Annual update of salaries
The updating of remuneration and pensions, based on the Method, developed by Union Syndicale 50 years ago, is aimed at guaranteeing that our remuneration and pensions develop in parallel with the remuneration of national civil servants in the Member States.
This year, as in 2022, particularly high inflation in Belgium and Luxembourg led to an intermediate update of +1.7 %, which has been included in our remuneration and pensions since June and backdated to January 2023. This has to be deducted from the update we received in December. The 2.7 % update for 2023 has accordingly been split into 1.7 % (June 2023) and 1.0 % (December 2023).
This year’s update shows that the Method is working well and achieving its objective of ensuring our level of purchasing power remains comparable to that of national civil servants. Therefore, Union Syndicale will continue, with the staff’s help, opposing any distortion of the Method.
You will find more detailed information on the update on our website.
Internal competitions
On 24 November, our administration published the list of laureates of the internal AD competitions for translators. We are delighted to see so many of our members among the successful candidates. Congratulations to all!
We encourage our administration to continue in this way, as internal competitions are a good way to offer our colleagues appropriate career perspectives and open the way for temporary and contract agents to become officials. We at Union Syndicale supported our members throughout the entire process of the internal competition and helped them prepare for the following job interviews.
Are you interested? Send us a message and join us. We also listen to their comments and suggestions and are working to further improve the support we provide. In particular, Union Syndicale remains determined to help those who were not so lucky and have not been selected this time. We very much hope you will succeed next time!
A new internal competition for ASTs was published on 15 December 2023. Are you participating in this competition? Union Syndicale is providing support for its members at all stages of this challenging process. If you are interested, send us an email (union.syndicale@consilium.europa.eu) or watch out for our announcements.
The Picard Judgment – part 2
In our last Flash in October, Union Syndicale called on our Administration to communicate about the Picard judgment and what it means for GSC staff. The Picard judgment is a significant milestone in the Union’s commitment to defend the rights of all staff and a victory for contract and temporary agents in all EU institutions.
However, officials who started as contract or temporary agents before 2014 or 2004 and contributed without interruption to the EU pension scheme are not covered by the Picard judgment. A new decision of the European Court of Justice will be needed to ensure that they can also benefit from the more beneficial rules.
Union Syndicale Bruxelles, which has many branches including our own US Council, is now looking into cases affecting officials in the various EU institutions. We therefore invite officials who are close to retirement and had a temporary or other contract with an EU institution before 2014 to contact us. The USB lawyer will check whether there are grounds to lodge a complaint against discriminatory interpretation of the Picard judgment in their case. If so, Union Syndicale is ready to support them.
If you think you are affected and/or have any questions, please send an email to union.syndicale@consilium.europa.eu .
We will keep you updated!
Family Allowances: child’s play ?
If you have children under the age of 26 and the other parent is not an EU official, you have a duty to declare the update of your “dependent child allowance from other sources” in SYSPER.
For family allowances paid by the Belgian system, this task has become very challenging. There have been many updates to the amounts, three in 2023, six in 2022, and two in 2021 and 2020 respectively.
For parents who are separated or divorced, the task can be even more complicated. Although the approach differs depending on where you live, in Brussels – as a rule – the mother receives any children’s allowance. If the parents (married or not) separate, the fund will assume there is a continuation of shared parental responsibility and the mother continues to receive the children’s allowance. Therefore, divorced fathers working for an EU institution may depend on the mother for the requisite information from the Belgian payment fund. Other arrangements are possible depending on the agreement between the parents.
Any questions? Please send us a message:
union.syndicale@consilium.europa.eu
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