While the pandemic spelled doom for many of the Commission’s canteens on different sites, the Ispra canteen recovered remarkably well from the effects of Covid, not least thanks to the efforts and dedication of its staff. This success is now under threat. And this time it is not a pandemic, but a combination of delayed decisions and dubious priorities in the use of funds with not a single cent being earmarked by JRC management for the canteen for quite a while. Generation 2004 has therefore been calling for the construction of a new canteen as a comprehensive and permanent solution to the problems with the current building.
The full tables and queues prove it every day: the Ispra canteen is a very popular place to spend your lunch break. Of course, it’s not just a place to eat, it’s also a place to socialise, meet colleagues and even hatch the occasional new project. The Ispra canteen is therefore undoubtedly an important part of the site’s attractiveness. How many colleagues would continue to come to the centre every day without the canteen?
Behind the food counters, the picture is much less rosy. Ongoing safety issues, inadequate staff facilities and sub-optimal workflows, to name but a few, threaten the very existence of the canteen. And not just in a few years’ time, but here and now.
These issues have been known since 2006. But even though all possible remedial measures have already been taken, the canteen still fails to meet important health and safety standards. So, there is a risk of sudden closure.
One might expect that senior management would have heeded the alarm about this danger and adjusted the JRC’s investment priorities accordingly. But far from it: although a project proposal for a new state-of-the-art building had been drawn up, the money for it was never made available. Nor did the JRC’s investment plan foresee funds for a less-costly, but also less-sustainable, renovation of the existing canteen. It was only after vigorous protests by the staff representation, to which Generation 2004 actively contributed through its members in the Local Staff Committee and in the Mensa and Health and Safety Committees, that funds for a renovation are now being discussed.
Admittedly, renovation alone does not solve all the problems with the building, and still results in a less functional facility despite the substantial investment required. But to do nothing is to accept the closure of the canteen with our eyes wide open.
Generation 2004 will continue advocating for the construction of a new canteen as an optimal long-term solution in all the committees in which its members sit. If anything, the JRC’s commitment to providing such an important service to its staff could prove that there is something to the claim that it is a people-centred organisation.
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