3 YEARS WITH R&D – 2021/2024

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With the health crisis, we had to learn to work differently, online and in a hybrid format, to break isolation, be as close as possible to your needs, and strengthen the tie between us.

More than 60,000 of you followed and re-watched our online conferences!

More than 8,000 of you attended our training sessions for the competitions and CAST organised by EPSO, without R&D asking you to pay a single penny!

Our specialised lawyers handled over 2,500 individual requests and several appeals before the Court of Justice.

More than 10,000 of you took part in our Parmesan solidarity action.

Thanks to your generosity, we raised nearly 80,000 EUR in donations.

FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS, THANK YOU!

R&D has called for focusing staff policy on a culture of trust, particularly regarding flexible working!

With the pandemic, teleworking became the golden rule. You demonstrated that service continuity was assured even when working outside the place of assignment. To protect your health, we demanded the right to disconnect.

We have achieved significant progress, but we still need your support for all that remains to be done…

R&D has called for a safe working environment and conditions.

R&D was the first trade union to alert to the emergence of psychosocial risks by identifying risk factors and calling for a revision of the harassment prevention policy. Relentlessly, for over 8 years, with the best experts, its lawyers, and its team, R&D has kept pushing for change while successfully assisting victims in all officially recognised cases.

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After lengthy negotiations with Commissioner Hahn, a new anti-harassment policy is now in place, including several of our demands, starting with the appointment of the Chief Confidential Counselor!

However, there is still more to be done. That is why R&D will propose a new psychosocial risk prevention policy to the new Commissioner!

R&D has raised concerns about the risks associated with the new work environment, the Dynamic Collaborative Space (DCS)!

R&D intervenes at the CPPT (Health and Safety Committee) for adapting workspaces to tasks, professions, and personal situations, and calls for mandatory consultation with staff!

R&D:

  • Fought tirelessly for the defence of our colleagues in precarious situations by calling for all possible opportunities for the granting of permanent tenure to those colleagues.
  • Has called for the Commission to recognise the quality of work and dedication of its staff by offering real career prospects, particularly through a genuine internal competition policy, securing the organisation of the first internal competition for the benefit of our AST-SC colleagues following this request.
  • Secured the establishment of a diversity and anti-discrimination policy!
  • Has always been at the forefront of the fight against practices such as “parachuting” at the end of Commission mandates or abuses of the revolving doors, practices which, on the one hand, undermine the credibility of our public service and the reputation of our institution, and on the other hand, provoke critical reactions from the press, anger, and demotivation among our staff.

R&D is on the front line and the only trade union that defends the ethics and image of our institution and the European Union through the media in order to raise public awareness.

Hundreds of newspaper articles testify to our positions and our strength of attack.

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R&D has organised conferences and debates on:

  • Décembre 2024: La Commission sous l’ère Trum par les journalistes de Politico ( replay )
  • Juin 2024: Analyse des résultats des élections européennes par les journalistes de Politico (replay )
  • Avril 2024: Création d’un organe interinstitutionnel chargé des questions d’éthique ( replay )
  • Mars 2024: QATARGATE: enquête et révélations sur le scandale qui ébranle l’Europe ( replay )

In addition to the Barroso/Kroes affair (see ) and the parachuting affair ( see), R&D has denounced :

  • Octobre 2023 : Procédure de nomination de l’économiste en chef de la DG COMP ( lire )
  • Décembre 2022 : Qatargate (lire)
  • Avril 2021 : Sofagate ( lien )
  • Novembre 2020 : l’application de l’art. 50 du Statut au bénéfice de l’ancien DG de l’OLAF (lire)
  • Depuis 2018, l’affaire de harcèlement au CESE ( lire )

Over the last three years, R&D has worked rigorously and explored all possibilities to ensure equal treatment and real career prospects for ALL.

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To achieve these results, R&D has:

  • Worked tirelessly within the local and central staff committees and joint committees.
  • Been a pioneer in organising internal competitions for all grades (AD, AST, AST-SC, CA), particularly when the Commission was not following the lead of other institutions:
  • R&D achieved unprecedented results, such as the first-ever internal competition open to AST-SC staff.
  • Conducted a thorough analysis of thousands of individual cases during promotion and reclassification exercises.
  • Supported colleagues in their appeals against their supervisor’s evaluation or non-promotion.
  • Been the main union behind the application and effective monitoring of the reclassification exercise and the implementation of Article 13 within the OIB, PMO, etc.
  • Closely monitored the correct and fair execution of the certification exercise.
  • Continued dialogue with the administration to improve the working and career conditions of staff in delegations, including recognition of work outside working hours, non-recognition of on-call duties, etc.

With the help of these experts, R&D has called for:

  • Revising the harassment decision from 2016, when the Commission adopted a Zero Tolerance policy but recognised only one case. R&D secured the creation of the creation of the post of Chief Confidential Counselor (CCC).
  • Recognising psychosocial pathologies as occupational diseases.
  • Establishing professional risk assessments.

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Over the last three years, R&D has:

  • Been the only union actively involved in primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention of psychosocial risks, including harassment and burnout.
  • Defended individual cases and achieved positive outcomes for all recognised harassment cases, some of which have been publicised.
  • Presented an analysis of psychosocial risks and provided proposals.
  • Called for strengthening the medical service, including the recruitment of occupational physicians, ergonomists, etc.
  • Firmly negotiated the hybrid working decision, requesting:
  • Consideration of personal requests for full-time teleworking, including remote work abroad.
  • The establishment of a joint committee.
  • The right to disconnect.
  • Specific training for managers.
  • Been radical in shaping new workspaces to ensure:
  • The adaptability of spaces according to tasks and occupations.
  • Workstations for people with disabilities or health issues are suited to their needs.
  • Staff are consulted and must participate in the arrangement of their workspace.
  • Demanded the PMA (Parental Medical Allowance) for ALL.
  • Presented an analysis of supplementary insurance policies with our partners.

To achieve these results, R&D has:

  • Been on the front line during social negotiations for all these matters.
  • Appointed its representatives to joint committees, including key positions such as at the CPPT.
  • Participated in all the work of the Local and Central Staff Committees.

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Our conferences are eagerly awaited and well attended by our colleagues. Since 2021, we have had over 60,000 participants and conference revisits. Some conferences have even attracted more than 1,000 participants per session.

Topics covered at these conferences

  • Ethics and the European Union
  • Legal conferences
  • Promotion-reclassification
  • JSIS – Supplementary insurance
  • Prevention of psychosocial risks,
  • Managing through trust
  • New work organisations
  • European schools
  • And our unmissable Bruno Humbeeck events

Sébastien ORLANDI

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In this respect, it was gratifying to note that, thanks to this legal assistance, several individual decisions were corrected.

The consultations focused in particular on the following subjects:

  • Grading, promotion, selection procedures.
  • Disciplinary procedure.
  • Pension rights.
  • Determination of rights on entry into service (grade classification, place of recruitment / origin).
  • Outside activities, freedom of expression.
  • Control of absences.
  • Invalidity/accident procedures.
  • IDOC / OLAF procedures.
  • Moral and sexual harassment.
  • Dismissal and non-renewal of contract.
  • Distance learning test procedures (EPSO)
  • Place of residence
  • Teleworking/Flexitime

Since 2020, R&D has supported ‘Court of Justice’ cases

  • On 8 September 2020, the Court annulled the judgment of the General Court of the European Union of 4 December 2018, Carreras Sequeros and Others v Commission (T-518/16, EU:T:2018:873), in which the provisions relating to annual leave had been declared contrary to the Charter of Fundamental Rights (right to annual leave and equal treatment) by the General Court.
  • On appeal, the Court of Justice confirmed the validity of the new provisions of the Staff Regulations in its judgment of 25 March 2021 in the case of Alvarez and Ardalic v Council – right to annual leave abolished for non-expatriates.
  • The Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice delivered a judgment on 15 December 2022 in the Picard v Commission case in which the judgment of the Court of First Instance was set aside. According to the Court, the transitional measures for calculating pension rights apply in the event of the conclusion of a new contract or a change in the type of contract (AT/AC).
  • Unfair dismissal: Sucic v Commission – dismissal of a close security guard, without establishment of the facts giving rise to the dismissal by the Commission – annulment by judgment of the Court of First Instance of 8 May 2024.

R&D supports the following ongoing cases:

  • Lahoz v Commission: loss of transferred pension rights not taken into account under the rule for calculating the settlement of rights (the ‘minimum subsistence’ rule).
  • Scharf v Commission: application of the new rules on pension rights in the event of a succession of contracts (AT/AC) and uninterrupted appointment as a civil servant.

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The health crisis forcing us to work 100% from home has been a challenge for the organisation of our daily activities. R&D has always been close to its colleagues, organising events, outreach activities, conferences and training courses, all face-to-face.

Since the health crisis, all courses have been online.

Since December 2022, we have had more than 8,000 participants. These courses have been given by the same trainers for years, to the satisfaction of the participants. What’s more, our active and retired members have also provided free training in preparation for the talent screener and the new European Union tests.

We are a union of solidarity and we have demonstrated this through our various actions and support, starting with our unconditional support for the Schuman Trophy over the years, our volunteering actions and, since 2017, the launch of our Parmesan solidarity sale, which has been a huge success. To date, we have over 20,000 participants with impeccable management provided by the Political Secretariat.

This has enabled us to help the victims of the earthquakes in Italy, to help shepherds who could no longer sell their cheese stocks, and subsequently to help develop an online platform to support the mental health of hundreds of teenagers affected by the war in Ukraine.

In 2023-2024, donations provided electricity to victims of the earthquakes in Morocco and continued to support victims of the war in Ukraine.

In 2024/2025, part of the donations will go to our friends at Cancer Support Group to help cancer patients and their families, and the other part to cancer research.