Staff Categories

Update: internal competition COM/AD/02/21 (AD5) – Art. 90(2) complaint

Internal Competitions, Newsletter - 2022-01-28, Petition, Professional mobility, Staff Categories, Temporary Agents

*update 18.07.2022: anyone who wishes to protest against any internal competition (e.g. COM/AST4/2022 (​AST4)) can follow the same process as that set out below. Apply then appeal (as below) and then get in touch with us.*

The non-eligibility decision for COM/AD/02/21 (AD5) was sent out on 25.01.2022, please check your EPSO account.

For example, this is the decision that a member of Generation 2004 has received:

Continue reading Update: internal competition COM/AD/02/21 (AD5) – Art. 90(2) complaint →

Would you like to undertake other activities outside your current job in the Commission?

Contract Agents, Cost of living Luxembourg, Newsletter - 2022-01-28, Services, Temporary Agents, Working conditions

*Update 27.0302025: Under certain circumstanaces you can work elsewhere while in receipt of an invalidity allowance: ‘Persons in receipt of an invalidity allowance may not engage in gainful employment without the prior authorisation of the Appointing Authority. Any income from such gainful employment which, in combination with the invalidity allowance, exceeds the final Continue reading Would you like to undertake other activities outside your current job in the Commission? →

Update 25.01.2022: internal competition COM/AD/02/21 (AD5) – what’s next?

Internal Competitions, Newsletter - 2022-01-13, Petition, Professional mobility, Staff Categories, Temporary Agents

*25.01.2021Rejection letters are out, please let us know whether you took action and we can coordinate on the  next steps*

Thanks to all of you who answered our December call to action in response to yet another very discriminatory internal competition (COM/AD/02/21 (AD5)) which excludes over 16 000 potentially eligible candidates. Yes, we also noticed that the ‘talent screener’ was simply a request for permission and your staff number. We have a Microsoft Teams group on this topic, come and join the discussion! Continue reading Update 25.01.2022: internal competition COM/AD/02/21 (AD5) – what’s next? →

Generation 2004 is hiring a 50%-of-full-time Secretary at the European Commission in Brussels

Contract Agents, Vacancy

For our daily work ‘For the many, not the few’ Generation 2004 employs a team of committed and hardworking colleagues.

If you are a Contract Agent FG II (in the Commission, trade unions and staff associations are limited to employing CAs FG II for this type of post) you can join that team, as Generation 2004 is hiring for its headquarters in Brussels a 50%-of-full time secretary. 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. There is a high probability that the position can be transferred later to a 100% post. Continue reading Generation 2004 is hiring a 50%-of-full-time Secretary at the European Commission in Brussels →

Zero net salary increase after advance in step!

Newsletter - 2022-01-13, Petition, Promotions, reclassification, Secretaries and clerks, Staff Categories, Working conditions, yearly salary update

When is an upgrade not an upgrade? So, you didn’t get promoted or reclassified last year, but you’re due an upgrade in step and are looking forward to the (however small)  associated salary increase. The only circumstances where there is no increase in pay is in the last step in the grade: the salary there is always the same as step 1 of the next grade. So you reckon you’ll get something, right? Well… at the end of the day it might actually be nothing: zero. Continue reading Zero net salary increase after advance in step! →

Internal competitions – Time for collective action!

Assistants, Central Staff Committee, Contract Agents, Internal Competitions, New HR strategy, Newsletter - 2021-12-16, Petition, Professional mobility, Promotions, reclassification, Secretaries and clerks, Staff Categories, Temporary Agents

*Please see 27.01.2021 update*

In the wake of the announcement by DG HR of yet another very discriminatory internal competition (IC), Generation 2004 organised a conference to debate the matter. According to our analysis, this IC excludes over 16 000 potentially eligible candidates. Although other institutions allow anyone who meets the education and experience criteria to take part, the Commission is definitely doing it differently. Continue reading Internal competitions – Time for collective action! →

New competition – same old story!

EPSO, Events, Internal Competitions, Newsletter - 2021-12-02, Outside the Union, Staff Categories

*Update 08.07.2022: you can also take the same action (apply and appeal the rejection) for the 2022 internal competitions. We are also organising training for August 2022.*

Another Internal Competition has just been announced which is exclusively open to Temporary Agents (TAs), i.e. mainly cabinet staff (‘parachutage’?) as well as our JPP ”Jeunesse dorée”. Oops HR did it again Continue reading New competition – same old story! →

Promising and selling unicorns

Brussels, Elections, Geel, Ispra-Seville, Karlsruhe, Local Staff Committee, Luxembourg, Newsletter - 2021-12-02, OSPs, Outside the Union, Petition, Petten, Promotions, reclassification, Social Dialogue, Staff Categories, Working conditions

*This article was published in November 2021 in response to promises made during Brussels, Karlsruhe and Ispra elections. Here are the Karlsruhe 2021 results.*

On allowances to cover the additional costs of teleworking and other promises

It is election time for many sites of the Commission and there are two unmistakable signs for this:

  • Your inbox is filling with largely indistinguishable e-mails asking to vote for union X or union Y, because they have done SO MUCH for you in the last year (although for some of them, you cannot remember ever having seen any action or results).
  • The e-mails contain a hodgepodge of measures that they are demanding, often defying any sense of reality: unicorns, rainbows, a guaranteed lottery win … 

Continue reading Promising and selling unicorns →

Generation 2004 submitted AST/SC petition to the European Parliament

Contract Agents, Petition, Secretaries and clerks

We need you to please register at the EP website and sign this petition there.

We are happy to inform you that Generation 2004 formally submitted a petition to the European Parliament to stop the unfair treatment of AST/SC staff on 11.11.2021, but please add add your name to show your support! [1]

‘Will you support a petition to the European Parliament (EP) to raise the MEPs’ awareness of the specific challenges faced by our AST/SC colleagues and to urge the EP, during the next revision of the staff regulations, to adopt the necessary legislative changes to abolish the unfair treatment of the AST/SC staff members? Continue reading Generation 2004 submitted AST/SC petition to the European Parliament →

Stop having AST/SC staff do AST roles without the corresponding pay and potential!

Administrators, Assistants, Contract Agents, Junior Professionals Programme, Local Agents, Newsletter - 2021-11-17, Petition, Secretaries and clerks, Staff Categories

*Update 23.09.2025: It’s now official: 50 AST/SCs are to have the (mis)fortune of doing an AST post without the corresponding AST promotion speed or career potential.  Check the Draft 2026 Commission budget: ’50 posts in the function group AST may be occupied by officials and temporary staff in the AST/SC function group to reflect the gradual phase-in of the AST/SC function group.’ (p. 955, footnote 1). While the Commission as a whole is set to lose 24 posts, the AST function group is to lose 121 (leaving 4398 permanent staff). No other function group is to decrease in size.* Continue reading Stop having AST/SC staff do AST roles without the corresponding pay and potential! →