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Result of our survey on senior management appointments

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Result of our survey on senior management appointments

Two weeks ago the Bureau appointed ten new directors. As always, we invited you to guess the names of the future senior managers in advance via our anonymous FFPE survey.

And also this time the crowd intelligence did a great job:

You correctly predicted 9 out of 10 appointments

Adding up the results of all our surveys since 2018, the crowd correctly guessed the outcome of 21 of the latest 25 senior management appointments, the majority even before the calls for candidatures were launched.

This time was different in another way: As the Newshound proudly announces, 9 out of the 10 new directors are women. We have always defended gender balance and we congratulate the new directors to their appointment! Yet, we have to admit that the good news is somewhat tainted: When the Bureau decides in January to reach gender parity in management by 2024 and at the earliest occasion 90% of the appointments go to women, it unfortunately sheds again doubts on the impartiality of the process.

We believe that professional skills, the performance level and gender equality need to be the prime criteria for the selection of senior managers and indeed, for any function. This is what we have strive for as a trade union within the past term of the staff committee. At some point, the Secretary General promised to review the system, but in the end nothing has happened, We will seek to resume the dialogue with the Secretary General on the matter in the new staff committee.

Survey on Teleworking in European Parliament

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Survey on Teleworking in European Parliament

The survey is anonymous and takes only about 4 minutes. Thank you for participation 🙂

Constituent meeting of the staff committee: « a sorry spectacle »

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Constituent meeting of the staff committee: « a sorry spectacle »

In the wake of the numerous emails spreading confusion, we felt obliged to respond, although we would have preferred avoiding a flood of trade union messages.

If you tuned in to the webstream of the staff committee meeting on Tuesday you will have witnessed a sorry spectacle. From the scheduled kick-off at 11 a.m…. technical difficulties right up to 12:30 p.m.

Then at 12:48, we had our first attempt at voting – to elect the next staff committee chair (for a three-year term). Result: 29 votes cast; 14 for each candidate. That’s right! Do the maths: 14+14 = 29 according to the oldest member from ETHOS-Europe (chairing the meeting) and, again according to her, no problem with the voting system whatsoever!

Not to mention a few more dodgy aspects of the whole charade:

  • The special procedure for the constituent meeting because of CoVid needed the agreement of all 29 members to be valid. However, during the meeting, this just boiled down to a simple agreement between those members present;
  • Member could vote even when a large number of other elected members were not present in the room, instead of voting by proxy as expressly established for secret votes by the Committee’s Rules of Procedures;
  • The quorum included members connected by Visio (the rules expressly stipulate physical presence for the constituent meeting).

The chair orchestrated this suspect procedure to favour the election as chair of – surprise, surprise! – A member of her own electoral list. Trade union part of this were Etos-Europe, Plural list and U4U.

The meeting has been suspended by the Institution. The Jusrisconsult asked the two tellers to leave the meeting. The procedure will be checked and the meeting may be annulled.

For the family people amongst us

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For the family people amongst us

Monika is a little late. The usual traffic jam on the motorway from Luxembourg to Arlon. Why on earth did they have to build the second European school right at the other end of the country? But she doesn’t want to complain. Classes were bursting at the seams at the old school and the kids are lucky to get lessons in their own language a thousand miles from home.

Of course, the childcare at the garderie is also a real lifesaver. Both she and her husband work full time and on Wednesdays, she just wouldn’t be able to cope. She has been thinking about part-time, but you end up doing the same job in fewer hours – or taking work home. And the kids are happy at school. So, let’s keep things the way they are.

What Monika does not know is that next week the Heads of State and Government will meet in Brussels to strike a deal on the next EU long term budget. It will be difficult negotiations after the departure of the UK and an easy target for savings will be administrative expenditure. The money for buildings, salaries, pensions and… European schools.

Let us defend your interests. Vote FFPE – list N° 8

For the mobility victims amongst us

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When Frank moved to the information office in Vienna seven years ago, he decided to stay there for good. His wife had never been able to find a job in Brussels and she had always wanted to return to her home country. But then came mobility, and with it endless discussions at home. Would they sell off the house and move back to Brussels? It made no sense to do that. Finally, they decided that he would commute.

Now he travels back and forth every week. At the beginning it worked, but nowadays he feels frustrated and powerless whenever his son calls to ask for help with his homework. He wishes he could spend more quality time with his family. If only he could use his overtime from evening events to leave earlier for home! Or at least it would help if he could telework on Friday mornings from Vienna.

Let us defend your interests. Vote FFPE – list N° 8

For the pension planners amongst us

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Christine is 55 and she recently checked the pension calculator on the intranet for the first time. Her youngest child will soon leave school, the others are studying abroad and the mortgage on the house is paid. Work has become more and more tiring and there is frankly no prospect of her getting another promotion. She has made up her mind to leave in a couple of years. She would still lose a little money but never mind. She could retire at the same time as her husband and do the trips they never had time for while working.

What Christine doesn’t know is that the Council of Ministers plans to cut administrative expenditure in the EU’s long term budget. Raising the retirement age would be an easy way of doing that.

Let us defend your interests. Vote FFPE – list N° 8

For the translators amongst us

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A Friday afternoon before the session and Teija feels under pressure from all sides. Parliament is back in full swing and translation jobs are piling up. Last-minute assignments for early next week keep coming in. There are rules on translation deadlines, but their respect is rather the exception than the rule.

A lot of it is humdrum donkey work. A hundred times adding a comma here, crossing out a word there. Since they invented that tool to make it easier for Members to table amendments, documents from parliamentary committees just keep getting longer and longer. Most of those amendments end up in the bin anyway, but every Member wants to be the one who tabled the most.

Machines are taking over anyway. There is more and more machine translation. Sometimes Teija feels that she is little more than a human spell-checker. Will they still need translators in a couple of years? The management has come up with all sorts of new tasks – subtitling, podcasts, radio… Teija hasn’t been trained in any of these things, but what worries her most is that nobody seems to know where the journey will take her.

Let us defend your interests. Vote FFPE – list° 8

For the interpreters amongst us

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Francesca is a bit dizzy. It has been a long day in the booth and the meeting drags on. Another 15 minutes’ overtime. “A big thank you to the interpreters,” says the chairman. Francesca is already on autopilot. Her 8th hour in the booth is almost over.

Committee weeks have become difficult. Members want to squeeze more and more meetings into fewer and fewer weekdays. Logical, right? But that just doesn’t square with normal working hours. Sometimes you have to sit in the booth for four hours in a row. Between meetings you are still on duty – just in case of last-minute lunchtime negotiations on compromise amendments, for example.

“Ten years ago we were a larger crowd for fewer meetings”, she thinks. Nobody seems to care so long as the job gets done.

Francesca looks at the clock. Looks like she will have to miss the kids’ bedtime – yet again.

Let us defend your interests. Vote FFPE – list N° 8

For the weekend travellers amongst us

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Arek is on his way to his Wizzair flight to Warsaw. Finally, a weekend at home! His wife and the kids stayed behind in Poland – fair enough, she has a good job and the kids are happier where they are.

It works with low cost airlines, even though prices have gradually gone up. They track your booking behaviour. Never mind – the travel allowance covers the costs of tickets.

What Arek does not know is that the Council of Ministers is planning to slash allowances under the next long-term EU budget…

Let us defend your interests. Vote FFPE – list° 8

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Une FFPE forte dans le prochain Comité du Personnel 2020-2022

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Une FFPE forte dans le prochain Comité du Personnel 2020-2022

Cher(e)s collègues,
En mai 2019, vous avez votĂ© aux Ă©lections europĂ©ennes pour renforcer l’Union europĂ©enne. Une Union
européenne forte nécessite une fonction publique européenne forte. Par conséquent, votre vote aux prochaines
élections du comité du personnel est essentiel.
La FFPE fait partie de la Fédération de la Fonction Publique Européenne, qui est représentée dans toutes les
institutions européennes et défend nos intérêts de fonctionnaires européens depuis 1962. Cette longue tradition
se reflète dans nos valeurs. Nous partageons une vision commune d’une fonction publique europĂ©enne
indépendante et performante. Nous voulons faire du PE un lieu de travail plus motivant, plus juste et plus
gratifiant. Nous pensons que le dialogue social est meilleur que le conflit et que la négociation est meilleure que
le rejet catégorique des nouveautés.
Pour la prochaine élection du comité du personnel, nous avons identifié quatre priorités:

  1. DĂ©fendre l’indĂ©pendance de la fonction publique: nous devons nous mobiliser contre la politisation flagrante de l’administration. Nous sommes contre les concours super-gĂ©nĂ©reux pour le personnel des groupes politiques, les carrières accĂ©lĂ©rĂ©es et l’influence politique dans les nominations aux postes de direction.
  2. ÉquitĂ© et Ă©galitĂ© des chances pour tous: dernièrement, nous avons vu de nombreuses rĂ©formes imposĂ©es en vitesse, sans consultation du personnel. Elles ont conduit Ă  des effets arbitraires et Ă  des standards doubles. Nous voulons que les futures modifications des conditions de travail soient raisonnablement Ă©valuĂ©es et discutĂ©es avec les reprĂ©sentants du personnel avant d’ĂŞtre mises en oeuvre.
  3. Satisfaction au travail, respect et Ă©quilibre entre vie professionnelle et vie privĂ©e: le nombre moyen de jours d’arrĂŞt maladie, d’absences de longue durĂ©e pour raisons mĂ©dicales, mais aussi les cas invoquĂ©s de harcèlement sont en augmentation. Nous voulons inverser cette tendance. L’amĂ©lioration des conditions de travail est une façon d’y parvenir, la mise en place de mĂ©canismes de prĂ©vention des conflits en est une autre.
  4. PrĂ©server l’attractivitĂ© de la fonction publique europĂ©enne: la dernière rĂ©forme du statut a Ă©tĂ© exclusivement consacrĂ©e Ă  la rĂ©duction des coĂ»ts et la prochaine se prĂ©pare dĂ©jĂ . Nous aurons besoin de reprĂ©sentants du personnel sĂ©rieux pour nous dĂ©fendre lorsque les menaces sur nos salaires, pensions et Ă©coles europĂ©ennes rĂ©apparaĂ®tront.

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