LEGAL NEWSLETTER OF UNION SYNDICALE – BRUXELLES
This is a new legal service to you: Staff Matters. Union Syndicale will keep you regularly informed about latest developments in EU case law on staff matters and other useful legal news relevant for staff.
It will treat subjects like e.g. your rights in promotion, invalidity, entitlements and benefits, pension, the duty of care, holidays, insurance, damage claims, filing complaints and procedural questions as well as deadline observance.
This is to increase your knowledge and capacity to defend your rights appropriately.
Staff Matters #15
We report in this newsletter about a recent decision of the General Court confirming the staff’s right to strike. The Court ruled that during an action of strike the European Parliament (EP) had no legal basis to requisition interpreters and conference interpreters. The right to strike is a fundamental right of staff stipulated in Art. 28 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
Staff Matters #14
This newsletter deals with the entitlement of the surviving spouse of an official to receive a pension after the death of the official. Such a survivor’s pension was denied in a case recently decided upon by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The ECJ confirms that the Commission was right in refusing a survivor’s pension to the husband of an official with whom he had not been married for the required time of one full year. A status as cohabitant (i.e. their status for the period before being married) does not fulfil the strict requirements of “marriage” in the sense of the Staff Regulations.
Staff Matters #13
This newsletter focuses on the calculation of transferred pension rights from the national pension scheme to the European Union pension scheme. The General Court had decided that the Commission was not allowed to always deduct from the updated capital actually transferred, an interest at 3.1%1 per year in respect of the period between the date on which the application for transfer was made and the date of the actual transfer.
Staff Matters #12
This newsletter deals with a recent decision of the General Court on the question whether the law allows a superior to be an impartial appeal body for review of the appraisal report of a staff member, in case the same superior had played an important role in setting up the respective appraisal report before, as a reporting officer.
Staff Matters #11
This newsletter deals with the Commission’s power of initiative in relation to the rights of civil servants and employees of central government administrations of Member States to be consulted and informed. Can the Commission be forced to submit a proposal for a decision of the Council that would implement an Agreement put forward by the Social Partners in accordance with Art. 155 TFEU?
Staff Matters #10
This newsletter treats a recent case on contract termination during sick leave. The General Court annulled the dismissal decision of the European Environment Agency and awarded certain allowances to the applicant as well as compensation of 6,000 Euro for non-material damage suffered.
Staff Matters #9
This newsletter is dedicated to the subject of discrimination based on language. It presents two recent judgments of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Justice. Differences of treatment based on language are, in principle, not allowed in the procedures for selecting staff for the EU institutions.
Staff Matters #8
In this issue, we will be looking at actions brought following the reform of the Staff Regulations which entered into force in 2014. Travel expenses, travelling time, annual leave, career capping, salary adjustment, increase in retirement age… Five years after the reform entered into force, many actions have not yet been definitively settled.
Staff Matters #7
This newsletter on a decision of the General Court of 8 May 2019 treats a question with considerable practical significance for all staff approaching or having reached their retirement age. The Court decided that it is not allowed to place an official on leave in the interests of the service if the person has already reached his/her pensionable age.
Staff Matters #6
This issue of Staff Matters focuses on the diploma requirements for participating in EPSO competitions. Recognition of qualifications, notice of EPSO competition, diploma, open competition, full legal education, how to find your way around?
Staff Matters #5
This issue of Staff Matters #5 deals with a recent decision of the Court on pension rights, particularly on the question whether there is a continuity of service for the EU and – related to this – whether previous, more beneficial, provisions on pension apply, although the official during most of her career has not worked in the Commission, but within EU agencies with new temporary contracts.
Staff Matters #4
This issue of Staff Matters will focus on the invalidity allowance. The applicant in case RI / Council, having worked for several years as translator for the Council, suffered from health problems at her left hand. The procedure to acknowledge her illness as an occupational disease under Art. 73 Staff Regulations (SR) was successful, while the Council refused to acknowledge that her permanent
invalidity under Art. 78 SR also resulted from an occupational disease.
Staff Matters #3
In this issue of Staff Matters, we will examine some cases where taking a decision or communicating it took an excessive time and the damages awarded by the Court. It has handed down a number of decisions relating to disciplinary procedures in cases where the procedures were unjustified from the outset or had not been immediately terminated once it turned out that they were not justified.
Staff Matters #2
In this second issue of Staff Matters, we will focus on the assistance that is – or should be – given by institutions to victims of harassment. In Case T-275/17, Curto, a Member of Parliament (MEP) requested the employing authority to terminate her assistant’s (the applicant of the case) contract by stating that the assistant, without permission, had not come to work for one week. The assistant submitted a request for assistance by the EP (Art. 24 Staff Regulations) and reported that the MEP had insulted her with humiliating and scornful language, threats and insults.
Staff Matters #1
The first edition will focus on the right to be heard. The rights of the defence constitute a fundamental principle of EU law. The person concerne must be given the opportunity, before the drawing up of a decision adversely affecting him, to make his views effectively known as to the truth and relevance of the facts and circumstances on which that decision was based. The right to be heard implies that the person concerned must have the possibility of influencing the decision-making process at issue.