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
It is becoming a norm that the Belgian authorities do not provide timely official information in writing about European Schools. Nevertheless, the Secretary General of the European Schools has confirmed it orally: the 5th school[*] in Neder-Over-Heembeek won’t be available in 2028 as originally planned, but in late 2030. Continue reading Brussels European Schools – problems and solutions
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)
Welcome to the latest of your positive PMO stories. We highlight again how much it comes down to the goodwill of our PMO colleagues and on their willingness to intervene manually to fill the gaps between different systems and processes. In this edition a PMO colleague ensured a colleague claimed the disability-related reimbursements they were entitled to. To that PMO colleague, thanks so much for doing this: it made an enormous difference! Continue reading Another positive PMO story
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
We are organising further training with our partners Yasemos Europeos to help you on competition processes, but in the meantime here is what is on offer under “career related training” in EU LEARN, for candidates who are through to the ‘ORAL TEST’ stage of an EU competition having already passed any required Written Test and/or Presentation.
If you appreciate our work, please consider becoming a member of Generation 2004.
It is clear that the current salary method, and the idea of “One system fits all” in some 140 Delegations all over the world is not working. Here are some insights and suggestions.
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. This is also the case for the European External Action Service (EEAS). Continue reading Locals Agents Salary Method – Time to adapt to the reality on the ground!
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
Apologies for the time taken in publishing your positive PMO stories. Here we share the first of the many stories received: one highlighting where the complex landscape of the PMO could easily work against the well-being of anyone who has to interact with it, particularly in situations which are already stressful. Here we take the time to appreciate how much the good functioning of those systems can depend Continue reading A positive PMO story
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
