EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 78/780

(2004/C 78 E/0831)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-3102/03

by Lissy Gröner (PSE) to the Commission

(17 October 2003)

Subject: Discrimination against women in the Commission's new assessment system

The Commission has introduced a new assessment system. It appears that, under this system, women are being ‘punished’ with the deduction of points if they take a few months' extra leave after their maternity leave to care for their babies.

According to my information, a female Commission official had three ‘merit points’ retroactively deducted during her annual assessment for three months' parental leave, in contrast to the one point which is deducted for one year (= 12 months) seniority in grade.

In this context, the deduction of one point for each month of CCP is out of all proportion. The effects of this disproportionate downgrading will last for years (‘système sac à dos’) and it is all but impossible for the women concerned to catch up again.

Such a deduction indicates that women and mothers are being penalised and discriminated against, since the deduction of points on the grounds of CCP affects a disproportionate number of women who have taken parental leave.

The women concerned had merit points deducted retroactively, without any advance warning, and deductions were also made in the case of women who had applied for CCP before the relevant decision of 26 April 2002 had even been adopted.

1. How can this point deduction be explained in the light of European directives on equal opportunities?

2. In these conditions, how can the reconciliation of job and family propagated by the Commission be made a reality?

3. What is the connection between CCP on the one hand and merit on the other?

4. Is the Commission aware of the ‘Mum's CV’ model introduced by Unilever, which rewards applicants who have spent time bringing up children with plus points on their applications?

Answer given by Mr Kinnock on behalf of the Commission

(12 February 2004)

The deduction of merit points in cases of leave on personal grounds (‘CCP’) stems from Article 4(4) of the Commission Decision of 26 April 2002 on general provisions for implementing Article 43 of the Staff Regulations. The Article in question currently stipulates that the global mark for the reporting period is to be calculated on a pro rata basis (in relation to the number of months covered by the report) if the said report covers part of the year only. Footnote 6 states that such a situation would occur e.g. ‘when the jobholder has taken leave on personal grounds during part of the year’.

In answer to the Honourable Member's questions:

1. Although the Directives referred to by the Honourable Member are addressed to the Member States, not to the European Institutions, Article 40 of the Staff Regulations makes provision for the same type of case. It already provides that a year's leave on personal grounds, renewable annually up to four times, may be granted to an official to raise a child under five years of age. Once the period of leave on personal grounds has expired, the officials concerned must be reinstated in a post in their category or service which corresponds to their grade. In future, if the Commission proposal amending the Staff Regulations of officials of the European Communities (1), is adopted (it is currently being scrutinised by Parliament and the Council), two new types of leave would be introduced: parental leave of up to six months in respect of each child, and family leave the total duration of which may not exceed nine months over the official's entire career. During these periods of leave, officials will retain their right to employment, their right to advancement to a higher step and their eligibility for promotion to a higher grade, and will receive a flat-rate allowance.

2. The policy developments outlined above confirm the importance which the Commission attaches to improving provision for reconciling professional and family life. In this context, the Staff Regulations allow women to take maternity leave of at least 16 weeks, with an addition of up to four weeks' special leave for breast-feeding mothers. These periods of leave are treated as if the jobholder was in active employment and are therefore not subject to a pro rata deduction of merit points.

3. The aim of the new evaluation and promotion system is to provide the Commission with objective means of assessing the merits of every official each year on the basis of their efficiency, ability and conduct in the service. These three elements can clearly be best assessed while officials are in active service with one of the Institutions or seconded to another body. A deduction of merit points applies to every official or servant of the Communities, male or female, who has taken leave on personal grounds, whether it is related to raising children or other justified reasons.

4. The Commission is aware that different organisations in the public and private sectors have various provisions for childbearing and childrearing employees. In adopting the policy improvements set out above the Commission has striven to ensure equity, and is aware that the new provisions now bear comparison with satisfactory standards achieved for public sector employees in Member States.

The Honourable Member may be interested to know that, in addition to these specific responses, the promotion committees set up pursuant to the general provisions for implementing Article 45 of the Staff Regulations have looked into the issues referred to by the Honourable Member and proposed that a certain number of points should be awarded to those officials who suffered from the deduction of merit points following a period of leave on personal grounds. They have noted, in particular, that — in the normal course of events — some officials had applied for leave on personal grounds before the Commission adopted the general provisions for implementing Article 43 of the Staff Regulations. Accordingly, the promotion committees' deliberations may well, in the context of this transitional year, result in a proposal for offsetting part of the reduction. In addition, the promotion committees have noted that the effect — in terms of promotion — of the deduction of merit points in 2003 was too strong in the context of a transition period based on increasing promotion thresholds (i.e. the ratio ‘lost points due to leave on personal grounds/promotion threshold’ is currently higher than it would be in a ‘stable’ system).

The Commission has taken all these observations into account and consequently proposes to correct retroactively all the deductions made in order to bring them in line with the estimated ratio in a stable system. This proposal is included in an annex to the new draft general provisions for implementing Article 45 of the Staff Regulations that were adopted on 21 January 2004 and are now subject to statutory consultations before final approval.

Once adopted, this decision would have the effect of significantly lowering the impact of leave on personal grounds on promotion possibilities. For example, the loss of 7 points (absence of an official with a mark of 14/20 during half the reference period) would be reduced to a loss of only 2,5 points (based on the hypothesis that the official in question's seniority in grade is 4 years and the average seniority in grade is 5 years).

(1) OJ C 291 E, 26.11.2002.