Only the FR version is deemed authentic.
Application of the RGPD
Compliance with the RGPD (Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of 27 April 2016 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data).
Data controller: U4U AISBL represented by its President.
Recipients: U4U ASBL
Data protection delegate: the webmaster. To contact him: webmaster@u4unity.eu
U4U AISBL is a European public service trade union to which Article 9.2 (d) of the GDPR applies. As U4U has fewer than 250 employees, the register of processing operations is not compulsory under Article 30.5 of the GDPR; however, U4U has established it voluntarily.
The data we collect or hold about you may come from a variety of sources. Some may have been collected directly from you, others may have been collected in compliance with applicable regulations, when you interact with us, for example when you participate in our activities. Some data may come from publicly available sources. See below for a description of this data in the processing description sheets.
We will only use your personal data if you have given your consent or if such use is based on one of the legal grounds provided by law:
- Protecting our legitimate interests;
- Fulfilment of a contract or commitment (including our support services) to which you and/or we are committed; or
- To comply with a legal or regulatory obligation;
- To protect the public interest;
- The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and in particular articles 8, 11, 12, 27, 28, 30, 31, 34 ;
- Articles 10b and c of the Staff Regulations, the framework agreement concluded between the European Commission and trade unions and professional organisations.
How do we protect and safeguard your personal data? All personal data in electronic form (e-mails, documents, databases, etc.) are stored on our servers or on those of the Commission or other European institutions:
The Commission has put in place its own security measures, in accordance with Commission Decision (EU, Euratom) 2017/46 of 10 January 2017 on the security of information and communication systems within the European Commission. U4U has no responsibility for the definition and implementation of these security measures.
In order to protect your personal data on our own servers, we have implemented a number of technical and organisational measures. Technical measures include appropriate actions to address online security, the risk of data loss, data corruption or unauthorised access, taking into account the risk presented by the processing and the nature of the personal data processed. Organisational measures include restricting access to personal data to authorised persons with a legitimate need to know for the purposes of such processing.
NB. Some of the links on our websites may redirect you to websites that do not belong to U4U AISBL. These sites have their own confidentiality or data protection policies or charters which may differ from ours: it is your responsibility to read them.
NB. Social networks. The site may display plugins, i.e. extracts of information published by U4U on social networks. When you visit our pages containing them, the plugin may establish a direct connection between your browser and the server of the social network. If you do not want the social network concerned to be able to assign your visit to our pages to your user account on that social network, please log out of your user account on that social network.
If you click on a button of these plugins, in particular the Like button, or if you comment on these U4U publications or if you use the messaging functions of these networks, you are interacting with the website of the social network concerned, which may then store certain data and process them (consult their own policies), without U4U being aware of this. U4U does not itself transfer or use any personal data to these social networks.
Main processes managed by U4U using personal data (“Processing”) :
Management of members and subscriptions, including direct debits
Management of professional elections and candidates
Management of the assistance of one or more individuals
Management of professional disputes
Management of union press distribution lists
Management of training and conference services
Management of petitions and surveys
Art 35 of the RGPD: As the processing described is not likely to give rise to a high risk for the rights and freedoms of natural persons, an impact analysis relating to data protection has not been carried out.
U4U does not engage in direct marketing, automated decision-making or profiling.
Petition: notice to signatories
A petition is indivisibly composed of a text and a list of signatories. A petition is a public document, distributed as widely as possible to achieve its effect.
By signing a petition, the signatory agrees to his or her signature being collected and made public, and in particular to it being communicated to the person (natural or legal person) to whom the petition is addressed. The signature includes the data required to identify the signatory.
The data collected when the petition is signed will not be used for any purpose other than compiling lists of signatures. Under no circumstances will the resulting files be passed on, either free of charge or in return for payment, to third parties for uses unrelated to the petition.
The electronic lists of signatories may reside on publicly accessible computer servers for the time necessary to collect, compile, distribute, publish and publicise the petition. These lists will be removed from the servers at the end of these operations.
All signatories have the right to access and rectify their data by contacting contact@u4unity.eu.
Elections: notice to candidates
Any person who agrees to stand in a professional election as a candidate presented by U4U is informed that :
Certain personal data (identity, photo, professional e-mail address, professional status and assignment, nationality, profession of faith, etc.) will be collected by U4U for the purpose of producing electoral material for the widest possible publicity, by means of posters, leaflets, web pages, e-mails, etc.
U4U will conduct an active electoral campaign aimed at publicising the candidates, their motivations, their values and their trade union positions.
In order to balance the necessary transparency of trade union action with respect for personal data as described above, the following principles apply:
Candidates shall not be entitled to the confidentiality of such personal data during the election campaign and, if elected, during their term of office.
Six months after the election campaign, non-elected candidates may ask contact@u4unity.eu to have their profession of faith removed from the website. Elected candidates will only be able to make such a request one year after the end of their term of office, to enable voters to compare their electoral commitments and actions during their term of office.
On the other hand, the other elements of the electoral campaign (electoral list containing the identity of the candidates, including their photograph, posters, leaflets, web pages, etc.) will be kept over a long period, for their historical interest and to enable voters to understand U4U’s trade union positions.
Elected representatives and persons appointed by U4U, whether elected or not, to professional consultation bodies or working groups will also be the subject of publication of the same personal data (in whole or in part) and reports of their actions (positions, statements, contributions, etc.) relating to the execution of their mandate. These data may be kept over a long period, for their historical interest and to enable voters to understand U4U’s trade union positions.
Documentary treasure trove
This site contains a large number of documents tracing our trade union activity and bearing witness to social dialogue in the European institutions.
Many of these documents contain the surnames, first names, titles or functions, e-mail addresses, etc. of people involved in this trade union activity or social dialogue, acting ex officio on behalf of trade unions or employers or third parties. This includes, in particular, the issuers (signatories) of documents, the receivers (direct or copied recipients), members of working groups, committees or commissions and, more generally, all persons involved in one capacity or another.
This information does not give rise to any automated processing of personal data, in whole or in part, nor to the creation of a file, thereby excluding this documentary treasure trove from the scope of the RGPD.
These documents are kept firstly for reasons of use (regulatory, business continuity, justification or protection of rights) and secondly for historical, archival or political purposes in the public interest, to inform the public of past trade union action or for research into the operation of European or trade union bodies. Article 5 e) of the RGPD recognises that the retention of data for archival, statistical or historical purposes is not considered incompatible with the initial purposes for which it was collected.
Any person mentioned in a document has the right to request that it be made anonymous by contacting contact@u4unity.eu, providing proof of identity and clearly specifying the hypertext link to the said document and the reason for the request. However, U4U reserves the right to refuse this anonymisation if it distorts the document, particularly by changing the senders or recipients of the document or by obscuring the text. In the event of a refusal, U4U may specify to the applicant how long the document is to be kept.
Legal notice for this website
The publisher of this site is the Union for Unity (U4U) represented by its President.
The webmaster’s address is: webmaster@u4unity.eu
This site is accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, except in cases of force majeure, computer problems, problems linked to the structure of electronic communications networks or technical difficulties. This site may be interrupted for maintenance purposes.
Users of the site acknowledge that they have read this legal notice and undertake to comply with it. By accessing this site, users acknowledge that they have the skills and resources required to access and use it, and acknowledge that they have checked that the computer configuration used does not contain any viruses and is in perfect working order.
It is not possible to guarantee 100% security of data transmitted over the Internet. U4U reserves the right to correct the content of its site, but cannot ensure or guarantee that this information is totally secure. U4U cannot guarantee the accuracy and completeness of the information published on its site, nor can it guarantee that it will always function correctly or that it will be completely secure. U4U makes every effort to provide users with available and verified information and/or tools, but cannot be held responsible for errors, lack of availability of information and/or the presence of viruses or other logical infections on its site.
Consequently, users acknowledge that they use this information under their sole responsibility.
In particular, U4U disclaims all liability:
- Any inaccuracies or omissions in the information available on the site;
- For any damage resulting from fraudulent intrusion by a third party leading to modification of the information made available on this site;
- For any damage or malfunction caused by the intrusion of a virus into users’ systems when downloading data from the site;
- For any damage, direct or indirect, whatever the cause, origin, nature or consequences, caused by anyone accessing the site or by the impossibility of accessing it.
It is possible to notify U4U of the presence of content that the user considers illegal at abuse@u4unity.eu. U4U draws the user’s attention to the fact that any improper notification may incur the criminal liability of its author.
This site is governed by Belgian law, without prejudice to the application of local laws specific to the various hosts of this site, which consists of several services that may be hosted on separate servers.
By sending a form, the user accepts that the personal data thus transmitted concerning him or her may be processed within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of 27 April 2016 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data.
The information communicated by the user is intended for U4U, as data controller, for administrative and trade union management purposes.
Trade union activity is by nature a militant, political and civic activity taking place in the public arena, which requires great transparency and even wide publicity. Consequently, users of this site acknowledge that they cannot at any time claim any right to confidentiality or protection of their private life insofar as they freely communicate information for use in trade union activities.
If, for certain services, U4U were to collect additional information, this information would be treated as confidential. These services may include, but are not limited to, defending individual rights, training people or analysing individual or collective situations in order to develop trade union actions.
This information will not be used for commercial prospecting purposes. U4U will not collect or retain any information unrelated to trade union activity.
With regard to information relating to forms in particular, the data collected identified by an asterisk is mandatory. In the absence of a reply, the user’s request may not be processed or processing may be delayed.
Users have the right to access, modify, rectify and delete their personal data. Users also have the right to object to the processing of their data for legitimate reasons, as well as the right to object to this data being used for commercial prospecting purposes. To exercise these rights, the user should send an e-mail to the webmaster, enclosing a copy of a signed identity document.
In addition, U4U collects statistical information concerning visits to its site, which is not of a personal nature, in particular concerning the origin of visits, browsers or operating systems used by its internet users, in order to continually improve the service provided to its visitors.
Users are informed that during their visits to the site, a cookie may be automatically installed on their browser software. U4U informs users that they can set their browser software to indicate the presence of cookies and refuse them if they wish.
Users of this site are required to comply with the provisions of the laws on data processing, data files, data protection and individual liberties, any breach of which is punishable by law. In particular, users must refrain from collecting or misusing personal data and, in general, from any act likely to infringe the privacy or reputation of individuals.
This website is protected by copyright. This site and each of its constituent elements, in particular graphics, software, source codes, texts, images, databases and other creations are protected by copyright. It is clearly stated that images, whether animated or not, are also protected by copyright and intellectual property legislation. As such, any reproduction, representation, adaptation or modification, in part or in full, or transfer to another site is prohibited. Similarly, trademarks and other distinctive signs such as logos appearing on the site are registered trademarks and any unauthorised use by third parties is strictly prohibited. Any reproduction or distribution, by any means whatsoever, of any of the elements of the site is prohibited, except for the strict requirements of consulting the site online. However, it is permitted to quote our texts, mentioning the source, on condition that no commercial use or use for remuneration is made. The hypertext links on the website to other resources on the Internet are provided for reference or citation purposes only. However, U4U accepts no responsibility for the content of these resources, nor does it approve or endorse their content or messages.
This site is that of the U4U union. It in no way replaces the official information published by the European Commission and the other institutions covered by the European Civil Service Staff Regulations. In particular, information about rights, procedures and other matters relating to the employment of officials and other servants is given for information purposes only; it may become obsolete, certain documents being kept for their archival interest, or it may not reflect all aspects or the complexity of the rules and procedures described. Users are invited to obtain the relevant official information if they wish to know their rights and personal situation.
Electronic Communication Policy
It is within the role of Trade unions to communicate with colleagues and to disseminate relevant information as widely as possible on the workplace.
This Trade union is using electronic means for dissemination of information as an environmentally friendly channel substituting for paper flyers, brochures or booklets.
Our e-mails can be read, deleted or stored as paper flyers would be.
However, we are very conscious of mailboxes overload and we are taking measures with a view to avoiding flooding colleagues with messages. We have put in place communication channels such as our web site that can be consulted without generating e-mails.
We are also using social networks as an alternative, albeit a partial one, to e-mail communication. Some of these tools come with fora, blogs, photo gallery or wikis. If you want to use them, you should open your own individual account with each of them.
We have also put in place distribution and discussion lists.
| Discussions lists are groups within which members can receive e-mails from the group and reply to them, the list server copying this answer to all members of the list. The membership of these lists is normally limited to persons having expressed an interest in the domain concerned or having paid a membership fee. | |
| Distribution lists are used for wide distribution of messages but members cannot reply to them, in order to avoid an uncontrolled flow of messages. |
For both types of lists, the principle is : easy to come, easy to go. Staff can easily join a list (however some lists have restricted access, depending of their scope) and can easily leave.
Leaving a list can be done or by using the ‘unsubscribe‘ link at the bottom of most of our messages or by going on our website where a link is provided to this effect. If they so wish, persons having left a list can come back later to it. Very useful if one goes on leave and wants to avoid messages piling up in the mailbox.
Messages sent by distribution lists are limited in numbers as we group information items into newsletters. However, in special circumstances, such as urgent messages, elections, crisis or turmoil… this volume may temporarily increase.
Please refer also to the Netiquette that is applicable to e-mail communication (herebelow) and by extension to other media.
If you spot an abuse of this policy, please contact abuse@u4unity.eu
Netiquette
Here is the set of rules that should be respected by participants to our discussion lists.
Good behaviour
Netiquette is the generic term for the rules of polite behaviour among the Internet community. They are common-sense rules, for example:
| Don’t use the network for illegal activities. | |
| Don’t use vulgar, offensive or defamatory language. | |
| Don’t send abusive message or any which could be construed as harassment. | |
| Don’t use groups to send private messages. | |
| Don’t pretend to be someone else. | |
| Be careful not to spread viruses. |
Electronic Mail Good Practices
Reply promptly to messages as an old message is often forgotten.
Be aware who the potential audience for your message is. Be aware of possible cultural differences. Something acceptable for you may be unacceptable by others.
Always adopt a friendly, respectful tone. Inflammatory messages are unacceptable. Forum or List servers moderators will delete messages that contain offensive material, even if they also contain good remarks or contributions.
Avoid reacting in the heat of the moment: chain reactions and endless discussions might result and these are not necessarily of interest to the other members of the group. Be factual and not emotional.
Disagreeing is a normal stance in an adult discussion: answer on the merit of each argument but don’t pass judgements on your fellow contributor.
As humour is frequently not perceived as such in e-mail exchanges, avoid humour or as a minimum, signal that you are joking with a smiley.
State the subject of the message clearly and completely in the relevant box.
Write on one subject per message. Messages must be short and precise.
Give sources, references and citations.
Use *asterisks* rather than CAPITALS to emphasise a word, as CAPITALS are commonly understood as “shouting”.
Avoid rumours and gossip.
Check your mailbox every day, in order to avoid a full mailbox starting rejecting incoming mails (bouncing mailbox will be temporarily excluded from our distribution lists). If you foresee a leave, suspend your adhesion to our distribution lists. See our website for practical procedures.
Be aware that messages sent to a list are stored into the archives for a long period of time.
Avoid sending pictures or graphics when they are not absolutely useful for the message.
Do not disseminate chain letters or spam messages.
Do not send anonymous, offensive, defamatory or ill-mannered contributions.
E-Mail Policy
The general rule is that others cannot distribute, copy, modify, transmit or make public your messages without your permission.
Do not disseminate someone else’s opinions without his or her consent.
When posting a message, send it only to the group you are contributing to. Avoid cross-posting, i.e. the posting of a message to several groups at the same time.
Do not send a message at the same time to a group and to some individuals who are also members of the group. This will result in duplicate e-mails in their mailbox.
When answering a message, hit the REPLY button, which will generally answer to the group sending the message. Be aware that the REPLY ALL button will send the answer to the whole distribution list in the message header, generally creating duplicate messages, including in your own mailbox.
When answering to a message, if you do not modify the subject box, you will create a thread, i.e. a list of messages on the same subject that are later easily searchable. Change the subject line if you raise a new subject.
Avoid heavy tails to your replies : delete un-useful messages that are kept after your own reply and which increase the length of the e-mail. As a general rule, only the e-mail you are replying to should be kept.
Powers of the Moderator
Our forum or distribution lists are a place for free speech and democratic participation. However, the Moderator is in charge of maintaining the communication in good order. This role can be performed by several individuals.
The Moderator can grant access to forums or distribution lists or deny it. He can suspend, expel or ban (preventing re-enlistment) a member.
The Moderator can put a member under permanent moderation (messages need approval for being published) or suspend his posting rights.
The Moderator is sole judge of the measures to be taken. These measures are not sanctions and can be taken even if the member acts in good faith (for example if virus infected messages are sent in his name).