Our Activity Report – February 2005
This Report, summarised below describes our main activities during February 2005.
Meeting with Mr Claude Chène, Director-General of DG-ADMIN
Following a series of broken promises, a continuing lack of trust between ADMIN and personnel, A&D-L met with Mr Chêne on 2nd February with an eye to keeping the dialogue alive and to air concerns of staff.
The following topics were discussed during the meeting:
- European Schools issues in Luxembourg (budget cuts, Lux II, …)
- More Work & Less Pay, No way
- Reduced pensions
- REC/CDR & promotion problems
- Problems of the new career structure
- Reduction in salary at recruitment
- Unhappy contractual staff
- Co-decision rights for staff
- Rights of Whistleblowers and Critics
- Size is Not Everything considering Trade Unions
In the ensuing discussions, concerning the special levy and its original purpose, Mr Chêne informed us that DG ADMIN is developing a new social plan and that Mrs De Sola was the person responsible. However, he excluded that the money from the special levy would be used for its original purpose. (See our forthcoming March Activity Report for information on how we followed up in a meeting with Ms De Sola, Director of Directorate D in DG ADMIN.)
Demonstration in front of Village Pedagogic
On February 3, a delegation of A&D-L participated in the parent’s demonstration demanding a decent school for the children of Officials and others. It is not unreasonable to expect that the school (Lux II) and Study Centre should have their certificate of conformity according to the law. Instead, in our meetings as members of APEEE with the school with OIL, it has been made clear that they do not posses one. So how concerned should the Commission, the Board of Governors, the School and the Luxembourg Government be? The downside is that Lux II School may have to close as a result if legal action is pursued against it. All it would take would be one accident with personal injury on the premises.
The Future of European schools
On February 14, we were present at the presentation of the Commission on this issue. The bare statistics certainly whetted our curiosity. As a result and due to our pertinent questions, a number of problems were revealed such as:
- Underused budget for children with special needs (SEN)
- Underused budget for ALL European Schools
- No real reason why the Canteen budget has been cut
- Phenomenal failure rates in the 4th and 5th secondary
Our publications
Furthermore, during this month we also published several new tracts on:
- The madness of the Certification process
- The ills of the CDR/REC system
Helping our colleagues
Finally, this month, our legal service in association with the Alliance has been busy providing legal advice to over 300 colleagues in Luxembourg and Brussels regarding their Belgium pension transfer problems.