U4U and the Staff Committee

The Staff Committee represents the interests of staff within the institution and cooperates in the smooth running of services.

The Staff Committee (CdP) is a statutory body (Article 9 §3 of the Staff Regulation) whose function is to:

to represent the interests of staff vis-à-vis the institution,
to cooperate in the smooth running of the services by providing an advisory opinion on any difficulty of a general nature relating to the interpretation and application of the Staff Regulations.

Dialogue between the CoPs and the administration (represented by the Director General of DG HR) takes place through the contact committees (Coco).

Internal organisation

From an organisational point of view, the CoP is made up of

a Central Staff Committee (CSC)
8 local sections corresponding to the main places of employment (Brussels, Luxembourg, Ispra/Séville, Karlsruhe, Petten, Geel, France et “outside Union“).

The members of the Local Staff Committees (LSCs) are elected by the staff at their place of employment for a three-year term.

Members of the U4U list at the Brussels CLP

Results of the Brussels CLP elections (2022)

Full member	Substitute member
VLANDAS Georges	MENENDEZ VALLINA Anabel
GERVAISE Anne	CAMARA Ramata
CAELEN Yves	LENGENFELDER Maria
POSLUSZNA Anna	ANDREONE Fabrice

Élus de la liste U4U au CLP de Luxemboug

Results of the Luxembourg CLP elections (2022)

Full member	Substitute member
BRITTES NUNES Margarida – Vice-présidente du Bureau	CARDOSO Sergio

Représentants de U4U au CCP de la Commission

Full member	Substitute member
VALLINA MENENDEZ Annabelle
GERVAISE Anne
CAELEN Yves (Vice-président Bureau)	CAMARA Rama (Vice-présidente Bureau)

Participation in various committees and working groups

Participation of RS U4U / USHU: You can contact our representatives if necessary.

1 – On behalf of the CCP

Inter-institutional committees

Coparco (Commission paritaire commune)	CAELEN Yves, ISLAMAJ Agim
Comité du Statut	CAELEN Yves
Comité de gestion de l’Assurance Maladie (Sickness fund)	GERVAISE Anne

Statutory committees

COPAR Commission paritaire

FERRAZZOLI Angelo, OPREANA Elena Corina (LUX)

Careers

Comité paritaire de suivi de l’exercice des promotions CPSEP	CAELEN Yves (S)
Comités paritaires de promotion AD	MENENDEZ VALLINA Anabel, CAMARA Rama, MAIRATE Andrea
Groupe de travail promotion AD	MENENDEZ VALLINA Anabel, CAMARA Rama, MAIRATE Andrea
Comités paritaires de promotion AST – AST/SC	GERVAISE Anne, CAELEN Yves
Groupe de travail promotion AST – AST/SC	GERVAISE Anne, CAELEN Yves, ISLAMAJ Agim, JUAN LINARES Victor
Comité paritaire pour la procédure de certification	MENENDEZ VALLINA Anabel
Comité de reclassement des AT du CCR, GROW, RTD, OLAF	JUAN LINARES Victor
Comité paritaire de reclassement des AC 3 bis	ISLAMAJ Agim
Comité paritaire pour l’insuffisance professionnelle	CAELEN Yves, MAIRATE Andrea
Conseils de discipline	MAIRATE Andrea, JUAN LINARES Victor
Groupe technique de coordination concours Recherche GT-CCR
Groupe ad hoc	VLANDAS Penelope, ISLAMAJ Agim

Social committees

Conseil d’administration pour les Services sociaux	CAMARA Rama, GROSJEAN Patrice
Comité paritaire pour le remboursement des frais scolarité exceptionnels RFSCE	JUAN LINARES Victor
Commission consultative pour l’octroi de prêts et de secours

Conseils de Direction

Conseil de Direction du PMO
Conseil de direction EPSO	STEPHANY Jean-Luc

Autres

Comité paritaire pour l’égalité des chances COPEC	CAMARA Rama, LIPSZYC Barbara
Comité directeur de la Formation
Groupe d’accompagnement Ecoles européennes	VLANDAS PENELOPE

2 – CLP Brussels

MENENDEZ VALLINA Anabel – membre du Bureau
CPPT Comité paritaire de Prévention et de Protection au travail	JUAN-LINARES Victor
CPRE Comité paritaire de Gestion des restaurants et de l’économat	JUAN-LINARES Victor
COCEPE Comité paritaire de gestion du Centre de la Petite enfance	VLANDAS Penelope
COPAS Comité paritaire des Actions sociales	CAMARA Rama

3 – CLP Luxembourg

BRITTES NUNES Margarida – Vice-présidente du Bureau
Comité de sécurité, d’hygiène embellissement des lieux de travail (CSHT)	DE MIGUEL Francisco
Restaurants et cafétérias (CPGRC)	OPREANA ELENA Corina
Comité des activités Sociales (CAS)
Commission paritaire commune (COPARCO)	MIETZNER Carmen

Employee representation reform: nothing to move on

The Commission offered an opportunity to improve the way in which staff representation operates. For the time being, staff representation and the trade unions have failed to seize this opportunity.

Improvements were urgently needed, for example to

give each workplace the opportunity to have a local committee – Seville does not have one;
allow each location to have the same weight on the central committee; the Non-Union is under-represented, while Luxembourg and the JRC sites are over-represented;
ensure equal treatment between union lists, some of which take part in the elections under different names, which gives them an advantage over organisations which, as is normal, only stand with one list;
electing the central staff committee and its local committees at the same time: today, 7 months after the elections, for example, the constitution of the central committee bodies has not been completed, and there is even a risk that it will be called into question by the elections for the Luxembourg local staff committee, which will be elected next November.

The reform of staff representation is necessary, even if it calls into question acquired situations or advantages. It is necessary to enable staff to be better represented and to take on the new challenges when the Member States want to call the Staff Regulations into question. The greatest fears are permitted at this level since even certain lists for the European elections in May 2019, which are considered to be European, are proposing to call into question the European civil service.

Only the unity of the staff and the strengthening of its staff representation will be able to oppose this effectively.

24/05/2019

Let’s improve staff representation at the Commission.

Negotiations are underway on this subject. If they are successful, staff representation and social dialogue will be strengthened.

U4U opts for a single staff committee for the whole Commission elected at the same time as its local sections, with the same electoral rules: we advocate proportional representation. These elections are organised on the basis of electoral colleges representing the different workplaces. Some workplaces also need to be represented, for example Seville, which is not represented at present. It will also be necessary to redress the balance between workplaces. Brussels, for example, needs to be better represented.

This will enable the staff committee to get to work straight away, which is not the case with the current system. For information, it should be noted that three months after the last elections to the Brussels and Hors Union staff committees, neither the Brussels nor the Hors Union local committees have been fully set up, nor has the Central Staff Committee team, formed from the various local committees, been set up.

This change, which we are proposing, is necessary if things are to function properly.

Request to postpone the election date and negative response from DG HR (Feb 2018)

Working paper: U4U proposals on the reform of staff representation (Feb 2018)

The DG HR of the European Commission wants to review how the social dialogue is conducted. In a note addressed to all trade-unions, DG HR calls for ideas and contributions with a view to opening a formal concertation (Nov 2017)

This document, sent out by DG HR’s social dialogue unit in response to various requests from staff representatives, invites us to revisit the 4 major texts organising social dialogue at the Commission.

This invitation to dialogue provides a unique opportunity to improve the way we operate as staff representatives, to enable all workplaces – like SEVILLE – to finally have their own committee, to synchronise electoral rhythms, and so on.

It is important to ensure that the positive results of this social dialogue become a reality from 2018. Let’s not put off until the Greek calends the changes demanded by staff representation.

Central and Local Staff Committees (SC)

The Staff Committees represent the interests of the staff vis-à-vis the Institution and contributes to the smooth running of the service. They are the equivalent of ‘Work Council’, ‘Comité du personnel’ or ‘Comité d’entreprise’ of middle to large companies in the private sector.

European Works Councils are bodies representing the European employees of a company. Through them, workers are informed and consulted by management on the progress of the business and any significant decision at European level that could affect their employment or working conditions. Member States are to provide for the right to establish European Works Councils in companies or groups of companies with at least 1000 employees in the EU or EEA, when there are at least 150 employees in each of two Member States (see directive 2006/109/EC).

Role

In the European Commission, the Staff Committees are an elected statutory body which represent all officials and other agents of the Commission vis-à-vis the Administration and the College of Commissioners to ensure that the rules established by the Commission as regards staff are fully respected. Their function is:

to represent the interests of the staff vis-à-vis the Institution,
to contribute to the smooth running of the service by delivering consultative opinion on general issues related to the interpretation and application of the Staff Regulations.

The role and the function of the Staff Committee is

to participate in the application of the rules and regulations implementing the staff policy as negotiated by the trade unions and professional organisations of the Commission in order to ensure they are in conformity with agreements reached.
to play a consultative or participative role in helping staff to resolve problems through a series of statutory and administrative committees.

To this effect, the Staff Committees :

designate staff representatives to either statutory or joint committees.
delegate a part of their competencies, as regards particular work requirements, to sectoral staff delegations.
will question the Administration on any deviations or erroneous interpretations of agreements.

Therefore, the role of the Staff Committees is central to the protection of Staff interests, both collective and individual. The representatives in the statutory or joint committees play a crucial role to ensure that rules are applied with fairness in litigious cases.

Structure

The particular case of EU delegations

Composition of the CSC of the European Commission

Local Staff Committee	Composition (full members + equivalent number of alternates)	Delegation to the Central Staff Committee
Brussels	27	19 full members + 19 alternates
Luxemburg	20	7 full members + 7 alternates
Ispra – Sevilla	21	7 full members + 7 alternates
Karlsruhe	8	1 full members + 2 alternates
Geel	7	1 full members + 2 alternates
Petten	7	1 full members + 2 alternates
France	4	1 full members + 2 alternates
Outside Union	14	3 full members (with at least 1 official and 1 local agent) + 4 alternates

Statutory General Meeting of Civil Servants

Article 1 of Annex II of the Staff Regulations defines the role and competences of the statutory GA which are the following:

To lay down the conditions for election to the local section, if the Staff Committee is organised in local sections (which is the case); and
To lay down the manner in which the members of the Central Committee are appointed for each place of employment.

As a result, the GA is competent for the adoption/modification of the electoral rules applicable for its place of employment.

Electoral process

In application of the current electoral rules, the main role of the GA is to appoint the members of the electoral office and set the date of the elections but in no case the duration of the mandate established by the Staff Regulations (three years) can be extended.

Duration of mandates

Article 1 of Annex II to the Staff Regulations provides: “The Staff Committee shall comprise the members thereof, together with their alternates if any, whose term of office shall be three years. The appointing authority of each institution may, however, decide to fix a shorter term of office, which may not be less than one year.” As a result, if the duration mandate of Staff Committee members can be shortened by decision of the AIPN, it cannot be extended beyond 3 years.

It should be clarified that this is not an issue of rules being imposed by the Administration but pertains to the legal framework set by the Staff Regulations. In that regard, the very existence and competences granted to the GA are foreseen by the Staff Regulations which are a higher ranking legal norm than the electoral regulation and which binds the GA. The sovereignty of the GA is constrained by its competences as granted by the staff regulations.

The competence of the statutory GA in the context of electoral process is only to appoint the members of electoral office and set the elections date within the limits of the 3 years mandate established by the Staff Regulations.

Any motion which would consist in requesting the creation or deletion of a local section of the Staff Committee is outside the scope of competence of the GA as the decision on the organisation of the Staff Committee in local sections rests exclusively with the Administration. Such motions will have no legal and binding effect of any kind.

Agenda

Can points not communicated to staff in advance be added to the agenda of the “Statutory General Assembly”? Additional points can be added to the agenda as long as they are communicated in advance to staff members. If they are added to the agenda during the meeting, such points should be approved by vote of the attendants. Yet, for these additional points to produce any “effet utile” they should fall within the scope of competences of the GA.

Linguistic regime

Is the General Assembly allowed to demand to apply a linguistic regime that is more restrictive than the one formally in place (use of EN, FR, DE as working languages)? How should the languages of the hosting country where the local section is located, be treated? Article 342 TFUE provides that “[t]he rules governing the languages of the institutions of the Union shall, without prejudice to the provisions contained in the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union, be determined by the Council, acting unanimously by means of regulations”.

Pursuant to Article 342 TFEU, Regulation No 1 determining the languages to be used by the EEC (OJ 17, 6.10.1958, p. 385) was adopted. It derives therefrom that the working languages of the Commission are the same as the EU official languages [i.e. the 24 languages]. Yet, for historical reasons, EN DE FR are the only working languages used in practice within the Commission. In addition, only the EU institutions are competent to stipulate in their rules of procedure which of the languages are to be used in specific cases, the General Assembly has no competence in that regard.

It follows from these considerations that the General Assembly cannot apply a restrictive linguistic regime to participating staff members. As a result, staff members can choose to express themselves for example in FR, DE, EN, ES or IT. Any restrictive linguistic regime could infringe the freedom of expression of the attendants.

Nonetheless, it should also be borne in mind that DG SCIC does not provide interpretation for internal meetings and staff members should be informed that no interpretation will be ensured during the General Assembly. Depending on the chosen language they will have to run the risk of not being understood by a majority of participants.

Equality of participants

Is it acceptable that members of Trade Unions may benefit of longer time for their interventions compared to other staff? The Chairman of the General Assembly, i.e. the president of the local section of the staff committee, is responsible for policing the discussions and votes. In accordance with article 1 of Annex II to the Staff Regulations, (i) every official of the institution shall be entitled to vote and stand for election (as well as other servants under the conditions set in article 7 of the CEOS) and (ii) the General Assembly is constituted of the officials and other agents of the Institution in service at the relevant place of employment. Therefore, granting longer times of intervention to members of the OSP in comparison to other staff members could indeed give rise to accusations of unequal treatment. As a consequence each attendant can take the floor during an equal time slot defined by the chair of the GA.

Participants from other places of employment

Is staff not belonging to the local section allowed to take the floor during the GA? The Chairman of the GA can give the floor to staff members who are not employed in the local section, but should make sure that such staff members do not vote as it would violate the Staff Regulations.

NB. This article is about the ‘Statutory General Assemblies’. OSP can also call for ‘General Meetings’ (Assemblées générales) with a view to consulting the Staff or deciding industrial actions.

Trade Unions and Staff Associations (OSPs)

The central function of a trade union is to represent people at work and to protect their interests.

The existence of strong and recognized trade unions is a pre-requisite to industrial peace. Decisions taken through the process of collective bargaining and negotiations between employer and unions are more influential. Trade unions are helpful in effective communication between the workers and the management. They provide the advice and support to ensure that the differences of opinion do not turn into major conflicts. They also play an important educational role, organizing courses for their members on a wide range of matters. Seeking a healthy and safe working environment is also prominent feature of union activity.

Role of a Trade Union

Trade unions are organisations that represent people at work. Their purpose is to protect and improve people’s pay and conditions of employment. They also campaign for rules and policies which will benefit working people.

Trade unions exist because an individual worker has very little power to influence decisions that are made about his or her job. By joining together with other workers, there is more chance of having a voice and influence.

Trade unions aim to further its members’ interests, inter alia by :

Negotiating employment conditions and job descriptions
Obtaining satisfactory rates of pay and correct career perspectives
Protecting or improving working conditions, such as health and safety and equal opportunities
Protecting workers jobs and employment
Protecting individuals, if there is a problem at work
Securing adequate work facilities

Most “collective bargaining” takes place quietly and agreements are eventually reached by the union and the employer. Occasionally disagreements do occur and the two sides cannot agree. In these cases, the union may decide to take industrial action. Industrial action takes different forms: it could mean an over time ban, a work-to-rule or a strike…

Role in the European Commission

The Trade Unions defend the general interest of the staff of the Institution. They maintain stable and structured relations with the Administration, even though they are not statutory organs.

The Agreement on Relations between the European Commission and the Trade Unions and Staff Associations (“Framework Agreement”) defines that social dialogue may relate to any matters relating to staff policy and the working conditions of officials and other servants.

However concertation procedures can only apply to a modification of the existing rules or a creation of new rules, without prejudice to the statutory competences of the Staff Committee. Concertations may be held on administrative (with the Director of the relevant services), technical (with DG HR) and political (with the Commissionner in charge of HR) levels.

U4U is a general union that represents staff from several Institutions belonging to the European Union or being considered as European intergovernmental organisations.

Why should you join a Trade Union and this one in particular ?

Unions are made up of the people who want to have their voice heard, their interests promoted, their claims presented to the employer. If you stay out, you will have no or little influence.

Unions are effective. Of course, they cannot completely reverse a political trend that results from general elections. But they often can limit the adverse effects of policies and negotiate changes to a project. The capacity of unions to resist and negotiate is a direct result of the volume of their membership and influence in social elections. In other words, the strength of a Union comes from its members and no other source.

U4U is an organisation that is non-bureaucratic, assertive, creative and full of fighting spirit. Contrary to some other unions, you can easily participate to shaping our policies and elaborating our claims. All you have to do is to turn in our internal meetings (see invitations on the home page of this website) and become an active member.

Not all trade unions are the same.
Make your own judgment. If you want to know us better before joining, please read our press. Thus, you will have a good view on who we are, what we are fighting for and what are our achievements.

U4U :

is defending a European construction that serves citizens
is active all the time and do not only wake up at election time.
defends all staff (Civil Servants and contractual agents, AD and AST grades, pre- and post-2004 staff) (Particular case of Staff in the Agencies)
builds unity, promotes a united front and common actions
knows the issues and makes proposals that are well constructed and argued. Therefore U4U is recognised as a valid negotiation partner.