Welcome to the second Generation 2004 Newsletter of 2022 and to the end of the third week back at work for most of us. We invite you to participate in our only-just-published survey on your utility bills [1] and to read our corresponding article on the additional costs of working from home [2], this time in the context of the rising energy prices. We have an event planned for next week (27.01.2022), where you can discuss all and everything related to this topic, bring your bills! Tell us how the costs are affecting you!
To those of you writing your self-assessment, we are still here to help [3]! And to those of you preparing for the dialogue part of the process, here are some tips. [4]
We have a further event organised on the ongoing move to an open-plan, hot-desking set-up [5] (03.02.2022): while this may not seem to be particularly relevant while the vast majority of us continue to work from home, this process continues unchanged and this may well be the set-up that many of us will go back to.
We remind you that you have until 31.01.2022 to request the transfer of annual leave remaining from 2021 [6]: please don’t lose days if you can avoid it!
A big thank you to those of you who got in touch about the article on the increase in step [7] to give us a concrete example of how Contract Agents might see no additional salary even after several steps (we added the example to the article).
So, that’s it for this second edition, thanks to all of you for your support, ideas and feedback: please keep it coming!
Take care, stay healthy and enjoy reading!
toolTips('.classtoolTips23','Contract Agents (CAs) were created by the 2004 staff regulations Reform. There are two types of CA: those with unlimited contracts, 3A [8] (‘indefinite’) and those with time-limited contracts [9], 3B [10]. CAs can belong to 4 different function groups (\'GF\') with different responsibilities and salaries [11].
As the use of contract staff becomes increasingly common, there has been a corresponding increase in the diversity of status and pay of the Commission’s workforce. For example, GFIV contract staff meeting the same minimum recruitment requirements (education and experience) as junior administrators may earn 28 % less. (European Court of Auditors, 2019, Special report no 15/2019 [12]: Implementation of the 2014 staff reform package at the Commission – Big savings but not without consequences for staff, point 61, page 34)
We have a working group dedicated to the dossier, and in December 2012 we addressed the first of many letters (\'notes\') about Contract Agents to Human Resources of all Institutions and agencies [13] (here is the cover e-mail [14]).
As a background you can see the report of the Commission to the Council regarding the recruitment of the contract agents in 2010 [15] (in French, COM(2011)802 final 23.11.2011).
');