{"id":2725,"date":"2023-07-20T14:15:06","date_gmt":"2023-07-20T12:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/u4unity.eu\/?page_id=2725"},"modified":"2023-07-26T15:47:21","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T13:47:21","slug":"problematiques-globales","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/u4unity.eu\/en\/media\/archives\/problematiques-globales\/","title":{"rendered":"General issues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/span>Reimbursement of mission expenses: the question of credit cards<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For many years, the missions service has tended to decline, both in quality and in terms of support for those sent on mission. In practice, the official or member of staff advances the mission expenses, which the institution then reimburses, with very variable delays. The end of the system of advancing expenses that the Commission used in the past – which also enabled savings to be made in human resources – was linked to the granting of a credit card, with payment deadlines of 60 days, which should enable colleagues not to be debited before receiving their reimbursement. It should also be pointed out that not all mission expenses can be paid by credit card, and the Commission has reduced the so-called staff facilities with what are now known as “modernisation” measures:
Expenses will be deducted within 30 days instead of 60 days, whereas the PMO does not necessarily reimburse within 30 days;
Officials will have to pay around EUR 5 for each paper copy of their expense statement;
Colleagues travelling outside the euro zone will have to pay an exchange commission of 2.5% of the amount of the transaction and EUR 3 per cash withdrawal instead of EUR 1 until the end of 2015. Of course, the Commission and the PMO have no plans to compensate for the additional expenses incurred by the many colleagues sent on mission outside the EU! These are no doubt new measures to ‘facilitate’ the work of colleagues on mission; or perhaps they are an illustration of the new ‘fit@work’ policy now in vogue at the Commission. The Commission and the PMO should:1- Consider missions as part of the entirety of the Commission’s work;2- Reduce the frequency of checks and therefore have confidence in the mechanisms already in place for approving requests for reimbursements.3- Intervene with the Bank Card and the PMO to ensure that the Bank Card is not used as a means of payment. Intervene with the “Bank Card Company \/ Master Card” to return to the 60-day payment deadline for this specific “corporate” contract, or to re-establish the system of advances: it is not the role of staff to act as the institution’s bank;4- Abolish the 2.5% exchange commission, or reimburse it to the project manager. Similarly, the charge for cash withdrawals outside the EU should be reverted to EUR 1 instead of EUR 3, and reimbursed, since the delegate is required to use the credit card;5- The EUR 5 charge for receiving bank statements from the card should also be abolished;6- Per diems and hotel reimbursements, which in some cases no longer cover the expenses incurred by delegates, should be reviewed. It should be noted that the ceilings have not been revised for many years.7- Refuse the envisaged reduction in per diems for missions to Luxembourg, as is apparently its intention.The Commission must therefore bring its administrative practices more into line with its declarations in favour of staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>Working conditions and professional future<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n