21.02.2022: Check out the rules as they stand in 2022.

The Commission is currently revising its implementing rules on so-called “external activities”. These rules are meant to prevent conflicts of interest, either real or perceived, when active or former EU officials take on jobs or other duties outside of the institutions. Generation 2004 has been the most vocal staff organisation during the negotiations to denounce the fact that the rules proposed by the Commission make no distinctions between staff categories and between precarious staff and permanent staff: whether you are a former Director General looking for activities to keep yourself busy during retirement or a CA3b who is being kicked-out of the Institutions because your contract has reached the 6-year cliff makes no difference in DG HR’s mind. Continue reading social dialogue on “External Activities” →

Petition on the future of Contract Agents

Contract Agents, Newsletter #23 – Jun 2017, z Newsletter article Print This Post

The NPS forum, with the active support of one of our members, is launching a petition on employment conditions and career prospects for the non-permanent employees and contractual agents at the European institutions. Follow this link to read the text of Petition 0178/2017. We encourage you to sign this petition, whether you are a permanent employee or not. Indeed, Generation 2004 thinks that non-permanent staff deserve a break after many years of austerity, just like non-permanent government employees in Spain.

If you don’t yet have a login on the European Parliament’s petition website, you will need to create one. This will take only a minute, just click on “register” at the bottom of the petition text. A small effort for a great cause! Once you have logged in, all you need to do is click on “support this petition”. Continue reading Petition on the future of Contract Agents →

The Senior Expert against the Contract Agent

Contract Agents, Newsletter #23 – Jun 2017, z Newsletter article Print This Post

Les fonctionnaires sont un petit peu comme les livres d’une bibliothèque. Ce sont les plus hauts placés qui servent le moins…”  (Georges Clemenceau)

Recently, the staff representation has become very excited about a controversial email exchange between an informal collective of the European Commission’s Contract Agents called the Non-Permanent Staff (NPS) Forum, and some prominent staff representatives. Most of you probably don’t care, but it is nonetheless worth spending 5 minutes to understand what’s going on. To summarize crudely: the NPS forum, in its February newsletter accuses the staff representation of using their position to advance their own careers at the expense of the defence of the precarious Contract Agents (Quote: “…unions … do more damage than good, to all staff recruited after 2004, using public money and entertaining a friendly relation amongst themselves and particularly with some members of DG HR, for decades. We have … proof of the existing conflicts of interest, …. We also need to see who they are, before and after elections, we need to see their real CVs made public.”). Continue reading The Senior Expert against the Contract Agent →

Post-reform Equal Pay Day

Assistants, Contract Agents, Newsletter #22 – May 2017, Staff Categories, z Newsletter article Print This Post

Post-reform Equal Pay Day is a reminder of the unequal pay conditions affecting everyone who joined the European Institutions after the Kinnock Reform of 1 May 2004. The latest reform that took effect on 1 January 2014 has only made matters worse by introducing complications in the career structure, and by lowering the entry salary once again; more and more  contract agent (CA) staff are employed at ever lower salaries; the new category of assistants/secretaries and clerks (AST/SC), and the ensuing confusion generated by the automatic conversion of AST posts to AST/SC posts, puts new employees in a financially precarious situation while confusing and frustrating AST staff who suddenly find themselves sitting on AST/SC posts. Continue reading Post-reform Equal Pay Day →

BREXIT

Brexit, Newsletter #22 – May 2017, z Newsletter article Print This Post

Join the G2004 discussion!

Some see Brexit as a sign to build the EU – and the EU civil service – stronger and better.

Others see it as yet another opportunity to cut pay and conditions for staff.

One thing is clear, Brexit affects everyone.

Generation 2004 is planning to organise a discussion session on 16 May to take stock of the situation and to identify the most burning issues on which we need to intervene in the coming months.  If you would like to be part of the G2004 Brexit discussion then send an email to: REP PERS OSP GENERATION 2004. We will get back to you with details of how to take part. Continue reading BREXIT →