Legal Support

What can I do? How can Union Syndicale help me ?

Whether you are a member or not, the first thing to do is to contact the Union Syndicale secretariat in your institution or get in touch with one of the members of the Executive Committee.

A member of our team will be instructed to carry out an initial assessment of your case and give you initial advice. If appropriate, he/she will refer you to one of our lawyers.

Union Syndicale Fédérale Ispra has for a long time relied on the long-standing experience of lawyer Michela Velardo' s Law Firm and her practice in Community law.

I have won my appeal.

What happens ?

If the upholding of your appeal enables you to receive back-payments, you should reimburse Union Syndicale for the actual costs of your legal assistance, up to a ceiling equivalent to 50% of the back‑payments received.

This arrangement enables us to extend our support to a larger number of members and therefore to make more effective use of our financial resources derived from members’ subscriptions.

How much will it cost me ?

All Union Syndicale members can consult one of our lawyers free of charge, as long as they have been a member for at least one year – or joined during the year in which they were recruited, even if they have not yet been a member for a full year. For other members the cost of the consultation is EUR 30.

Non-members may also consult our lawyers for a fee of EUR 120.

N.B. : For questions relating to private life, the Union Syndicale’s assistance is limited to initial advice or guidance given by a lawyer. Union Syndicale does not cover the continuation of the procedure or any consultations or actions after the first consultation and you must therefore ask the lawyer you have consulted for details of his fees.

I have won my appeal but the institution has filed a further appeal.

If the institution against which you have successfully appealed decides to file a further appeal, we cover the costs of the further appeal proceedings on the same conditions as for your appeal (except for the likelihood of success, which is automatically considered to be strong since your appeal was successful). The costs of the two proceedings are combined to determine Union Syndicale’s contribution and the amount that you must pay.

I want to submit a request or complaint.

With the agreement of our specialist or after consulting the lawyer to whom he/she referred you, you may consider that you should go further and submit a request or complaint (Article 90 of the Staff Regulations of Officials and Articles 46, 73, 117 and 124 of the conditions of employment of other servants).

If you are a member, we can also assist you at this stage, either by helping you to draft your request or complaint or having it drafted by one of our lawyers.

If you would like to be assisted by one of our lawyers, you must send a written request for assistance (for example by email) to the Union Syndicale secretariat in your institution or to the secretariat of Union Syndicale Brussels. The Union Syndicale delegation in your institution or, in certain cases, the Executive Committee will examine your request and decide whether to support it or not, depending on the opinions of our specialist and the lawyer. Since you have to comply with a strict time-limit (three months) for submitting a complaint, it is important to make your request for assistance as soon as possible and in any case at least a month before the time-limit expires, to enable us to take a decision in good time.

I want to file an appeal.

If the complaint is rejected you may file an appeal with the European Union Civil Service Tribunal, whether you submitted the complaint with assistance from Union Syndicale or not. You may ask Union Syndicale for assistance to do so but you must have contacted us, consulted one of our lawyers and, in accordance with his recommendations, sent a written request for assistance (for example by email) to the Union Syndicale secretariat in your institution or to the secretariat of Union Syndicale Brussels.

The Executive Committee will examine your request and decide whether to support it or not in accordance with the opinions of the specialist and the lawyer, depending on the special or general interest of the case and the likelihood of success.

I am/have been obliged to submit a request, complaint or appeal as a matter of urgency.

Is it possible to obtain assistance from Union Syndicale?

As a general rule, it is not possible to obtain assistance from Union Syndicale if the rules we laid down have not been followed. Exceptionally, in emergencies, the lawyer may start proceedings, with your agreement and that of the members of our team dealing with your case, without waiting for the Executive Committee’s decision, in particular to comply with the deadline. In that case, you are responsible for paying the lawyer for the entire cost of the proceedings but you may ask us to bear the costs incurred, setting out clearly the reasons why it was not possible to request the Executive Committee’s agreement beforehand. In any case, the Executive Committee will strictly limit any retrospective defrayal of costs to duly substantiated exceptional cases.