Generation 2004 is hiring a Secretary at the European Commission in Brussels

Vacancy

For our daily work ‘For the many, not the few’ Generation 2004 employs a team of committed and hardworking colleagues.

If you are a Contract Agent FG II (in the Commission trade unions and staff associations are limited to employ CAs FG II for this type of post) you can join that team, as Generation 2004 is hiring for its headquarters in Brussels a full-time secretary. If you are not eligible but you know someone that is and that you believe could be interested in the job, please feel free to forward the message on. Continue reading Generation 2004 is hiring a Secretary at the European Commission in Brussels →

Playing Three-card Trick with voters? And the winner is … the Alliance?

Elections, Electoral reform, Local Staff Committee, Luxembourg

In theory, you have the choice between 3 different lists in the elections for the Local Staff Committee Luxembourg. In practice, however, the true choice will be between 2 alternatives: Generation 2004 (list 1) and the ‘old’ trade unions (list 2 and list 3) who 15 years after the 2004 reform still continue to claim extraordinary privileges for the few chosen.

Chart 1

At a closer look, the picture is even worse. Both lists are dominated by the Alliance (‘Confederal Alliance of Free Trade Unions’) [*] of “independent trade unions”, which mean small, at the Commission level often non-representative organisations. (NB: A trade union or staff association is considered representative if it represents at least 6% of staff at Commission level.) Since only representative organisations have access to resources for their operation, non- Continue reading Playing Three-card Trick with voters? And the winner is … the Alliance? →

Option to work 95% for family reasons

Part-time

Did you know that there is a “95% rule” in the staff regulations (Art. 55a(2)(d)) according to which you are entitled to work 95% with a full salary when faced with cases of serious hardship, to care for a dependent child until the age of 14?

It sounds good. However, in practice, this rule is hardly ever applied. Why? Because there is a cumbersome procedure to prove a “triggering event”, an “unforeseeable change in the applicant’s family-related circumstances” which justifies staff member’s eligibility for this working time reduction. Continue reading Option to work 95% for family reasons →

Repayment of exceptional costs

Education, European Schools

Under certain criteria it is possible to be reimbursed for the costs of primary and secondary education of your children. This may be the case when they are not able to:

  • be in European School because of imperative educational reasons, or
  • attend a European School because of parents’ place of employment.

This year thanks to Generation 2004 efforts via the Local Staff Committee of Brussels the deadline for applications has been adopted in favour of parents and it is now the 15th of October 2019.

In the current season, reimbursements refer to the school year of 2018-2019. Please read more about it here. Take particular care for the eligibility when ask for the reimbursement.

We said it all along; now it is official: EU officials unhappy

Newsletter #37 - Sep 2019, Pensions, Promotions, Staff Regulations Reform

For several years, Generation2004 has been pointing out that something is not working well with how EU institutions are treating their own staff.  Along the way, we have consistently proposed constructive solution to reverse the path towards unhappiness of staff. However, it looks like the “establishment”, with support of some staff organisations doesn’t see the same and proceeds with its own agenda serving personal interests and personal egos.  We believe however, that staff should be treated differently and, most importantly, it should be listened to. Needless to say, but most of our claims have been disregarded throughout time. Continue reading We said it all along; now it is official: EU officials unhappy →

Cost of living/Correction coefficient in Luxembourg

Cost of living Luxembourg, Newsletter #37 - Sep 2019

Our colleagues in Luxembourg are currently witnesses to a big discussion around the correction coefficients (CC) for our salaries and the potential introduction of an independent CC for Luxembourg. Currently, all existing CCs are benchmarked against the combination of the Belgium and Luxembourg costs of living. We would like to join that discussion and take the opportunity to explain the simplified[1] mechanisms behind the correction coefficients.

Changes to our salaries come mostly from two factors:

  1. The yearly salary update
  2. A correction coefficient (if you work outside Luxembourg and Brussels)[*]

Continue reading Cost of living/Correction coefficient in Luxembourg →

Generation 2004 stands by staff on standby

'voluntold', Newsletter #37 - Sep 2019, Standby duty

Are you sometimes asked to be available to work at short notice at night, at the weekend or during a holiday? If so, are you getting the right pay?  Standby duty is a service when you guarantee to be available to work at short notice outside of the normal Commission working hours: Monday to Friday from 07.00 until 20.00.

Note that standby duty is being available to work.  Actual work outside of normal working hours is called ‘out of hours work’ and is treated differently. Continue reading Generation 2004 stands by staff on standby →

Certification procedure 2019

Certification, Newsletter #37 - Sep 2019

The 2019 Certification procedure call for applications is now open until 9 October 2019. The Certification, a procedure based on Article 45a of staff regulations, allows AST colleagues to get on the AD ship. There are of course some preconditions and procedures in order to be eligible for the certification. The most important is that you are already AST 5 or above and that in 2 of the previous 3 appraisal exercises you were marked as having “the potential required to take on the functions of an AD” by your reporting officer.

Deadline for the application is the 9th of October 2019. Applications must be done in Sysper. Continue reading Certification procedure 2019 →

BU-xit? NO!

Newsletter #37 - Sep 2019

STAFF IN BEAULIEU IS HAPPY THAT THE RENTAL CONTRACT OF BEAULIEU BUILDINGS IS TO BE EXTENDED

In October 2018, OIB announced the closure and relocation of the Beaulieu site buildings: BU-XIT. The original intended plan was to:

  1. Close the nursery as of 2020;
  2. Empty the BU1/5/9/24 buildings probably by the end of 2020;
  3. Empty the BU29/31/33 buildings around 2024. No further information was released after the OIB’s communication and no detailed plan was rolled out before the background survey of this report was published on 12 June 2019.

Continue reading BU-xit? NO! →