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
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)
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
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
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
*Update 06.06.2024: our efforts have paid off.*
The recently published 2023 staff survey results paint a bleak picture of the state of affairs within DG Taxation and Customs Union (TAXUD), particularly concerning the prevention of psychological harassment (‘bullying’ or ‘mobbing’) and sexual harassment. Continue reading TAXUD’s Alarming Decline in Staff Well-being: A Call for Immediate Action
*Update 15.10.2024, while we did receive a response from HR it did not provide the requested figures, we are following up on this. In the meantime, please continue to complain to your proximity team (Brussels/Luxembourg) if you suspect that your work area is below the minimum[*]: leave a paper trail!*
Original article: Winter is over and we have not yet received a reply to our note to HR and OIB/OIL asking for the year of data on office temperatures. Continue reading Operation Hiver – Winter is over
*Update 27.02.2025: the question of whether managers can/should use Teams/Skype or other status as an indication of your presence/availability has been raised repeatedly, particularly given that you might have a different status on each platform. Check out question 14 of the flexible working FAQs for written confirmation that this is not their intended use and that status is not a reliable indicator of presence or non-presence.* Continue reading From culture of trust to control freak
*UPDATE 24.01.2024: Instead of correcting the transfers, the Commission has appealed the EDPS decision at court. The European Commission’s use of Microsoft 365 infringes data protection law for EU institutions and bodies. This is the statement by the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), the independent supervisory authority for the protection of personal data and privacy for EU institutions, as published in its press release EDPS/2024/05 of 11 March 2024. Continue reading The European Commission infringes data protection
The implementation of the Decision on Working Time and Hybrid Working (WTHW) was evaluated by DG HR at the end of 2023 and, while targeted actions are now expected, there will be no big revision, the promised flexibility is still one-sided. Generation 2004 was pleased to notice that the evaluation is overall very positive and that many managers also appreciated the enhanced flexibility of WTHW and made use themselves of the possibilities to better reconcile their private and professional lives. Continue reading High time for more flexible teleworking, also from abroad!
