As you probably know, this year’s promotion (officials) and reclassification (Contract Agents) exercises will end with the publication of the final lists this week here (according to our information it will be on Wednesday, 10 November 2021) [1].
If your name is on the list you will be promoted/reclassified (changes will be visible in your December 2021 payslip) and Generation 2004 would like to warmly congratulate you. Continue reading Promotion/reclassification exercises 2021
The mediation service has published its 2020 annual report showing that the number of cases reported is much lower compared to previous year(s). One cannot help but wonder: is that because harassment/bad managerial behaviour really improved, is it because colleagues are fed up with the ineffectiveness of the available harassment fighting procedures, or is it simply a partial story: it does not show how many cases never started because the other side refused to engage. (Yes, mediation is voluntary and the mediation service can do nothing when only one side is willing.) Continue reading Do you think harassment or bad managerial behaviour improved in 2020?
Stories on the ground
Story 1 LA Function Group IV recruited as section secretary. Later on the job task of the DMO (document managing officer) is added to the job description and this has been the situation for more than 2 years. Management refused to discuss changing the post to Group III. Continue reading Correction of function group for Local Agents in Delegations – We need an action plan!
*Update 19.02.2025: ‘By default, all [internal] competitions will be cross-category.’ (Stay tuned: A new approach for internal competitions) This is excellent news and should now put the Commission on an even footing with the Parliament and other EU institutions. We hope that this inclusion is genuine and that the competitions are not otherwise skewed to reduce participation.* Continue reading Internal competitions: EU institutions doing it differently
*Update 23.09.2025: check the Draft 2026 Commission budget (p. 954-955). 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.*
Original article: A brief history of assistants, secretaries and clerks in the European Commission
Since 2018 Generation 2004 has been warning of and working against the phasing out of the assistants (AST) function group (FG) and the placing of all AST staff in ‘transition’. To better understand the issues at stake, we need to briefly examine the history and evolution of assistants, secretaries and clerks (AST/SC) in the European Commission. Continue reading Stop the phasing out of the AST function group!
Thanks very much to the colleagues who joined our petition and expressed their support and solidarity. We acknowledge also the huge effort made by the European External Action Service (EEAS) and the Commission to provide information and updates in this very extreme situation : they reacted quickly to sort through the avalanche of information they received and take appropriate action. Continue reading Thanks for your support for colleagues in Afghanistan!
As Generation 2004 we would like to express our enormous gratitude to the medical staff as whole: you have worked extremely hard, under huge pressure, put in long working hours and showed great dedication throughout this pandemic. We make a special mention also of those in Brussels charged with the additional responsibility of vaccinating [1] Brussels-based and visiting staff Continue reading Empty promises? Medical staff already forgotten?
If promotion quotas were distributed equally and without discrimination by DG HR, then each function group (FG) – administrator (AD), assistant (AST), and secretaries and clerks (AST/SC) – would have the same or a very similar ratio of promotion quotas to eligible staff (those with a minimum of 2 years in the grade) [1].
Since this information is not publicly available, we had to politely and firmly insist that DG HR release the relevant statistics by making an access to documents request. Continue reading Unfair distribution of promotion quotas
We have written to the president of the Commission to ask that the European External Action Service (EEAS) leave no one behind in Kabul, Afghanistan. In response to the current political crisis we ask the EU to move now to arrange safe transportation and passage from the different addresses of colleagues to the airport where it is anticipated that they will be transported to safer locations via humanitarian flights. Continue reading Please support colleagues in Afghanistan
Generation 2004 is glad to inform you that the deadline for Local agents to decide whether they would like to accept the new Local Agent conditions is now extended to 31 December 2021.
If you wish to have any questions, please feel free to contact us. Continue reading Deadline extension: LA employment-conditions reform
