Sunil Kumar, Sumeet Thakkar, Aminata Ongoiba, and Mahbuba Abdulloeva
USHU is aware of the concern of Local Agents across the globe as they face inflation and great uncertainty. 2025 will be a critical year to review and overhaul many current decision that determine your working conditions.
LA Working Conditions
Several critical Decisions including the LA Provident Fund and the LA Complementary Sickness Insurance Scheme which came into force in June 2020, will be assessed after 5 years of implementation. The review exercise will commence in early 2025. There will be several rounds of social dialogue with Trade Unions and USHU will be at the forefront of negotiations. Similarly, the LA Salary Revision Method will also be reviewed early 2025. As in the past, USHU will hold a series of consultations with colleagues across the delegations to assess the needs of the colleagues and to be fully prepared to enter into negotiations with the administration.
Local Agent policies that are critical for financial and professional well-being
The LA Provident Fund
After a very rocky period in 2022/2023, the situation of the LA Provident fund has improved. From a negative yield, there is now a positive yield of 2.9% as of end September 2024. An additional 29 million euros has now been invested and this has contributed to the increase in returns. Investments are mostly made in EU bonds and the balance in stable, non-EU countries. The perspective for the next 5 years is positive barring major unforeseen happenings around the world.
At your repeated request, USHU is requesting the Administration to allow a partial withdrawal from the Fund for any emergencies. USHU will repeat this demand during the review of the current LAPF decision in 2025.
CONTACT USHU: if you experience any delay in the payment of your Provident Fund we will intervene and contact BHR.5 to look into your specific cases!
LA Medical
The LA Medical fund currently has a surplus of roughly 40 million. Approximately 57% of the total contributions made by the employer (3.22%) and employee (1.37%) are spent on reimbursements. USHU has requested an immediate review of the LA Medical Decision to adapt better to individual LA needs.
USHU raised the problems of minimal reimbursements available under Dental Prosthesis and the limited amount available for reimbursement of overall dental care expenses.
USHU reminded the Administration of the need for a post-retirement coverage for local agents leaving from service as there is either no or very restricted local medical coverage available for Local agents in most of the countries where they are based.
LA Salaries and the method for revision
Salaries have increased since 2022 with an average 6.69% in 2023. A total of 79 grids are finalised for 72 Delegations in 2024, 146 in 2023 and 137 in 2022. USHU advocates for MINIMUM delays in processing salary reviews to ensure that Local Agents do not pay the price for HQ delays!
SRs underlined the issue of wrong comparison of Group III and Group II in relation to certain comparators.
We advocated for transparency and BHR5 once again confirmed that the finalised salary grid can be shared with local staff for reference. The SRs asked the BHR.5 to send a note in this regard to all HODs as in several Delegations the salary grid is not shared with local staff.
Reclassification of Local Agents + Promotion and Annual appraisal exercise
USHU flagged the issue of the suspended reclassification exercise for local agents since 2013 and asked for it to be reinstated. USHU knows that there are many local agents in the wrong function groups resulting in Group II doing the same job as Group I or Group IV doing the same job of Group III.
USHU insisted on a case to case basis approach to reclassification, with a correction of function groups.
The long standing request from the LAs in Group IV who have been fighting their case to be reclassified to Group III was high on the agenda and USHU echoed their grievances.
Annual appraisal: USHU raised the irregularity that there is no formal appeal system in place for those local agents who wish to complain, other than the mediator service.
New Local Agent Recruitment policy
USHU voiced its discontent with the Administration’s proposal to apply a new policy for local agents in which they intend to limit recruitments to 2-year fixed term contracts. USHU strongly protested at this unfair practice. USHU believes this will lead to a demotivated, insecure and depressed workforce of local agents!
Regionalisation
USHU is concerned about the lack of information on DG NEAR and DG INTPA regionalisation which may lead to the downsizing of Finance and Contracts and Cooperation sections in EU DEL. USHU requests transparency from the management on decisions that will potentially affect the livelihoods of several staff categories.
Local Agents are particularly vulnerable as they cannot easily be redeployed so USHU and other trade unions need to know how best to support them. USHU requests both the EEAS and the Commission to come clean and share what is on the cards so that staff can be prepared.
Teleworking
More than a year after the EEAS Decision on teleworking for expatriates in EU DEL was adopted, there is still not Decision on Telework for Local Agents. Local Agents have clearly been left behind and are not a priority. USHU requests the Administration to adopt a DECISION for Local Agents immediately and at par with the other staff categories. In the meantime, Local Agents are indeed entitled to one day of teleworking per week.
USHU will continue to support Local Agents to ensure they have decent working conditions and career development. Join USHU and make your prospects brighter!
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