Several rounds of bilateral discussions have been held over the last few months between the Directors of the six Executive agencies (EAs) and the trade unions and staff associations (TUs&SAs) as well as between the latter and the EAs Staff Committees (SCs) with the objective of paving the way for the introduction of the long-awaited social dialogue in the EAs. Recently, on 19th June, representatives of all three groups of stakeholders (EAs Directors, EAs SCs and TUs&SAs) sat around the same table for the first time, although EAs SCs were invited only as observers and at the very last minute.
While other TUs&SAs seem to be rushing towards finalising and implementing a Memorandum of Understanding, Generation 2004 considers that such a document will not provide sufficient legal certainty and urges all concerned parties to instead implement a proper legal Framework Agreement.
Furthermore, the preparation and subsequent negotiations around a Framework Agreement should consistently involve the EAs Staff Committees. After all, it is the EAs Staff Committees who, unlike the Tus, have been elected democratically by the EAs staff and should have a word in the matter.
Generation 2004 considers that an important aspect to include in the future Framework Agreement is that EAs SCs must have adequate and sufficient resources to carry out their tasks in defending the interests of their (our) colleagues. Starvation from such resources will continue to exacerbate the frustrations and demotivation already present in the agencies staff.
Generation 2004 also considers that the role of the TUs is to provide support to the EAs staff by conducting Social Dialogues in close cooperation with their democratically elected SCs.
toolTips('.classtoolTips24','Formal negotiations and meetings between the representative trade unions and staff associations (OSPs [1]) [Organisations syndicales et professionnelles] and HR.'); toolTips('.classtoolTips27','Formal negotiations and meetings between the representative trade unions and staff associations OSPs (Organisations syndicales et professionnelles) and HR.'); toolTips('.classtoolTips38','Agencies (in general) can be either:- the >40 decentralised organisations [2] with seats throughout the EU which are created by a specific legislative act and charged with a particular task\' e.g. Europol, the EMCDDA , the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) and Frontex.
- the 6 Brussels-based Executive Agencies [3] which are \'legal entities established ... with a view to being entrusted with certain tasks relating to the management of one or more European Union programmes. These agencies are set up for a fixed period.\' They are CINEA, EACEA, HADEA, Eismea, ERCEA and REA.