After we exposed that the European Commission was infringing data protection law, many colleagues, particularly in Delegations, contacted us to share their experiences. They were not only ‘encouraged’ to use their private mobile phones for work purposes, also their standby duty tasks were going too far. Continue reading The practices must change – Standby duty & use of private phones for business purposes in Delegations
Working conditions
TAXUD’s Alarming Decline in Staff Well-being: Our efforts have paid off!
In our article of 10 April 2024, Generation 2004 had raised concerns about well-being of staff in DG TAXUD and proposed many actions to enhance our colleagues’ working conditions. We are happy to announce that our efforts have contributed to draw the attention of Senior Management on the issue. Continue reading TAXUD’s Alarming Decline in Staff Well-being: Our efforts have paid off!
Intermediate salary update in June +3%
A welcome news given the very high inflation last year: our salary adaption method has finally picked up the high prices and the salary increases in the member states from last year. As a result, as of 1 July, we will profit from a general intermediate salary update of 3%, backdated to 1 January 2024. As this is a general update, it also triggers a recalculation of all correction coefficients. Details can be found in the recently published Eurostat report. Continue reading Intermediate salary update in June +3%
Online Conference – Local Agents Salary method – Time to adapt to the reality on the ground
The current salary-revision method for Local Agents, and the idea of “One system fits all”, is not working in many of the EU 140 Delegations all over the world. The idea behind any salary update in the world is to make sure that the organisation’s salaries are competitive, keep employees satisfied, and do what they can to attract and retain the best people. Continue reading Online Conference – Local Agents Salary method – Time to adapt to the reality on the ground
Working a second job? Watch out: you don’t need to pay social security contributions twice!
*Update 05.02.2025 Check out the instructions here on the single social security system.*
Original article: In two recent rulings, the European Court of Justice judged about the payments of social security contributions where you are in active employment for the EU institutions (or retired already) and work in a second job in a Member State. In one phrase: you do not need to pay social security contributions on the income of this second job. Continue reading Working a second job? Watch out: you don’t need to pay social security contributions twice!
Equivalent of 35 colleagues working for free
Each year thousands of colleagues end the year with many unused holidays. The regulations allow the transfer of holidays rights to the next year of up to 12 days. The rest is lost unless a clear justification is provided. ‘Use your holiday or lose it‘ is very much in evidence at the Commission. However, do you know how many holidays in total are lost each year?
Continue reading Equivalent of 35 colleagues working for free
Travel allowance – place of origin judgement by Court of Justice (COJ)
On April 18, 2024, four colleagues eventually received the mind-blowing news they had been waiting for a very long time. The European Court of Justice (ECJ), after almost a decade, published its judgment on several appeal cases: ECLI:EU:C:2024:336 (C‑567/22 P) 18 April 2024. This case has been ongoing for almost as long as Generation 2004 has been in existence. Continue reading Travel allowance – place of origin judgement by Court of Justice (COJ)
18% salary increase and other fever dreams
Let’s start with bursting the bubble immediately: No, we will not have an 18% intermediate salary adjustment in summer. Sorry, but you will have to stop looking for this new villa of yours…
Of course, we are aware of the (quickly removed and no longer accessible) Politico snippet about this alleged adjustment: our inbox pays testimony to it right now. This doesn’t change reality, though. Unfortunately, we now need to give you a bit of background about salary adjustments in the EU institutions. Please bear with us. Continue reading 18% salary increase and other fever dreams
Lunchtime conference: the implementation of the Picard decision in the Commission
The European Commission has recently published the Conclusion 287/24 on the Picard judgement about pension rights and how it wants to implement it. During a Generation 2004 lunch-time conference on 29 April we explained what this conclusion means for you and which category of staff must consider taking actions. Continue reading Lunchtime conference: the implementation of the Picard decision in the Commission
Oops … the Commission did it again! Illegal request on private phones
It’s not even a month since the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) ordered the Commission to suspend illegal personal data flows and we see another such order coming.
Last December, the Commission launched a ‘business continuity’ exercise asking most colleagues (if not all, it was never clear) to provide their private mobile phone numbers to create Signal private messenger groups where they could be contacted for work matters. Continue reading Oops … the Commission did it again! Illegal request on private phones
