Change of Job Type to AST/SC - note to HR Director
Also thanks to our intervention, all concerned colleagues received a message which eased some of the worries that we had expressed.
We are grateful to DG JRC for being one of the few Directorates General - if not the only one so far - which gave some information about this recent conversion.
In addition to what HR explained, we also received reassurance that it is not needed to change job in order to be able to follow the previous AST career.
In practice, the type of post of job is different from the type of post of person, without affecting career of the occupying official.
In the end, it appears as the problem originates more by the confused way in which the change is presented in Sysper2, being more a formal rather than a substantial issue.
Our R&D staff representatives will bring this issue to the discussion at the next CSC (Central Staff Committee) plenary meeting in Brussels next week.
Some more questions remain concerning the technical and scientific positions now advertised as AST/SC. We sent a note expressing our worries to our Director of Human Resources, and of course we'll keep you informed of any follow-up on this issue.
More on reclassification AST/SC
We have been informed that all people concerned will receive in the next days a targeted communication which we hope will clarify our (and your!) doubts.
Change from AST to AST/SC career structure
If your job was previously classified as AST, it is possible that it has been converted to the new Function Group AST/SC. There is no indication of the criteria used for converting a post from AST to AST/SC; many posts – also scientific positions! – that do not fit within the “secretary/clerk” definition have been converted to the new Function Group.
While the 2014 reform foresees that this new AST/SC function group is applicable only for the new Secretaries/Clerks that will be recruited in the future, we have noticed that the Administration already converted many existing jobs from AST to AST/SC the very first days of January! AST/SC and AST salary grids are different. AST/SC has only 6 grades, from AST/SC1 to AST/SC6. There is also a shift of one grade, downwards of course! It means that the remuneration of an AST/SC6 corresponds to the AST 5 one.
This conversion applies only to the job type and not to the person. According to our information, the current AST job holder can continue his/her career within his/her new AST/SC post as before 1 January 2014, but once vacant, the AST/SC post can only be filled with a new AST/SC staff.
The number of “classic AST” positions will decrease as a consequence of these conversions to AST/SC. This conversion will increase even more the difficulty for mobility to full AST positions as well as the recruitment of qualified staff.
This is what R&D thinks of this issue:
1. As this magic trick did not follow the necessary social dialogue procedure with the Trade Unions, we urge the Administration to meet as soon as possible with them and to carry out modifications as applicable;
2. We wonder how the Administration can fill a vacant AST/SC position (retirements, change of post…) when no AST/SC open competitions have been launched yet.
3. The reform and the new Staff Regulations apply to all the EU institutions. How can the Commission explain that the Administration of the Council, for example, opted instead for a smooth and progressive change, properly targeted and negotiated with the Unions?
4. We regret the lack of clear communication, notifying the concerned staff of important changes in their Sysper2 profile.
R&D already got in touch with the HR Department and we are still waiting for more information. We are asking that any AST/SC colleague can have the guarantee that the introduction of the AST/SC Function group will have absolutely no impact on the current job holders in terms of salary, career evolution, promotion, etc…
In case you wish to stay informed and help us in managing this issue, please contact us and let us know your situation so that we can have a full picture of the different cases within the JRC and better defend your interests!
Volvo - offer from 01.01.2014 (CLP)
Click here for details
Contacts:
Anthony Beasley
Tel. +39 06 33235404
Fax +39 06 33235405
Mobile +39 347 2702567
Where: Via Salaria, 1282 - 00138 Roma
This agreement is managed by the CLP and it is available to all staff.
Generali - offer up to 31.12.2014 (CLP)
Click here for details.
Contacts:
Dott.ssa Brenda Navarro 347 6613186
Dott. Giovanni Cremona 392 0741436
Where: Room 105 - Comitato Culturale
When:Wednesdays from 13.00 to 14.30
This agreement is managed by the CLP and it is available to all staff.
Pension contribution rates: some good news
PMO announced yesterday some good news concerning our pension rate contribution.
“On 10 December, the Council adopted a decision on the amendment to the 2012 pension contribution rate. According to this decision, the rate will be amended from 11.6% to 10.6% of the basic salary, with retroactive effect from the 1st July 2012.
In January, you will receive via Sysper 2 a specific pay slip (pay slip 13/2013) which will show the calculation of the retroactivity.
For the year 2013, following the decision adopted by the Council on December 17, the pension contribution rate to the pension will be amended from 10.6% to 10.3% of the basic salary with retroactive effect from the 1st July 2013.
As a result, the calculation of this retroactivity as well as its payment will be included in the February 2014 pay slip.
These new parameters will be introduced in January 2014 (for the 2012 amendment) and February 2014 (for the 2013 amendment) in your monthly pay slip and your contribution will be adapted accordingly.”
Position about COPAS topics
Following the outcome of the COPAS meeting of
25/11/2013, the COPAS Vice-President (VP) has asked Mr Chirondojan to
immediately organize an extraordinary COPAS meeting.
By doing so, the VP expresses concern
on how the latest COPAS meeting was conducted, and astonishment for the alleged
superficiality of the discussion. She also complains about Mr Chirondojan’s
decision to avoid explicit voting procedures for each relevant issue discussed
(crèche fees, canteen prices, grants, WiFi @ lodgings, etc.), and declares it as
being very inappropriate.
Finally, while
asking Mr Chirondojan to call an extraordinary COPAS meeting, she also explicitly
requests the adoption of a voting procedure.We recall the COPAS VP that voting procedures are not the normal way decisions are taken in COPAS, as clearly emerging from the COPAS rules: “En règle générale, le COPAS œuvre en vue d'un avis consensuel. En cas de points de vue divergents persistants le COPAS se prononce à la majorité des voix. Le Président et le Vice-président ne participent pas au vote.”
Therefore, when the President concludes the discussion on each funding decision and asks if everyone is in agreement, in the absence of any objections he must conclude that a consensual agreement has been reached.
According to our information, no staff representative asked for a vote during the COPAS meeting, and all decisions were consequently adopted by the usual consensual agreement.
Since it was well known that important issues like the crèche and the canteen price increase were to be discussed, we wonder if the COPAS VP and the other COPAS staff representatives couldn’t have arrived better prepared to the meeting.
If a staff representative takes a position during an official meeting chaired by a Director and a diametrically opposed position the day after, their credibility is severely undermined in front of the management. And when such staff representative is the President of the CLP, the credibility of the CLP as a whole is at stake.
The above considerations would already be sufficient in themselves to make the request for an extraordinary COPAS meeting - aimed to discuss the same topics again – quite inappropriate. But there is even more.
The COPAS VP doesn’t seem to be aware that all decisions taken during a COPAS meeting are immediately effective (c.f. the COPAS rules: “Les décisions et les avis rendus par le COPAS sont immédiatement exécutoires...”).
It seems also evident that the request for a new meeting with a voting procedure is not put forward to confirm the position taken during the previous COPAS meeting – as this wouldn't make any sense. It means that the COPAS VP, after having approved all these proposals, wishes to:
-
put the mensa and our OIB colleagues who
work there at risk of being externalized;
-
put at risk the 30.000€ grant already allocated to the Cultural
Committee which is highly important for its work;
-
put at risk the implementation of an
essential social facility that makes the Ispra site more attractive to newcomers.
Luckily, the decision of the COPAS President to
hold an extraordinary COPAS meeting during the second half of January 2014
confirms that this new meeting will have no effect on budgetary decisions
already taken.
Canteen pricesWe wish to point out that the price increase for the mensa is backed both by political and economic reasons. Firstly, prices are blocked since 2010, causing an unbalance. Secondly, the externalization of the Ispra canteen is always presented as a possible option to make savings, both from a budget and from a staff point of view. Thirdly, the price increase should serve to finance the internalization of the Clubhouse and to rebalance other social services impairment. According to us, the CLP priority should be to keep our canteen internally managed, thus continuing to guarantee its current high quality, at a still affordable price. We believe that staff interests are protected not only by looking at one single component (the price), but by looking at the overall picture covering all social services and keeping in mind the particularly difficult economic and political context.
Cultural Committee
The Cultural Committee is an association registered under Italian national law; it acts independently and autonomously from COPAS and the CLP. Issues dealt by the Cultural Committee cannot be directly transferred to COPAS or CLP authority and responsibility.
COPAS is responsible for auditing grant use – making it, de facto, a super partes entity with no direct commitment or role in clubs and associations management.
The Cultural Committee is entitled, as any other club, to receive grants by COPAS. These grants are subject to a series of conditions laid down in the rules for clubs ("Règlement pour la reconnaissance et le fonctionnement des Clubs et autres associations du personnel").
These rules are the same for all clubs and associations – including the Cultural Committee. All clubs and associations must undergo the same rigorous verification process before being granted credits from COPAS.
The verification process is an indispensable requirement to safeguard credibility and transparency of the process and is not especially arduous.
Therefore, we believe that any attempt to set the Cultural Committee apart from the rules applied by COPAS to all other clubs and associations would be inadmissible for the Administration, and would be detrimental to the image of the Cultural Committee itself.
Concerning this year’s Cultural Committee grant, we are surprised by the superficiality of the Cultural Committee President who, on 11.11.2013, sent a note to COPAS containing several factual errors:
1. he refers to a grant request of 38.000€ for 2013, although it was for
35.000€
2. he states that COPAS didn’t provide any grant along the year, while
14.750€ were transferred by COPAS on 26.02.2013
3.
he states that the 29.500€ grant for 2012
entails a reduction over 2011, while in reality it is 10.000€ higher
Even more surprisingly, the COPAS VP not only
asks for a revision of the allocated grant before realizing she was misled, but
insists on such a revision even after these mistakes have been brought to its
attention!We recall that the analysis of the Cultural Committee request was carried out, as common practice within COPAS, by a representative of the Administration together with a staff representative, who agreed on the adequacy of the proposed 30.000€ grant. Questioning the amount of the grant is disrespectful of the work done by these two colleagues.
WiFi @
Lodgings
At the COPAS meeting on 25/11/2013, 70.000€
were allocated to the socially essential installation of Wi-Fi in the lodgings.
The LSC Executive Bureau decided to intervene
on this decision, via the COPAS VP, by means of a note addressed to Mr
Chirondojan (President of COPAS). In this note, the porte-parole of the LSC
Executive Bureau states that “the Bureau is very concerned on [sic] the
decision you [President of COPAS] are going to take”, and she asks the
President of COPAS “to suspend any relevant financial decision until an
exhaustive explanation will be provided”. The COPAS VP incorrectly indicates the
President as the sole responsible for decisions that have already been taken -
and NOT that are “going to be taken” - by all COPAS members. Moreover, according to COPAS rules, no ex-post external interference can
change its decisions. All procedural questions aside, we believe the
decision to invest in the socially important Wi-Fi in the lodgings represents
an extremely valuable, and too long-awaited, social service for newcomers, and
we are concerned at any attempt to delay its earliest possible implementation. We also remind that any unspent budget still available
at the end of year - also because of a lack of strategy chargeable to the COPAS
VP - is lost if not committed, possibly leading to a cut to the following
year’s social budget. Using this leftover budget for socially sustainable
initiatives should be supported, and not obstructed. Since Wi-Fi for newcomers has been one of the
most requested facilities for many years, we do not understand why the CLP
wishes to question it as not being a priority in the interest of staff.
In conclusion, we
invite the CLP to respect equal treatment for all clubs and associations, and
to demand them the highest standard of sound management to help maximizing
grant recognition for social activities and services by COPAS.We also ask the CLP to support Wi-Fi @ the lodgings by rectifying its unfortunate request to the COPAS President to put it on hold.
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