OIB and DG HR released earlier this month the results of their latest staff survey on mobility. Some interesting results, albeit somewhat disappointing: the number of cyclists and people walking to work has increased but this seems to be at the expense of the number of people using public transport rather than at the expense of private cars.
This suggests that the institutions could do more to encourage people to give up their private cars. The current incentive is limited to a 50% subsidy on season STIB and SNCB passes, basically a few ten euros per month. Cyclists also get access to free parking and showers (in most buildings) but no lockers (with a few exceptions) to store spare clothes and a towel. Pedestrians get nothing, despite having to pay presumably higher rents/mortgages in order to live close to their office. Continue reading Sustainable mobility in Brussels
Family Budget Survey starts this week in Brussels
The following calculation is used to compute the above-mentioned JBLI:
- Sub-indices of the official inflations rates (Belgian Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices and Luxembourgish Consumer Price Index) are aggregated together using a weighting of approximately 80:20 according to how many staff members are based in Belgium and in Luxembourg.
- The sub-indices are then aggregated together using expenditure structures (share of the total expenditure that can be attributed to each sub-index) for staff families working in Brussels.
Continue reading Family Budget Survey starts this week in Brussels
Annual Salary Adjustment 2017
Eurostat has recently published the Report on the 2017 annual update of remuneration and pensions of EU officials. This year’s pay rise will amount to 1.5% according to the so-called “method” for salary adjustments, calculated for 1 July 2017 retroactively. This increase consists in 1.1% compensation for inflation in Belgium and Luxembourg (Joint Belgium-Luxembourg Index – JBLI) and 0.4% aggregated increase in real net remuneration of civil servants in a basket of 11 Member States. Interestingly, one of these Member States is the UK, who contributed with -0.2 %. Continue reading Annual Salary Adjustment 2017
Report on the social dialogue at the Commission
Commissioner Oettinger met the staff representation on 20 October. Apart from a surprisingly long intervention of the Commissioner on the departure of Mr. Kessler from OLAF, the meeting was essentially business as usual. Generation 2004 maintained its request that the draft decision of the Commission on the so-called external activities be amended so that CA3bs quickly receive the green light allowing them to take up a new job outside of the institutions after the end of their contract (currently, CA3bs are supposed to ask for permission 1 month before accepting a new job; Continue reading Report on the social dialogue at the Commission
Brexit and Staff Cuts
The prospects for the EU and the UK reaching an agreement on the financial settlement of Brexit do not look good at the moment. Among many other issues, the issue of the UK contribution to the payment of our pensions is a topic of debate (See copy of Times article– obviously, the article makes no distinction between the extremely generous pensions of staff recruited before the 2004 reform of the staff regulations and the rest of the staff). Continue reading Brexit and Staff Cuts
Britain faces soaring cost of Brussels pensions | News | The Times
The devil is in the detail or how public is made to believe that post-2004 recruits are responsible for increased cost of EU pensions
Brexit negotiations have become a favourite topic for the press all around the EU nowadays, and the issue on UK contribution to the payment of EU pensions occupies a central place in the debate. Within the myriad of publications, our attention was caught by an article in The Times (Political position: centre to centre-right) entitled Continue reading Britain faces soaring cost of Brussels pensions | News | The Times
Une secte s’infiltre dans des formations de la Commission européenne | News | Luxemburger Wort
Beware of seminars offered by some trade unions that are not closely job-related!
According to a recent article in Luxembourg press, a sect is trying to use seminars to infiltrate the Commission.
Read the article to find out more here!
Have you been accused of unjustified absences in the recent past?
We are hearing complaints that the medical service puts colleagues in unjustified absence even though they had a medical certificate from a medical doctor outside of the Commission. If you are aware of such situations around you, we invite you to contact us.
Who represents the staff and for how long: Staff representatives secondments and the 6-year rule
Existing rules provide for the Commission to ensure sufficient resources for staff representation activities. This includes a number of reserved posts outside of the DGs dedicated for full-time staff representation activities – the so-called detachments or secondments. At present, there is a well justified limit to a maximum of 6 years to occupy such a post after which one must return to a regular job in a DG (There is no limit to how many times you may be elected as Staff representative though!). There are in total 41 Full Time Equivalents available for staff representation secondments, distributed to each staff organisation proportionally to the percentage of votes received in staff elections (only the organisations that pass the 5% threshold benefit from these secondments, which explains why organisations tend to merge just before the elections). Continue reading Who represents the staff and for how long: Staff representatives secondments and the 6-year rule
Air quality in Brussels
Many of us are concerned with the air quality of the cities where we live and work. The Brussels region is slowly waking up on this issue. They recently released data on black carbon pollution levels in Brussels. These measurements are the results of a citizen science program called ExpAir in which some of our colleagues took part. Each participant was given a little box to measure black carbon both outdoor and indoor. Black carbon is a subset of the micro-particles that are subject to the EU legislation on air quality (it makes about 10% of the total mass of PM10 micro-particles, but it is potentially the most harmful part of these particles as it is a direct product of combustion and moreover it can aggregate all sorts of volatile organic compounds that are harmful to our health, including a number of carcinogenic substances). Continue reading Air quality in Brussels
