Bus European School Varese - Ispra Garderie
Are Ispra staff "children of a lesser God"?
Read on and judge for yourself!
NOTE TO THE ATTENTION OF MR D.C. CHIRONDOJAN
DIRECTOR OF THE ISPRA SITE (sent on 1/4/2015)
Subject:
Bus Transport from European School of Varese to Ispra Garderie
Dear Mr Chirondojan,
We
wish to come back to the issue of the bus transport from the European School of
Varese to the Ispra garderie, for which an acceptable long-term solution still
needs to be found.
Already
many months ago, some staff representatives exchanged messages urging all
parties involved to sit at a table together
with PMO in order to identify a solution that, according to our understanding,
could have been easily achieved.
To
our knowledge, this meeting with PMO
was never convened.
We
wish to draw your attention to the information published on MyIntracomm
about education allowances where it is clearly stated that “…your child is
attending one of the European
Schools (primary or secondary level) and using the school transport
service. In this case, it is imperative that you introduce an education
declaration via SYSPER each year to enable the PMO to pay the
organisation administering the school's transport service directly on your
behalf.”
There
is no doubt that PMO is indicated as the entity being in charge of paying
transport fees directly on behalf of Commission staff; no derogation for Ispra
or the JRC is mentioned.
Assuming
that PMO cannot pay for the transportation from the school to the garderie
conflicts with the provisions of Commission
Decision of 16 December 2013.
Declaration
of transportation to the garderie is available in Sysper (see annex), and this
service is commonly available in Brussels (see for instance the rules of bus
transport of the following schools: UCCLE, WOLUWE, IXELLES, LAEKEN).
Following
an inquiry to PMO, we have received further confirmation that the route home-->school-->garderie
is fully covered by PMO itself for parents who are entitled to receive an
education allowance from the 1st primary year onwards, without any need for
these parents to contribute to it.
We understand that at Ispra a proposal to relapse the cost of this bus transport to parents benefiting from this service – via an OIB increase of garderie fees – is under discussion.
As R&D, we strongly regret any deviation from practices applied in the rest of the Institution, and we would regret even more a solution ending up in additional unjustified costs for parents at Ispra – further penalising Ispra staff compared to the rest of Commission staff, and reducing the Ispra site attractiveness.
For the reasons above we urge you, once again, in your capacity of Ispra site Director and President of COPAS, to take immediate contact with PMO and start looking for a real and permanent solution, within the current frame of Commission rules and practices, and without any unjustifiable budgetary impact on concerned staff.
Kind regards,
Hans Nieman
Vice-President
Cc: J.P.
Michel, R.
Crandon, A.
Koletsos, V.
Sucha
Reply from Mr Chirondojan (received on 2 April 2015)
Dear Mr.Nieman,
Dear Mr.Nieman,
Thank you for your message.
I would like to inform you that the issue of the bus transport from Varese to Ispra Garderie was intensively discussed in the last three meetings of COPAS. You might know that in order to ensure the continuity of the service for 2015, COPAS decided and I implemented this decision to allocate 35K EURO from COPAS budget to the Cooperativa managing the service. Moreover we decided to establish a Working Group (WG) that looked further into this issue aiming to find a long-term solution. The WG came back to COPAS with two main recommendations:
I would like to inform you that the issue of the bus transport from Varese to Ispra Garderie was intensively discussed in the last three meetings of COPAS. You might know that in order to ensure the continuity of the service for 2015, COPAS decided and I implemented this decision to allocate 35K EURO from COPAS budget to the Cooperativa managing the service. Moreover we decided to establish a Working Group (WG) that looked further into this issue aiming to find a long-term solution. The WG came back to COPAS with two main recommendations:
- To address to CASS a request for additional budget; this was done and the response was to find a solution locally, no additional budget
- To discuss with the parents benefiting of this service and to convince them to contribute to the financially support of the service
The WG has discussed with PMO, but no solution was identified.
If you state that you "have received further confirmation that the route home > school > garderie is fully covered by PMO itself for parents who are entitled to receive an education allowance from the 1st primary year onwards, without any need for these parents to make any financial contribution", I would kindly ask you to communicate officially to COPAS members the solution identified with PMO and I invite you to the next meeting COPAS to present it. Based on the discussions in the plenary, the COPAS Committee can decide further actions.
- To discuss with the parents benefiting of this service and to convince them to contribute to the financially support of the service
The WG has discussed with PMO, but no solution was identified.
If you state that you "have received further confirmation that the route home > school > garderie is fully covered by PMO itself for parents who are entitled to receive an education allowance from the 1st primary year onwards, without any need for these parents to make any financial contribution", I would kindly ask you to communicate officially to COPAS members the solution identified with PMO and I invite you to the next meeting COPAS to present it. Based on the discussions in the plenary, the COPAS Committee can decide further actions.
Best regards,
Dan Chirondojan
Our reply to Mr Chirondojan (sent on 2 April 2015)
Dear Mr Chirondojan,
Best Regards,
Hans Nieman
Vice-President
Dan Chirondojan
Our reply to Mr Chirondojan (sent on 2 April 2015)
Dear Mr Chirondojan,
Thank you for your message, which confirms the correctness of our information, and namely that no long-term solution has been identified so far and that a recommendation to ask parents to pay for the service is imminent.
The central issue that we wished to point out in our previous message is that staff working in Brussels have a right to a free transport service from school to after school care, a right that is not defended for JRC staff working at Ispra: we strongly regret that the JRC management is ready to support the concept that Ispra staff rights are different and inferior to those of staff working in other sites.
We also regret that you don't seem to have taken the time to go through all the information provided in our message which would have convinced you that PMO normally pays for this service in Brussels. Since finding a contact in PMO seems to be a "mission impossible" for most of involved stakeholders, we are happy to inform you that it is quite easy to find the person in PMO.1 responsible for "Contrôle des allocations scolaires" on the Commission Directory. In order to obtain definitive confirmation, a colleague of ours asked this contact person: "I am about to move to Brussels and I would be grateful if you could answer the following question (information on the schools websites is not very clear to me): My son will take the bus from home to the school in the morning but I need that in the afternoon he goes to the garderie. Is it possible to have this kind of service, i.e. home-school-garderie? If yes, is the whole cost covered by the Commission through your service or the parents need to contribute to it?" PMO.1 answered: "Your son will be able to take the formula home-school-garderie for the use of the European School bus. They will charge us a complete fare for this use and you won't need to supply."
It must be remembered that COPAS members, both administration nominated and staff representatives, were astonished that the JRC management had passed this issue onto COPAS last year, without JRC management having made any serious attempt to resolve the issue at institutional level. You insist on putting COPAS at the core of the discussion despite all COPAS members agreeing since the beginning that COPAS was not the appropriate body entitled to find a durable solution, and that access to COPAS credits was only an emergency one-off.
COPAS, being a local body, and its ad hoc WG, was clearly only able to evaluate possible options which could be implemented locally in extremis to avoid closure of the service in the absence of a more appropriate institutional solution - we would expect you to be aware that for this reason a formal discussion between the COPAS WG and PMO never took place.
Further to your question to "communicate officially to COPAS members the solution identified with PMO" and your invitation to present it at the next meeting COPAS, we wish to inform you that Trade Unions have no institutional role to send official communications to COPAS members and we invite you to do it in your capacity as COPAS President. Furthermore, unfortunately, we have no authority to deal with PMO directly and on behalf of JRC management.
We hope that the evidence we have passed on to you will now be used by all relevant stakeholders to the benefit of our colleagues using the ES Varese – Ispra Garderie bus service and we reiterate, even more firmly, our request that the JRC organise a meeting with PMO urgently to ensure full respect of the rights of Ispra-based staff.
Best Regards,
Hans Nieman
Vice-President
R&D Smarteam for LSC elections!
We have designed a website to inform you of our programme, to provide clear and
simple information on how the voting system works, and to present a "beginner's guide" to Staff Representation.
We hope you will appreciate our efforts and find our dedicated election
website useful in helping you to take an informed decision.
You can also access each point of our programme from these links:
Electronic vote at the next LSC elections: we want it. What about you?
The
outcome was 10 votes against, 8 votes in favour, and 3 abstentions.
As
R&D Ispra, we expressed
our support – and we voted in favour – of the electronic voting system.
You agree with us? Make your voice heard!
You agree with us? Make your voice heard!
The
opinion of the Trade Unions and of the LSC is immaterial. All decisions
regarding the electoral process are decided by you – the staff!
This
power is exercised in the General Assembly that will be held next
Wednesday 25/2 at 11.00: we recommend that you come and support our
proposal (English
extract - French
full version) to introduce the same electronic voting system that is
already in place in Brussels.
Since
many years an electronic voting system is used for the elections of Staff
Committees in Brussels, Luxembourg and EEAS/Delegations, leaving Ispra (and
Seville) as the only large site where traditional paper ballot is still in use.
This system has proven to be reliable and trustworthy, and it is supported by
ALL Trade Unions, including those which - rather oddly - here in Ispra
are against.
Some more background information…
Some more background information…
A note
from the Head of the Human Resources Unit further clarifies the
individual position of each Trade Union on this subject:
- Trade Unions in favour of "easy voting" from your office: R&D Ispra, FFPE Ispra, U4U and Generation 2004
- Trade Unions against "easy voting" from your office: US Ispra/Seville, TAO-AFI Ispra, Save Europe Ispra/Seville, CISL/FIR, SFIE and ISCA Ispra/Seville
We
wish to stress that R&D
Ispra has always been in favour of the electronic vote, and never changed
its mind!
What are the advantages of the electronic vote?
What are the advantages of the electronic vote?
- Each staff member votes from a PC at their workplace – no need to move to the polling station and no more queuing. Each voter is responsible for the confidentiality of his own vote. We fully trust that our colleagues in Ispra and Seville, like those of Brussels, Luxembourg and EEAS, are able to guarantee the correctness of the electoral process.
- With an electronic voting system, no void or null votes can be made involuntarily (such as, for instance, the indication of more than 21 individual preferences, or the vote for a list combined with individual preferences).
- Results would be immediately available at the end of the voting process, with no risk of involuntary mistakes of the scrutiny and need for recounts.
- No more need for the costs of a mission to Seville to seal the ballot box and bring it to Ispra for the scrutiny.
- Participation in the electoral process may increase, thanks to the easier access to the voting system.
Let’s
show we are truly an innovative Research Centre, and that we are ready for a
change - even if we arrive last within the Commission. Dinosaurs
became extinct 65 million years ago... to ensure a modern electoral system come
to the General Assembly on Wednesday 25/2 at 11.00!
Reimbursement of medical expenses in Switzerland
R&D naturally supports the principle that rules should be correctly applied and JSIS must ensure a sound financial management of its communal funds to avoid waste for the benefit of all its members.
At the same time, Art. 19.1 of the Joint Rules on sickness insurance for officials of the European Communities confirms the free choice of practitioners and hospitals and clinics, in order to obtain the most appropriate health care. In some cases, certain diagnoses or treatments may best – or only – be performed in Switzerland for valid medical reasons and we fully support our colleagues who find themselves in this position.
A measure introduced with the intended aim of controlling costs seems to have been applied in a too simplistic way, resulting in an excessive limitation of choice.
We have some concerns about the partial figures provided in the message and the underlying calculation method and data.
For this reason we have sent a request to the Head of Unit "Sickness and accident insurance" asking him to provide full and transparent information regarding this specific issue.
We will keep you posted about any future development.
JRC and Chief Scientific Advisor: an opportunity not to be missed
...Bringing the Joint Research Centre, a collective of seven research institutes with a central policy team, more firmly into the Commission’s plans for evidence- based policy is a common plea heard around Brussels. “The JRC is a lost opportunity,” said Schrefler. “You cannot oblige [its] scientists to adapt all their research for policy but they should play a more central role,” she added.
“There should be a stronger link between [a future science adviser] and the JRC,” said Tindemans. “But the chief adviser should not be head of the JRC: the day-to-day responsibilities of managing a large staff would be too distracting.”
Read the full article...
Training Guide from R&D!
This new publication is a 230 page genuine teaching manual – available in French and English – to guide and support the candidates at every stage of the competition and selection procedures, in line with the new EPSO procedures.
In addition to information about the skills required to participate in selections and competitions, the new guide includes original and unpublished exercises and examples.
What is the price of the new guide ? € 0 !
This guide is free to all our members and future members.
This extraordinary effort, also from a financial point of view, fits into R&D's policy of giving priority to training.
Indeed, historically, R&D has always fought for recruitment procedures within the European institutions that are transparent, objective and ensure equal treatment and access to all candidates.
That’s why, from its very inception in 1992, R&D offers colleagues a preparation to the selection tests and provides them with a syllabus, including practical exercises. Thanks to it, thousands of colleagues were able to train for and eventually join the European civil services.
A very big “thank you” to OIB services
For R&D, priority should always be given to internal services of the institution: who else than our colleagues from the OIB printshops could better guide us in designing and printing this guide so we can make a high quality technical document available to you!
We thank them for their exemplary availability, the quality of their collaboration and their professionalism: they deserve all our gratitude!
EPSO Open Competitions: a unique opportunity offered by R&D!
R&D OFFERS YOU A UNIQUE TRAINING OPPORTUNITY… DON'T MISS
OUT!
Thanks to us, today you can get the most comprehensive
solution for your training needs, consisting of:
·
A free copy of
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to prepare for and succeed in European Union Tests and Selection
Processes" (230 pages, EN or FR)
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Free
admittance to our training course held by Anne Draime (26-27 February) to be professionally
prepared for open competitions.
This training includes a specific module dedicated to the AST/SC selections published recently
This training includes a specific module dedicated to the AST/SC selections published recently
·
30% discount on the purchase of online training packages
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Are you already member of R&D? If so,
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