Since Monday, you can see in Sysper whether you have been proposed for promotion this year or not.
We congratulate the colleagues proposed for promotion!
The promotion meetings between the Directors General and the staff representatives took place between 14 May – 8 June. In more than 40 meetings we took care of the interests of the post-2004 staff. From our experience and feedbacks we reached some conclusions:
- Most Directors General were well prepared in these meetings: it seemed that they knew their staff and they tried to make balanced and fair decisions on promotion.
- We have seen in many cases that the very different profiles and responsibilities in AST but also in AD grades are often extremely difficult to compare. (Did you know that the Commission employs nuclear inspectors checking the safety measures in power plants all over Europe who are being paid AST’s salaries?)
- Most Directors General are very keen on taking into account merits but -equally important – also the seniority of the colleagues.
- However, a limited number of colleagues, in particular in the AD category, have been promoted every other year, in certain cases with very poor reports, even after they have reached grades in the double digits where the average seniority is 4 or more years.
- Once again, quota distribution proved to be flawed, no matter how often and with how many relevant arguments the Central Staff Committee and its representatives in Promotion committees have pointed at. In several cases, this made (quick) promotion more linked to demographics than to merit. As a result, several highly meriting colleagues with flawless reports could not be promoted, and will therefore have to file an appeal to see their merits recognised.
- Once again, the way quotas were distributed among DGs allowed for promotions in less than 2 years in the grade on 1 January 2018, a practice only in force at the Commission out of all Institutions. In this case, promoted officials receive their salary increase starting with the month they reach their two years, thereby robbing the promotion of other deserving staff longer in the grade.
Seniority versus merits – it is in many cases a big dilemma and it is hardly possible to take in all cases an objective decision. A usual argument we have heard many times was “we have not enough quotas” to promote all colleagues who would have merited a promotion. Generation 2004 thinks that all staff having reached the average seniority in the grade of Annex IB of staff regulations should be promoted, unless there are well-grounded reasons not to do so. All remaining promotion quotas should be awarded to really meriting staff, taking into account also other, pre-defined and equal for all criteria.
Generation 2004 thinks that all staff having reached the average seniority in the grade of Annex IB of Staff regulations should be promoted, unless there are well-grounded reasons not to do so. All remaining promotion quotas should be awarded to really meriting staff, taking into account also other, pre-defined and equal for all criteria. That is what our representatives in the Promotion Committees have been fighting for.
Nevertheless, if you feel treated unjustly because you worked hard in the past years but you have not been proposed for promotion, think about filing an appeal.
-> After 18 June, you have 5 working days to lodge an appeal. All appeals will be thoroughly examined by the Joint Promotion Committee in September/October.
Generation 2004 offers personal advice to our members.
Our template is available here [1]! Feel free to contact us [2].
toolTips('.classtoolTips19','Staff Regulations of Officials and the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Union (\'Staff Regulations [3] (SR)\') are rules stating:
• fundamental conditions of service
• basic rights, duties and obligations of staff.
The SR have been reformed x 2 (so far):
• 2004 (Kinnock White paper)
• 2014 (Regulation 1023/2013 [4])
For a summary of stated intentions and real outcomes of those two reforms check out: European Court of Auditors, 2019, Special report no 15/2019 [5]: Implementation of the 2014 staff reform package at the Commission – Big savings but not without consequences for staff
'); toolTips('.classtoolTips47','Trade union or staff association (OSP) [Organisation syndicale et professionnelle]');