AUX-AC-AT: 15/01/2009 - Hearing AUX-AT-AC
As you know the hearing about our legal action was held
at the Court of Justice of Luxembourg last Thursday 15th January 2009.
The hearing was attended by about 90 people of which
about 30 contractual agents from Ispra. Furthermore, a strong
representative from the trade unions sustaining the action were present
(US-I and R&D from Ispra, of course, and main representatives from
Brussels and
Luxembourg).
It has been a very interesting adventure and although the
journey lasted about ten hours we had the opportunity to know
each other better and of course….we had fun!
Nothing can be said about the final result until the
sentence will be given. Anyhow, it can be noticed that the judges posed
very precise questions to both our lawyer and the Commission's one (a
Council
lawyer took part in the hearing as well to support the
Commission).
Questions were focused on basic and general principles;
we had the impression that the Court was really interested in the
matter and tried to retrieve as many elements as possible before
taking a
decision. In general, they insisted a lot on the legal
basis on which M. Louis was supposed to fund his (our) arguments.
The main topics of the discussion were:
- The procedural aspects of the legal action (timing,
joining of many
different personal cases together, completeness of the
documentation
provided);
- The applicability of EU Directives and treaties to the
European
Institutions and specifically to the Commission staff;
- The illegitimacy
of the use of temporary contracts to fill
permanent positions.
Maître Louis pointed out that the standard work contract
for continuous tasks within an organisation should be of a
permanent nature and ONLY in exceptional and justified cases it
should be
possible to make use of fixed term contracts (e.g.: a
substitution for maternity leave, a short research project which lasts for
a few months). Our cases presented to the Court demonstrate
that the Commission systematically violates this rule. He also
pointed out that the systematic use of short term contracts on permanent
posts is against a sound management of public resources since new
employees need to be instructed from scratch every time for the
same activity and know-how of experienced workers is continuously lost.
This systematic use of short term contracts of different types
one after the other does not allow fair treatment and social
stability of the
workers.
We could notice two different positions of the judges. One judge seemed to go beyond the pure legal
argumentations and called the Commission to explain the reasons for its reiterated
use of temporary contracts on permanent jobs. A second one
pushed M. Louis to admit that no direct link exists between Directives and a
legal obligation for the Commission to adopt them. M. Louis
explained that it is more a matter of moral obligation and correct
interpretation of the principles of the Directives. It would be quite
surprising if Directives decided by the Commission are not followed by
the European Institutions themselves. Moreover, directives are valid
for all European citizens, and EU workers are European citizens
too. The third judge was observing and monitoring the situation in a
more passive way.
We don't really know what the result of this legal action
will be; we even don't know when the sentence will be given
(hopefully by this summer) while we know for sure that there will be an
appeal after the sentence (according to the outcome, either from our part
or from the Commission). But the general feeling was that our presence
really made a difference and it was un unforgettable experience. For
the first time our category of "Other servants" in the
Commission was presented
as made up of human beings, European citizens who have
the right for a permanent job, a family and a future.
We'll keep in touch!
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