Choose a topic, have your say!

Have you ever wished to make your voice heard on a specific topic? Would you like to be the first to know about new issues concerning your working life? Are you ready to get an active role in our decision making process, by simply participating in targeted discussions from your office?
We hope your answers were positive. At R&D, we take your input very seriously and wish to be sure we really represent your ideas, and it should not take too much of your time to get involved with our activities.
So, how can you channel your contributions?  By participating to our thematic working groups and by being added to the dedicated mailing lists!
Currently the following thematic working groups have been activated:
1.       Careers (certification, internal competitions, reclassements, mobility, promotions, contractual agents, open competitions)
2.       Individual rights (salaries, pensions, correction coefficient, allowances, teleworking & flexitime, social security)
3.       Working environment (safety & security at work, offices/open space, new buildings, parking, asbestos)
4.       Social policy (Canteen, Crèches/Garderies, Clubhouse)
5.       JSIS (Joint Sickness Insurance Scheme)
6.       European School
7.       Environment

The reference persons for each thematic group together with the executive members will ensure that your valued input will be used constructively in the definition of actions and positions of R&D that will be presented to the administration.

Choose to take part in one or more of these 7 areas, and become an active R&D member!! With a minimal engagement, we can achieve better results. Let’s put our ideas together, and help us to make your thoughts to become our position, and better defend your interests!

Staff and staff representatives have sent many messages about the price increase at the canteen, and as R&D we think it's now time to clarify certain aspects. The topic is complex and many of you are understandably irritated by the entity of the increase. Our position cannot be easily explained in a few lines, so we apologise if this message is longer than we would like.

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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.

New working hours from 1st January 2014

From the start of next year and the entry into force of the new staff regulations, one of the most immediate effects on every one of us will be the introduction of the 40 hour working week.

Modifications to the standard working patterns (and to the informatics tools used for presence registration e.g. Sysper 2) and various services such as the staff bus and crèche are needed, and so is communication to staff about these changes. We would like to take the opportunity to thank our colleagues for responding to our survey on standard working patterns, the outcome of which we have communicated to the Ispra Site Director and the competent services – click here to read the letter.

We will keep you informed about further developments.

Private Parking Privileges vs. Priorities

Often "the devil is in the details" and the issue of this message is definitely a detail. However we consider the wrong priority setting by the management as the devil in this case and we fear that it is just the tip of the iceberg. We received many complaints about a proliferation of the number of reserved private parking places for some privileged colleagues. Since a specific parking place is even in a restricted/pedestrian zone we have sent a note to the President of the road safety committee and asked him - since safety is at stake - to not allow private parking anymore in this zone and to check already granted permissions. We also have written that only in exceptional cases cars could be allowed in these zones, but without parking rights unless for colleagues with a reduced mobility. Further to that we insisted to apply the principle of equal treatment of all staff and that for parking areas the same rules should apply in Brussels as well as in Ispra. Since it was not safety related, we kept the following reflection out of our note: How is it possible that on one hand the JRC is involved in many positive initiatives like the commitment for EMAS registration and the recent sustainable mobility event, but that on the other hand a less sustainable car is parked in front of the Institute for Environment and Sustainability? We believe that this is a strong but wrong signal and not a good image for the JRC.

Internet access in the JRC Ispra lodgings

Staff well-being is of paramount importance for R&D Ispra. That’s why we do our best to make the site more attractive and we welcome all kinds of initiatives and on-going activities. Just to mention two: the site development and the recent sustainable mobility event. However we believe that there is still space for improvement, especially for newcomers and their families.

We have received many request/complaints by newcomers who stay temporarily in the lodgings and who are "cut-off" from the Internet after hours, simply because in the lodgings they don't have Internet access. This means that, if not at work or in the Clubhouse (closed during the weekend and after 23h00), they don't have Internet access. Considering the many requests and because we believe that the lack of a basic 21^st Century commodity gives a very bad first impression of the JRC to new arrivals, we have sent this note to ISM in which we request immediate Internet access for these new colleagues. As you can see in this document the Commission officially endorses a policy on Internet access; in its own backyard though it is partly still missing.

R&D Ispra sincerely hopes that this remarkable and embarrassing lack of a basic commodity will be dealt with soon with the available and easily applicable (not rocket science…) technology.

Cost of Canteen services

On Tuesday you should have received a broadcast from the Secretary of the Local Staff Committee Ispra/Seville, Mr Umberto Montaretto Marullo, about the notes sent from and received by the LSC during the last year. We would like to draw your attention in particular to a note on the topic of the canteen service: you may have noticed that the LSC provides the note sent (see link) but not the answer to this note from the OIB. We wonder if this is a deliberate or accidental omission because, in common with many of these documents, the note sent by the President of the LSC has never been discussed or approved, neither in the LSC plenary meeting nor within the Canteen Committee.

For the sake of completeness, we wish to provide you with the answer given by Mr Crandon – Head of Unit OIB Ispra – that was not disclosed in the message from the LSC.

We wish to make it clear that R&D Ispra does not support the position of the LSC President on this issue and you may also refer to our note sent last year to the attention of the President of the LSC after the position taken by a trade union in Ispra regarding a similar topic.