More than 35 years ago, when Laurence entered the General Secretariat of the Council, following in her father’s footsteps, she did not imagine that one day she would leave her office for the last time with a little lump in her throat.

It was thanks to the Union Syndicale’s pension calculation that she understood exactly when she would be entitled to a full pension of 70%. It was a pleasant surprise. She could retire early with a full pension before she turned 60. Her father had also wanted to retire early, but he abandoned the idea because, before 2004, it was much less favourable. It was the reform negotiated by Union Syndicale that made things better.

Admittedly, as in all Member States, the normal retirement age has gradually increased, but leaving earlier is now much easier:

– as Laurence has more than 35 years of career, the ‘penalty’ for early departure is calculated on all her rights and the result is capped at 70%; before 2004, the penalty was higher and was applied to a pension already capped at 70%;

– she will continue to receive family allowances for her two children who are still dependent, who will also remain covered by our health insurance scheme (JSIS), contrary to what was done before; that was what had deterred her father from taking early retirement.

Finally, for Laurence, this reform, which got such a bad press from the other unions, also had a lot of good sides. And the progress on pension was preserved in 2014, unlike careers. ‘Perhaps if Union Syndicale had succeeded in mobilising staff in the other institutions as it was able to do at the Council, and especially if the other trade unions had followed, there would not have been all these career blockages’.

Laurence is jolted out of her daydreams by the arrival of Cristian, a Romanian colleague. He is upset because he still does not know when he will be able to retire or how it will be calculated. Since 2006, he has worked as a contract agent and then as a temporary agent before becoming an official and the PMO considers that he entered service after 2014. He has brought an appeal but he is still awaiting judgment. It is a good thing he was a member of Union Syndicale, which is funding a very significant proportion of his appeal, because his AST 3 salary does not allow him to pay the lawyer’s fees, let alone if he is obliged to go on appeal.

‘Yes, Giustino is still kicking himself,’ Laurence reminded him. He had started working at a very young age in his country and transferred his rights, the equivalent of almost ten years. But since he is a FG I contract agent, he will in any case receive the minimum pension, which will be the same as if he had not made the transfer. Except that, in that case, he would also have had a small pension from his home country. If he had addressed Union Syndicale, he would have been warned and he would not have accepted the transfer. But his union gave no such warning and once he realised, it was too late to do anything about it.

‘There is also this famous 5-year marriage rule,’ Laurence continued. ‘If an official dies, the surviving spouse is entitled to a survivor’s pension if they have been married for at least one year. But if a pensioner dies, they have to have been married for at least five years. That absurdity is also being challenged at the Court of Justice.’

‘And now Union Syndicale is fighting for my actual date of entry into service — and that of hundreds of other colleagues — to be taken into account for the calculation,’ Cristian added. ‘You really gave me good advice when I arrived in your department by showing me everything Union Syndicale had done and everything it could still do for me.’

“Yes, one can really wonder what the situation of officials and other staff would really be if Union Syndicale had not been around for 50 years to defend them, whether in negotiations or in court.’

At that time, they hear a hubbub in the corridor: Laurence’s colleagues and friends who came to wish her a happy and long retirement are beginning to arrive. Everything is ready to welcome them. And Laurence knows that another good news awaits her: as of tomorrow, her contribution to Union Syndicale will halve. Because she will of course remain a member of the union. First out of solidarity with her colleagues, but also and above all because she may still need help: family allowances, JSIS, salary adjustments and pensions, all of which continue to concern her personally and with regard to which she could find herself powerless before the administration if she did not have the support of Union Syndicale.