ONLINE TRAINING FOR THE EPSO OPEN COMPETITION | PRE-SELECTION TESTS - CBT at 4.30 PM

17/01/2024 , , ,

 

 TRAINING EPSO OPEN COMPETITIONS 

PRE-SELECTION TESTS

 

 
REGISTER: 

Our training are FREE for all R&D members and those who wish to join our trade union!
If you are not already a member, you can join by filling out this online form:

To participate in the sessions, it is mandatory to complete the Google Form below:


 Deadline for registration: 22/01/2024 at 9.00 am

Please note that your registration will be confirmed only
 if you register via the link above

LOGIN LINK WILL BE PROVIDED ONCE YOUR REGISTRATION IS CONFIRMED
ON EACH TRAINING DAY BEFORE NOON

(We will therefore not reply to emails requesting the link before that day)

TRAINING INTERNAL COMPETITIONS AST4, AD8, AD10, AD12 - TALENT SCREENER

05/12/2023 , ,

 


 TRAINING INTERNAL COMPETITIONS

 AST4, AD8, AD10, AD12 

TALENT SCREENER


R&D organises an online training session on TALENT SCREENER in order to optimise the preparation of your application to the above mentioned internal competitions. 

FOR ITS MEMBERS 

COVERING THE TESTS FOR ALL PUBLISHED INTERNAL COMPETITIONS 

(See competition notice)

AST4 internal competition

AD8 internal competition

AD10 internal competition

AD12 internal competition

 

SAVE THE DATE!

Tuesday, 12 December 2023

4:30 - 6:30 P.M. 

(The training session will be held in EN)

REGISTER

To participate in the session, it is mandatory to complete this form : 

Training – Internal Competitions – TALENT SCREENER

 Deadline for registration: 11/12/2023 at 5.30 pm

Please note that your registration will be confirmed only

 if you register via the link above

 LOGIN LINK WILL BE PROVIDED ON TRAINING DAY BEFORE NOON 

If you have any questions, you can contact us at : JRC-RD-ISPRA@ec.europa.eu

All we are saying… is give AST-SCs a chance!

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All we are saying… is give AST-SCs a chance! 




There is no doubt that AST-SC colleagues are constantly being let down by our institution's staff policy and this is no longer acceptable! 

Enough is enough! AST-SC colleagues have always been treated as “Children of a lesser God”, by our administration, whether in terms of promotions or opportunities for career advancement through internal competitions. 
 
R&D has always been a vocal opponent of this scandalous practice ( R&D  alongside AST/SC colleagues! – Renouveau & Démocratie (renouveau-democratie.eu), by putting all its skills and efforts at the service of AST SC colleagues and with the help of leading experts in all fields. 

 As the FIRST trade union of European public service, we have always used the best practices also of other institutions to fight the bad practices of the Commission and reject any unreasonable decision of our administration. 

The NON-PROMOTION EXERCISE: a catastrophic three-act saga for AST-SCs! 

First act: “Sorry dear colleague, your performance has been outstanding! We would have proposed you for promotion, but there was not a single quota in our DG for your grade”. 

Every year, around the month of June, the Administration publishes in SYSPER2 the list of colleagues that are proposed by their Directors-General for a promotion to the higher grade. Unfortunately, very few AST-SC colleagues are on this list! 

When most of the AST-SC colleagues meet with their line managers in order to understand why they didn’t get the desired promotion, they always receive a very frustrating reply, confirming the very high quality of their performance without being able to reward them the due to the desperate lack of promotions’ quota (or very limited) in the DG for AST-SCs! And unfortunately for us, this disappointing response is not the typical excuse given often by managers, but absolutely true, because in many DGs the Available quotas are 0 or 1, for all SCs categories together. 

Second act: “An appeal is your only option!” 

Following the non-proposal for a promotion, the DGs and HR correspondents encouraged the outstanding AST-SC colleagues who could not even be considered for promotion due to a lack of quota to go on launching an appeal, while themselves would support the colleagues by sending an exceptional request to the administration in order to increase the SCs’ promotion possibilities. Too good though to be true… 

Third and final (?) act: “Adding insult to injury!!” 

The (NON) promotions exercise is concluded at the beginning of November, where the additional list of successful appeals is added to the list of June. For the 2023 the publication of the proposals for promotion in June and the final published list in November included the following results for the entire Commission: 


A first visual inspection of this table shows that DG-HR reserved just eleven (11) quotas for the promotion of SC colleagues during the appeals phase. In these circumstances, it is clear that despite all its more than admirable efforts, the Joint Promotions Committee has no way of providing a satisfactory response to colleagues' more than legitimate expectations. And, within this “War of the poor”, out of these 11 quotas, nothing was given to SC4s or to SC3s. Just two SC2 colleagues and 9 SC1s. That is why, even the encouragement to appeal, wasn’t but an additional disappointment to the already extremely frustrated colleagues. 

R&D wonders? In the end, is the letter and spirit of article 45 of the Staff Regulation really applied for AST-SCs? 

In fact, when an entire DG is not given any quota for a given grade and it is not possible to get quotas down from higher grades, it means that for our AST-SC colleagues, in these grades and in this specific DG, the Article 45 of the Staff Regulations is not really applied. And while, DG-HR will always find a way to (try to) convince us that the AST-SC promotions “algorithm” respects the Annex I of the staff regulations, the truth is probably far from that. 

Not all algorithms are the same, obviously… 

Worse still, every year it becomes clear that some highly visible AD colleagues, "sitting close to the sun" are promoted with much less seniority in their grade compared to the seniority provided for in Annex IB. 

Internal AST-SCs competitions – 

NOT THE FOURTH ACT of the story but a real opportunity for our colleagues, which we are going to defend! 

However, this file had already got off a very bad start: as soon as the Commission's new policy on internal competitions was announced, R&D  stated that it was incredible that there should be ABSOLUTELY NO provision for the AST-SC! 

The administration's response was that the Staff Regulations did not permit the organisation of such internal competitions. R&D  immediately supported the petition organised by our colleagues in TAO-AFI, members of the Alliance to which we belong, asking for internal competitions to be organised for AST-SC colleagues. 

The immediate consequence of this unacceptable approach was, of course that many AST-SC colleagues left the Commission to join other Institutions that were more responsive to the legitimate demands and expectations of our colleagues. 
 
With the aim of countering the administration’s arguments and proving that they had no basis, R&D  presented the ‘good practices’ that our R&D ’s sections in other institutions had negotiated, namely at the Committee of the Regions, European Council, European Parliament, etc... that had actually organised such internal competitions for AST-SC under the same Staff Regulations. 
 
Better late than never: reason has finally prevailed! 

We are pleased to say that we have won a battle here and that our advocacy has tipped the scales, as the administration has finally announced that an internal competition will be held to allow AST-SC colleagues to access the AST career will be published before the end of 2023. 
 
However, R&D  deeply regrets to see the departure of highly qualified AST-SC colleagues as a result of the administration's refusal to accept immediately the legitimate requests to rectify this injustice. 
 
FACTA NON VERBA! 

Making big announcements is no longer enough! Action must be taken. And it's not enough just to act; it's all about doing the right things. 

Thus, finally announcing that these internal competitions will be organised for AST-SCs is not enough. 

These internal competitions must finally meet our colleagues' AST-SC more than legitimate expectations concerning: 

- how many posts will be on the reserve list, 
- the grades of access,
- the frequency of their organisation. 
 
R&D  will ensure that all these requirements be duly taken into account in the internal competitions organised for AST-SC. 

Enough of a piecemeal strategy! 

R&D  calls on the Commission to meet our demands and the expectations of our AST-SC colleagues by offering them real career development, while at the same time repairing the damage caused by delays in their careers for which the Commission alone is responsible. 

Cristiano Sebastiani, 
President

ONLINE TRAININGS - CASE STUDY FOR EPSO OPEN COMPETITIONS - 27 & 30 NOVEMBER _ 05 & 07 DECEMBER 2023 - at 4.30 PM

21/11/2023 , , ,

                                                                                                         

TRAINING FOR EPSO OPEN COMPETITIONS

- CASE STUDY -


R&D  organises online training sessions in order to help all our colleagues to prepare themselves in the best possible way for all EU competitions.

R&D offers a series of specialised and targeted courses, best suited to the needs of its members and new members. Different time slots are provided for the Case Study preparatory phases.

SAVE THE DATES!

 Monday 27 November 2023

Thursday 30 November 2023

Tuesday 05 December 2023

Thursday 07 December 2023

4:30-6:30 P.M.


Assessment Centre/Case Study for EPSO open competitions
 

Online training sessions in ENGLISH


Date                Time                    Training                        Trainer 

27/11/2023    16:30 - 18:30    Case Study - session 1     Ruth Harland

30/11/2023    16:30 - 18:30    Case Study – session 2     Ruth Harland

05/12/2023     16:30 - 18:30    Case Study - session 1     Ruth Harland

07/12/2023     16:30 - 18:30    Case Study - session 2     Ruth Harland

REGISTER:

Our training are FREE for R&D members and those who wish to join our trade union!
R&D ISPRA BECOME A MEMBER

To participate in the sessions it is mandatory to become a member of our trade union and fill in the Google Form below: 
CASE STUDY FOR EPSO OPEN COMPETITIONS
************************************************
 
Deadline for registration for November sessions : 24/11/2023 at 5.30 am

Deadline for registration for December sessions : 04/12/2023 at 5.30 pm


Please note that your registration will be confirmed only
 if you register via the link above

LOGIN LINK WILL BE PROVIDED ONCE YOUR REGISTRATION IS CONFIRMED on EACH TRAINING DAY BEFORE NOON (we will therefore not reply to emails requesting the link before that day).


If you have any questions, you can contact us at : JRC-RD-ISPRA@ec.europa.eu

We look forward to meeting you.

Renouveau&Démocratie Ispra

SAVE THE DATE : 16/11/23 - E-CONFERENCE - Burn out… Diagnose, prevent, react...

15/11/2023 ,

 



For joining the e-conference clinck on this link:

 https://renouveau-et-democratie.webex.com/renouveau-et-democratie/j.php?MTID=m6697b17714c517a59aba46a63eac2e9f

The conference wil be held in French - you will be able to interve in English 

For more information, please contact us by email: OSP-RD@ec.europa.eu

 




ONLINE TRAINING in FRENCH FOR EPSO COMPETITIONS | PRE-SELECTION TESTS - CBT - 15 & 16 - 22 & 23 November 2023 - at 4.30 PM

09/11/2023 , ,

 


ONLINE TRAINING FOR EPSO COMPETITIONS  
PRE-SELECTION TESTS in French


R&D organises online training sessions in FRENCH in order to help all our colleagues to prepare themselves in the best possible way for all EPSO competitions.

R&D offers a series of specialised and targeted courses, best suited to the needs of its members and new members. Different time slots are provided for each of the CBT preparatory phases.

SAVE THE DATES!
CBT | 15 - 16 - 22 & 23 November 2023 –  4:30-6:30 P.M.

CBT

Computer based Multiple Choice Questions system specific for the pre-selection test

REGISTER :

 Our training are FREE for R&D members and those who wish to join our trade union!

R&D ISPRA BECOME A MEMBER


To participate in the sessions, it is mandatory to complete the Google Form below:

TRAININGEPSO OPEN COMPETITIONS - CBT in FRENCH

Deadline for registration: 14/11/2023 at 5:30 pm

 Please note that your registration will be confirmed only

 if you register via the link above.

Login link will be provided once your registration is confirmed on each training day before noon.

 If you have any questions, you can contact us at :

 JRC-RD-ISPRA@ec.europa.eu

 

JRC Portfolios – a resource or a problem?

07/11/2023 , , ,

 

JRC Portfolios – a resource or a problem?

In 2023, a reorganisation of the JRC’s work programme took place, with the introduction of the portfolios as the new building blocks.
JRC’s management idea behind the portfolios is that they are developed around common science and knowledge activities, going beyond Units and Directorates, providing a more coherent, interdisciplinary policy support to relevant DGs. Portfolios are supposed to step up collaboration, stimulate working together, and further promote cooperation within the JRC on cross-cutting themes.
Portfolios should become JRC’s ‘calling cards’ for outreach and for managing relations with external partners.  
Today, the new structure has been in place for over 10 months. The full deployment of portfolios into the JRC’s way of working is a dynamic and still ongoing process but there are some critical aspects that need attention. The degree of integration vary from portfolio to portfolio, but several concerns are widely expressed. The following remarks and concerns are based on feedback received from many colleagues:
-    Over 220 staff members are currently engaged in the portfolio leadership teams. Although being an opportunity for collaboration and getting to know better the organisation, many scientific staff members report that portfolios represent a significant additional (administrative) workload and burden, without any additional allocation of new resources to compensate for it. The work in portfolio leadership teams is time demanding. There are several weekly meetings and various additional portfolio-level activities. It must be acknowledged that this work comes on top of colleagues’ normal tasks, which are often team and/or project leading tasks, and frequently it is done at the cost of their scientific activities.
-    There is lack of clarity in the distribution of roles and responsibilities between Units and portfolio leadership teams.
-    The initiative to create portfolios presumed that there was not enough collaboration between units and directorates within the JRC. This is, however, an unproven assumption. Many cross-unit and cross-directorate professional relations do exist since years at the JRC, including between sites.
-    Most of the portfolios have been established by putting together already ongoing projects related to well-established activities. These projects were not designed to be linked together, so the integration under the umbrella of a portfolio and the identification of common activities and portfolio-level deliverables was an unrealistic and impossible task in many cases. This situation, in our view, questions the fundamental idea behind portfolios, which end up to be an extra administrative layer requiring additional, and already scarce, resources.
-    The portfolios should become the entry contact point for policy DGs and external stakeholders. Nevertheless, this new approach is not so obvious. JRC Units have long-lasting and well-established collaborations, administrative arrangements and/or common projects with partner DGs. These DGs continue to communicate and work directly with Units, as their only formal administrative counterpart, and do not recognise any benefits of the additional portfolio layer.
-    External and internal communication also present difficulties. It is often very confusing what shall be communicated as an achievement and/or deliverable of the Directorate and Unit, and what shall be presented as the outcome of a portfolio. These situations create tensions and misunderstandings between Unit Heads/ Directors/ communication officers in the various Directorates.
We are aware that many of these aspects are acknowledged also by the JRC Senior Management. We sincerely hope that they will be tackled with no prejudice and with the greatest openness to rethink the entire concept, using the results of the ongoing portfolio assessment at DG level to evaluate if and when a portfolio is adding value, and recognising where it only or mostly creates an extra burden.

If you would like to share your observations and concerns, you can always contact our internal working group at JRC-RD-ISPRA@ec.europa.eu . Confidentiality is guaranteed.

Gianfranco Selvagio                               Laura Ciafrè
President                                                 Political Secretary

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