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If you work in the Brussels bubble and use Instagram, you may be familiar with the anonymous Instagram account Brussels Agreement.
“It started with the realization that people know how stupid some of the things we decide are because we want to be here,” explains “BA”, the creator and director of the page.
Brussels Affirmations was launched in August 2021 and gained thousands of followers in its first week. When memes began to be posted to add jokes about living in Brussels, the numbers increased.
“There is a lot of information about the working conditions from the beginning,” explained BA, who revealed that many of the 20,000 fans of the page participated in its Transparency Register series, which aims to clarify the the Brussels bubble by distributing public wages. and employee comments, some good but many horrifying – often focusing on abusive work conditions and toxic work environments.
Information about hours and hours of work time that was not recorded, returned, or paid for; the employee’s presentation of pregnancy results in the issuance of a CDI contract (permanent) and changes to the issuance of a CDD (temporary); an employee who questions a pay raise says he can “counterclaim” by “taking on more responsibilities”; and many others.
In a series of publications, the Transparency Register series visited the different arms of the ecosystem of Brussels, painting a gloomy picture of the working conditions in the capital city of the European Union, and in EU institutions.
What started as people sharing their stories in response to a call for submissions grew into such a wave of overwhelming responses that BA created a Google form that allows employees to enter they speak anonymously. Although there is no background check on the information provided, BA says it will not interfere with the process, especially since none of the suspects have been named.
“I don’t think that’s the point of the job, especially since the sources didn’t slander anyone, no names were mentioned.”
For expats working in the bubble – those targeted by BA – it’s no surprise that young professionals with local contracts are vulnerable. After all, Belgium is not known for its good labor laws, especially for young workers. Some EU countries exclude young people from the national minimum wage by setting minimum rates for young workers; Belgium is one of them.
Some of the most alarming information provided by the Transparency Register series comes from within EU institutions. These included submissions in which past bullying was an “everyday thing”, with one concluding that “they would never have thought that a company trying to guarantee workers’ rights would do that and stop the crime.”
There were also reports of Authorized Parliamentary Assistants (APAs) having died of burns due to abuse by MEPs and then being fired, with Parliamentary services said to be “aware” of the situation.
Another spoke of announcing a surprise attack on the European Parliament’s medical services after a major public embarrassment by a senior politician, but said they were not the first victims of surprise attack that day. “It’s 8.30 in the morning,” they said.
“They never thought that an industry that was trying to guarantee the rights of the workers and stop the brutality would do that”
The Press Service of the European Parliament did not respond to specific questions about its response to surprise attacks or collected data on the attacks.
A spokesman said the measures had been implemented after “collecting the results and lessons learned from EP staffing services, which focus on the mental health of staff”.
A request for Freedom of Information was also rejected in relation to a number of HR complaints received by the Commission, on the grounds that this information has not been compiled into a current document – which experts say is wrong unusual for an organization of its size.
According to BA, the Instagram page “is informing that things like the ones shared are really happening, and giving people a platform to discuss these kinds of things, because this kind of sadness can make the people”.
Although there are no plans to transition from conscious promotion to organized activities, BA is open to help with campaigns that support the page’s mission, if necessary. In any case, it has been.
Clicking on the link to the Brussels Affirmations bio will lead to a petition to stop free activities. The petition was launched by the European Youth Forum, a foundation of more than 100 youth organizations across Europe, bringing together ten million young people.
“The fight against free training is one that the Federation has led for years,” said Frédéric Piccavet, vice president of the European Youth Federation.
In May 2017 the Federation filed a complaint against Belgium, bringing the matter before the European Committee of Human Rights. Last year the Committee concluded that the current job inspection system in Belgium was not able to provide adequate protection to students. However, the fight is far from over, as public institutions have only recently begun to deal with the issue.
“Until four years ago, there was free training in the European Parliament. There are still unpaid workers in the Commission and the Council today,” said Piccavet, expressing concern that what he called “exploitation” could be done by the Commissioners. EU law.
Piccavet added that reaching out to Brussels Affirmations was a “natural choice” because the audience of the page is people who think strongly about the issue of free training, as well as people outside of it. of the bubble may not be interested in the program, but it can be reached.
According to the sources, there is a document in the testimony of the persecution of the European Commission, which shows the systematic nature of the problem and the impunity that some of the victims claim to have achieved and emerged from on the Commission’s intracomm.
The call for change seems to be getting louder and louder.
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