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
You are a Contract Agent? Share your experience with us!
“In a Union of equals, there can be no second class workers. Workers should earn the same pay for the same work in the same place.” J.C. Juncker, State of the Union address, 13 September 2017.
Contract Agents account for more than a quarter of the European Institution’s population and are increasingly the victims of budgetary restrictions. Limited access to decent employment opportunities in the Institutions, insufficient job security and unfair working conditions are now well documented.
However, what is less documented is that there is a growing gap between the duties performed by CAs and their functional group. Continue reading You are a Contract Agent? Share your experience with us!
Wind in our sails, but in what condition is our ship?
A wind of optimism is blowing in the EU institutions. Some are beginning to argue that the added-value of the EU has become clearer following the events of the past 18 months. Indeed, recent electoral rounds in France and in the Netherlands have been less negative than expected with respect to the future of the EU. The outcome of the elections in Germany is perceived by some observers as less encouraging. However, it is clear that the eurosceptics will not prevail there any time soon. Unfortunately, the main issues that affect the staff are still very unclear and may be affected by a number of events.
Obviously colleagues who happen to be British citizen are worried by the lack of clarity on their future. The only consolation at the moment is that the Belgian authorities are beginning to realise that EU officials of UK citizenship need assistance. The Brussels Commissioner (not one of our Commissioners but an official appointed by the Brussels region to provide administrative assistance to the expat community in Brussels) organised an info session last June and provides some advice on its website. It is useful to go through this advice if you are a UK citizen working in Brussels. Continue reading Wind in our sails, but in what condition is our ship?
A new scheme to bypass the open competitions?
DG HR is cooking up a new scheme to allow some privileged few to get into the EU public service without passing an open competition. Their bright idea is that 15 Blue Book trainees (BBT), after their 5 months period, would have the chance to join a programme called Young Professionals Programme (YPP) [1]. The timeline would be approximately as follows:
- The BBTs get a 1-year contract as a contract agent (CA) in function group (GF)IV in the same directorate general (DG) where they did their placement (in French ‘stage’). Evaluation 1.
- Then, 1-year CA GFIV in a second DG. Evaluation 2.
- Then, 1-year as a temporary agent (TA) AD5 either in the same second DG or seconded to an international organisation or a Member State (MS). Evaluation 3.
- Final stage: internal competition to become official at the lowest grade: AD5.
There are two rounds of selection of BBTs per year, thus the new scheme could allow 30 BBTs per year to join the YPP). These 30 winners would have been selected out of an average of 16,000 applicants per selection round, i.e. more than 30,000 applicants/year. Interestingly, no prior work experience would be required to enter the scheme. CA3bs will appreciate…
We have several questions about this scheme:
Indeed, the staff regulations lay down two main competition paths, internal and open. It is not clear at this stage which of the two legal bases would be applied by DG HR. What we can say is that:
- Open has to be: OPEN!
- In theory internal competitions are allowed only on an exceptional basis. Hard to reconcile this point with the fact that BBTs are recruited twice every year and thus with the fact that the YPP scheme would have to be run on a permanent basis.
- Interestingly, if the process is organised via an internal competition, the selected BBTs could become permanent officials with no more than 24-30 months of experience, as compared to the 42 months experience that CA/TA/FONC had to have last year to be allowed to participate in the internal competition. Of course, if you are already a CA or an AST, you won’t be allowed to become BBT to enter the scheme!
- So far, there is no information whatsoever about evaluation criteria, about which budget would pay for this, what the legal basis would be, whether the successful internal competition candidates would have to apply to a post like everybody else (or would also enjoy a priority lane over open competition laureates).
Because of the present lack of clarity, it is hard to make up our mind at this stage. However, what we can immediately see is the link between this proposal and the plea of CA3bs (see petition above). If DG HR can cook up something for the BBTs, maybe it can also do so for the CA3bs who are reaching the 6-year cliff edge with their contract?
[1] Now the Junior Professionals Programme (JPP), which had 9 ‘pilot’ tests before being made permanent in 2023. Check out our articles on this project.
