13 July 2017
Finalminutes
ECHA/ECHASA meeting
TimeWednesday 31 May 2017, at 12:00
PlaceMeeting room 1050
ParticipantsECHA:Ville Nurmi (chair), Eric Rieger, Arto Parviainen, Jeremy Huyghe (minutes)
ECHASA:Claudia Schulz, Christine Devoge
1.Adoption of the agenda
The agenda was adopted.
2.Presentation of ECHASA (ECHASA)
Claudia and Christine presented ECHASA to Ville: ECHASA’s mission, responsibilities, experiences and priorities. The Board of ECHASA focuses now more of social activities as the association and its members are getting more and better integrated to the Finnish society.Currently, the association counts around 50 paying members.
3.Security (ECHASA)
ECHASA experienced lately some difficulties for its members to access ECHA’s premises.
Arto and ECHASA confirmed that access to the buildingis facilitated by two lists: one including all ECHASA members (mostly used to grant access to the ECHASA coffee mornings (first Friday of the month)), and one with ECHASA elected Board members only who have their own individual access badges.ECHASA elected Board members can access freely the canteen area and meeting room 1050.In case of other meetings, normal members and family are treated as any other visitor, meaning that they have to be accompanied all the time by a staff member. Depending on the size of the group, a pre-notification at reception is necessary. In such cases, Jeremy will communicate the list of ECHASA participants to the ECHA Reception before the meeting, enabling easy access.
4.Agreement of communication (ECHASA)
The existing communication channels between ECHA HR and ECHASAwere listed and explored.
Regular email communication occur between ECHASA board members and Jeremy. Other ECHA HR would be included if need be. ECHA HR communicates relevant information to ECHA staff via the usual internal communication channels (meaning the ECHASA section on ECHAnet here, the calendar of the landing page of ECHAnet here under the “staff” tab for events organised by ECHASA andthe cork board between the canteen and the three main lifts).
Both ECHASA and ECHA Management agree that the communication is working well and should continue in this direction.
5.Access to information and well-being sessions by ECHA (ECHASA)
ECHASA investigates the possibility for spouses to attend sessions related to Brexit, survivor’s pension (PMO) and Health & Well-being presentations. Communication of information concerning JSIS and residency (information posted on ECHAnet does not necessarily reach spouses for instance).
ECHA opensrelevant info sessions to spouses as well, depending on the topic. For example, presentations on wellbeing are also in the interest of ECHASA, when some others are not whenECHASA is not the target (presentations on working culture). In the later cases, staff members are fully given the discretion to share information with spouses.
6.“Living will”: patient rights in Finland (ECHASA)
Answering to ECHASA’s question, ECHA management shared a link to a living will form recognised in Finland. It can be found here.The person can give a copy of it to his or her doctor and keep the original so that it can be easily found by those people who are closest. Another option is to fill the living will in on the Kanta.fi service. This service is accessible at several health care providers.
7.Finnish day care centres (ECHASA)
Claudia informed that spouses are allowed to send their children to Finnish day care centres, but they are denied access to public specialists (e.g. speech therapy etc.). The ESH challenges the refusal of access to public specialists. Schools makes use of social workers as specialists to accommodate better specific needs of children. Eric mentioned that this issue is independent from the general issue of residency status mentioned in the seat agreement.
ECHASA will provide more details to Ville. Based on ECHASA’s clarifications, Ville will investigate which action can be undertaken, which lever to pull harmonise the situation across municipalities and develop sustainable solutions.
8.Social celebrations of 2017
8.1.Information on anniversary party on 9 June 2017 (ECHASA)
Jeremy introduced the programme of the festivities to the meeting participants.
8.2.ECHA Christmas party December 2017 (ECHA)
Claudia confirmed that ECHASA is in contact with the ECHA staff club to organise an ECHA Christmas party December 2017. Claudia will let Jeremy know on the developments when they arise.
9.Update on the ECHA 2020 Building Project (ECHA)
Arto mentioned that any significant updates regarding the ECHA 2020 Building Project will be communicated proactively to the ECHASA Board members. Arto confirmed that in the new building, access to the premises to ECHASA members will be catered for with the help of bigger semi-public areas.
10.AOB
10.1.Residency status
In the context of Finland’s bid to host EMA, Eric mentioned that the question of residency status of ECHA staff and their family is being reconsidered together with the Finnish authorities.Ville will keep ECHASA informed on the developments and on their impacts (i.e.: impact of being registered as permanent resident for Maistraatti but not for Kela).
10.2.Next meeting
The next ECHA/ECHASA meeting will be held in Q4 2017, to the initiative of either party.
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