Staff Categories

AST Conference: A life of an AST: is there light in the tunnel?

Assistants, Events, Newsletter #27 - Feb 2018, z Newsletter article Print This Post

On 8 March Generation 2004 organised a lunchtime conference for AST colleagues. It consisted in a detailed presentation and answering many questions from the audience. The two main questions discussed were:

  • What is the truth about AST recruitment in the Commission since 2004?
  • What are the realistic prospects for career development for “ASTs (forever) in transition”?

This lunch-time conference is the forth large public event organised by Generation 2004 after the Pensions Conference organised in February 2018.

The lunch-time conference brought together a large number of attendees in Brussels and several hundred participants from many sites through web-streaming.

Continue reading AST Conference: A life of an AST: is there light in the tunnel? →

Contract Agents (follow up)

Contract Agents, Newsletter #26 - Jan 2018, z Newsletter article Print This Post

Generation 2004 has participated actively together with other Staff Organisations in the recent Social Dialogues concerning Contract Agents (technical consultation on the new general implementing provisions = GIPs and administrative consultation on the unemployment benefit scheme).

In parallel, Generation 2004 has closely monitored the quantitative evolution of the various staff categories. In particular, we don’t agree with the increasing number of contractual staff members used for permanent tasks in the EU public service. According to our last CA conference and individual consultations with contract staff, this practice seems to be more and more common, it is even judged by most to have become an everyday practice in the EU Institutions. Continue reading Contract Agents (follow up) →

Contract Agents Conference

Contract Agents, Events, Newsletter #25 – Nov 2017, z Newsletter article Print This Post

A conference was organised by Generation 2004 on 14 November to discuss Contract Agent’s function groups and work conditions following the adoption of the new GIPs for CAs (2017). Continue reading Contract Agents Conference →

Report on the social dialogue at the Commission

Contract Agents, Newsletter #25 – Nov 2017, z Newsletter article Print This Post

Commissioner Oettinger met the staff representation on 20 October. Apart from a surprisingly long intervention of the Commissioner on the departure of Mr. Kessler from OLAF, the meeting was essentially business as usual. Generation 2004 maintained its request that the draft decision of the Commission on the so-called external activities be amended so that CA3bs quickly receive the green light allowing them to take up a new job outside of the institutions after the end of their contract (currently, CA3bs are supposed to ask for permission 1 month before accepting a new job; Continue reading Report on the social dialogue at the Commission →

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? →

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 →