7th Staff Committee of the
European Central Bank
CSAIO12
Job security at the ECB
22 September 2011
Maria Ståhl
Deputy Spokesperson
Agenda
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Termination of contracts
The contractual situation
Disciplinary measures
Outsourcing/tasking functions
What if some functions get terminated?
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Termination of contracts
Conditions of Employment (CoE):
11. (a) Contracts of members of staff may be terminated by the
ECB on a reasoned decision of the Executive Board in
accordance with the procedure laid down in the Staff Rules
and on the following grounds:
(i) in the case of continued unsatisfactory performance.
Termination of a contract by the ECB for this reason shall
be subject to a period of notice of three months and to a
severance payment of one month’s salary per completed
year of service, up to a maximum of twelve months. The
Executive Board may release a member of staff from actual
duty during his/her period of notice;
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Termination of contracts continues
(ii) in the case of redundancy. For the purposes of these
Conditions of Employment, “redundancy” means a reduction
in the number of positions at the ECB attributable wholly or
mainly to the permanent termination of the function or
activity for which the member of staff was employed or to
the policy decision to dispense with the said function or
activity for an indefinite period. Specific measures of
compensation which shall be at least equal to those given
under (i) above shall be decided by the Governing Council;
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Termination of contracts continues
• (iii) where the accession process will not be completed by the
accession country of which the member of staff is a national
within the timetable laid down by the Council of the
European Union. A severance payment as provided under (i)
above shall be granted;
• (iv) for disciplinary reasons.
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The contractual situation
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Fixed term contracts
Convertible/ non convertible positions
Extended probation time
Non-extension of the contract
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Fixed Term Contracts
• Until 2004 the norm was permanent contracts
• With the intake of new member states this was
changed to fixed-term contracts with duration of 3
years
• This increased the job insecurity and divided the staff
in to two categories –permanent and fixed term.
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Convertible/non convertible positions
• Not only dividing the contracts into two categories
the ECB managed to create a third category – non
convertible fixed term contracts. In 2006 6 colleagues
challenged this internally and the rules were clarified
to make it more clear which contracts are convertible
and which are not.
• This was later changed again due to a request from
the legal department
• Still today this causes problems one of them being
extended probation time
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Example of a fixed term contract
announcement
Duration of contract
Fixed-term contract until 31.10.2014, which may be
extended subject to organisational need and
performance.
• Can someone tell us when this contract ends?
• For your information my own contract ends on the
month when I will be 65.
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Legality?
• Council Directive 99/70/EC of 28 June 1999
concerning the framework agreement on fixed-term
work concluded by ETUC, UNICE and CEEP:
• . For the purpose of this agreement the term "fixedterm worker" means a person having an employment
contract or relationship entered into directly between
an employer and a worker where the end of the
employment contract or relationship is determined
by objective conditions such as reaching a specific
date, completing a specific task, or the occurrence of
a specific event.
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Good to keep in mind
• The parties to this agreement recognize that
contracts of an indefinite duration are, and will continue
to be, the general form of employment relationship
between employers and workers.They also recognise
that fixed-term employment contracts respond, in
certain circumstances, to the needs of both employers
and workers.
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Extended probation time
• The Conditions of Employment at the ECB say the
following:
• CoE PART 2 EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS Employment
with the ECB shall be subject to medical and security
clearance. Appointments may be subject to a
probationary period in accordance with the provisions
laid down in the Staff Rules.The probationary period
shall in no circumstances exceed twelve months.
• CoE PART 2 11(b) During the probationary period or in the
case of dismissal for disciplinary reasons, the period of notice
shall be one month.
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Probation in practice
• By the introduction of the fixed-term contracts the
ECB clearly increased the probation time first
intentionally from three months to six
• In order to be converted you need to have a sufficient
level of performance which is evaluated in a very
subjective and opaque Annual Salary and Bonus
Review (ASBR).
• In the Staff Rules it is stated:
– Subject to the interest of the service, such contracts
(hereinafter ‘convertible contracts’) may be converted
in case of at least overall satisfactory performance of
the member of staff over the period of the convertible
contract.
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Probation continues
• What actually happens is that in practice the
probation period is two and half years.
• In the case you had a position which was not
convertible, but you were successful to get it when the
person who had it before moved somewhere else you
can have a 3+2.5 years of probation as the previous
contract is not taken into account!
• This probation periods are clearly beyond any
reasonable limits.
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Redress?
• PART 8 APPEALS AND DISCIPLINARY
PROCEDURES
• 41. Members of staff may ask for an administrative
review of decisions taken in their individual cases,
using the procedure laid down in Part 8 of the Staff
Rules. Members of staff who remain dissatisfied
following the administrative review procedure may
use the grievance procedure laid down in Part 8 of the
Staff Rules.
• Such procedures may not be used to challenge any of
the following:
• (i) a Governing Council decision or any ECB policy,
including any policy laid down in these Conditions of
Employment or in the Staff Rules;
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Redress continues
• (ii) a decision for which special appeals procedures
exist;
• (iii) a decision not to confirm the appointment of a
member of staff serving a probationary period;
• In the case you are dismissed during your probation
period you have no ways to appeal.
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Disciplinary procedures
• In the case there are disciplinary proceedings against
a member of staff who is on a fixed term contract and
the decision is to give the MoS a written warning or a
written reprimand which will be added to her/his
personal file will make it impossible to get a new
contract as this file is showed to the manager who is
recruiting.
• Also disciplinary procedures can be used to get rid of
unwanted MoS.This is of course much harder to
prove.
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Underperformance
• Underperformance is a possibility to dismiss MoS and
this again increases the job insecurity.
• 2.2.5 The conditions under which the ECB’s right to
terminate a contract of employment on the basis of a
member of staff ’s continued unsatisfactory
performance can be exercised are as follows:
• (a) Specific performance problems must have been
determined and documented.
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Underperformance continues
• (b) The member of staff concerned must have been
given the opportunity and in particular sufficient time
(taking into account the level of the job and the
performance problems) to address and correct the
performance issues raised. In this respect, the
member of staff concerned must be informed in
writing that the performance issues being addressed
are of such a serious nature that termination of the
employment contract is envisaged at the end of the
procedure unless the performance issues are
addressed to the satisfaction of the Manager
concerned.
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Underperformance continues
• (c) The proposal to terminate an employment
contract under this procedure must be fully
documented and given to the member of staff
concerned one week before the said proposal is due
to be placed on the agenda of the Executive Board for
its decision.
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Outsourcing/tasking functions
• Outsourcing the core tasks of the ECB is difficult, but
possible.There has been attempts to do so with the IT
department.The difficulty has been the German
Labour Law.
• There has been already some out tasking in certain
projects and also there are every now and then
discussions about the out tasking of the Statistics
department, but in this case the quality loss has been
considered to be too big.
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What if some of the functions get
terminated?
• This has not been discussed, but for sure needs to be
tackled.
• Open questions are can there be special
arrangements to work at other European Institutions?
At other Central Banks and under which conditions?
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THE END
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