R&D’s CAMPAIGN FOR TRADE UNION UNITY AND AGAINST PRECARIOUS CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT
2. ACCESS TO CONTRACTS
The introduction of the “Contractual Agent” status at the time of the Kinnock reform of 2004 has been utterly disastrous for all staff who are now Contractual Agents. Everybody agrees, and they are even prepared to put it in writing, but not so many have done what we must all do now – Contractual Agents (CAs) and officials alike – and mount a challenge. R&D here sets out its work, its ambitions and its undertakings in a series of five flyers. This flyer deals with access to contracts.
Stopping the externalisation of services
The Commission is placing excessive emphasis on the externalisation of human resources and of skills and competences by imposing difficult working conditions on external staff and compromising the quality of work. A large number of activities have been handed over to outside companies.
Bringing services in-house means new employment prospects
This policy has resulted in staff scattering to the furthest corners of Europe, and is making it more difficult to apply their Staff Regulations across the board and to deal with their precarious conditions in the short term. Thanks to the work put in by R&D, a strategic debate has been relaunched on the direction being taken by externalisation of many of the Commission’s functions at all levels (e.g. can- teens, cre?ches, language teachers and an occupational health service. Several plans for externalisa- tion have been halted:
the CLOVIS cre?che has been brought in-house; the ISPRA cre?che has been brought in-house; the externalisation of the LABORATOIRE has been halted; there is to be a survey to assess the true cost-benefit of externalised services; respect for national employment law and the introduction of social clauses.
More transparency when contracts are being awarded
The greatest challenge facing us at the moment is the establishment of an open, transparent labour market with a view to giving everyone an equal chance of securing open-ended contracts (Function Group in the Commission, all Function Groups in offices, agencies, delegations and representations of the European Union) and bringing other services in-house. R&D wants all vacancies for Contractual Agents to be published on a website that is open to all. The CARL database must be used in a more transparent manner and in such a way that the information is known to all concerned.