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So,
what happened?
During the meeting of the Canteen Committee that took place
on 7 November 2013, staff representatives expressed their doubts concerning the
proposed price increase and, considering the importance of this issue, decided
that, according to a new interpretation of the rules, it was up to COPAS to
take such a decision in the occasion of the meeting already scheduled for the
following 25 November.
OIB
Proposals
OIB had presented to the
Canteen Committee the following alternative scenarios:i) stopping the service (considered as an "impossible" option),
ii) reducing the service by reducing staff (would lead to reduction of the level and quality of service offered),
iii) outsourcing as already is the case in Brussels and Luxembourg (which would bring only modest savings for the EC),
iv) increasing the prices (taking inflation 2010-2014 into account and to provide more staff, offering higher savings for the EC and making any outsourcing strategy unappealing)
R&D
position
Considering
the intransigence of certain staff representatives, we had in the weeks
beforehand initiated discussions with OIB presenting some suggestions that, if
taken into consideration, would have possibly allowed for an overall smaller
increase, spread over time. Concretely, we proposed to:a) Distribute costs evenly by increasing prices not only of the canteen, but also for other sectors, including Piccola Mensa, director's dining room and coffee services for meetings and workshops;
b) Consider the phasing in of the proposed increase over a period of time;
c) Ensure that the canteen price policy and food offerings favour the consumption of healthy meals;
d) Verify the impact of the new 40 hour working week for staff employed by OIB which could potentially lead to productivity gains.
What
happened in COPAS
COPAS normally takes decisions by consensus (agreement of all
administration and LSC nominated members). Indeed, on the occasion of the
approval of the canteen price increase, the COPAS President (Ispra Site
Director) clearly stated that without consensus he wouldn't have gone forward.
Taking into consideration all the elements above, even the LSC President Monica
G.L. Ermolli, who is also the COPAS Vice-president, expressed herself in
agreement with the full price increase as presented by OIB. She explicitly
didn't want to postpone the discussion about the price increase because she
considered not to have any elements to say that OIB's proposal was not correct.
If OIB reassured her that they had taken into consideration all the
possibilities, that the Commission doesn't offer any other possibilities, that
despite all this we are not far from the situation of all our colleagues in
other sites, honestly she didn't have any element to block such a decision. None
of the staff representatives present at the COPAS meeting rejected the
administration's proposal.
The
outcome
Unfortunately
the contradictions of the LSC President, who firstly insisted on a position of
no price increase (since 2010), then agreed on the full price increase at the
COPAS meeting, led directly to the administration and OIB being given a free
hand to implement their complete proposal.
Even
worse, the fact that the LSC President soon after changed her mind and
attempted to withdraw her approval, has led to the disastrous situation of a
LOSS OF CREDIBILITY OF STAFF REPRESENTATION IN GENERAL. Furthermore this leads
to a weakening of our negotiating power, especially in formal meetings when you
are obliged to clearly explain and defend your position!At this point we want to stress that R&D is not pleased with the resultant price increases, but at the same time was and is not a priori against reasonable and well justified adjustments, and we do believe that a more favourable result could easily have been achieved! In our opinion, refusing to recognise the reality - without considering the need to protect our social services as a whole - obviously didn't help at all.
This doesn't mean we have to agree on everything from the start, but it's also very true that a reasonable, common sense, well-argued and firm approach always pays best. A proper dialogue with the administration is more fruitful than a policy of burying your head in the sand.
This is what staff representatives are called for: full involvement in the issues allowing the possibility of negotiating from an informed and strong position. On the other hand, changing your mind according to whom is shouting louder, with an always-NO approach and without any strategy at all, is the worst gift that a staff representative can offer to staff.
Wish
to know more?
We warmly
invite all colleagues wishing to receive more detailed information to contact
our secretariat. We'll be happy to share with you in-depth analyses and data
that are in our possession and we will also be happy to receive any sensible
suggestions that you may have. Finally, we promise to evaluate the impact of the new prices on the ongoing financial situation of the OIB and put necessary pressure on the Administration to make further adjustments if it turns out that the reality does not correspond with their forecasting.
