STANDING CONCERTATION COMMMITTEE - ORDINARY MEETING ON 26 JUNE 2007

The main items discussed at the meeting of the Standing Concertation Committee on 26 June 2007 included:

The Committee took note of the annual report for 2006 by the Chairman of the Mutual Aid Fund and approved contributions to the Fund’s budget from the Management and the Staff Association and thanked the members of the Fund for their work.

The Committee agreed to recommend Administrative Circular No. 12 A entitled "Education Fees" to the Director-General for approval. The circular is applicable to staff, fellows and scientific associates recruited from 1st January 2007 and to staff who were recruited as Local Staff before that date. Further details of reimbursement of school fees will shortly be available in the form of Frequently Asked Questions on the HR Department website.

The Committee agreed to recommend Administrative Circular No. 31 (Rev. 1) entitled "International Indemnity and Non-Resident Allowance" to the Director-General for approval. The International Indemnity applies to those eligible and recruited from 1st January 2007, while the Non-resident Allowance applies to those eligible and recruited before 1st January 2007 and to fellows, and paid associates recruited before 1st July 2006.

The Committee took note of the presentation of an HR Department pilot programme designed for staff members who do not have the possibility of remaining at CERN beyond their current contract with the purpose of helping them find further employment. Ways of publicizing the programme are under consideration and further information will be provided by human resource advisors to those participating in the programme.

The Committee noted that the current Saved Leave Scheme has been reviewed in the context of the completion of LHC construction. In this connection and following consultations between the Management and the Staff Association, it has been decided that the current Saved Leave Scheme will end with effect from 31 December 2007.

It will be succeeded by a new scheme which is currently under discussion.

Until 31 December 2007, the current SLS provisions remain in force in accordance with the current rules (see "Saved Leave Scheme - implementation procedure" dated 16 January 2001).

• Current saved leave accounts

From 1st January 2008, no more saved leave will be credited to current saved leave accounts. From this date, any leave in these accounts will remain available to be taken in agreement with the current rules.

• Entry into the new scheme

Once the details have been drawn up, staff members will have the option to apply for the new scheme with effect from 1st January 2008.

In the same spirit of allowing staff members to take advantage of flexi-time in the short term, the possibility to save leave will exist, but under new terms:

• As with the previous SLS scheme, it will be possible to purchase a maximum of four slices per year, each slice representing leave of 5.5 working days per year to be taken at times compatible with the running of CERN installations and services.
• The financial conditions for purchasing slices remain unchanged.
• By analogy with annual leave, a maximum of 22 days may be carried over to the following leave year.

Early departures

In addition to the new scheme, which will succeed the SLS, a study is under way to examine possibilities for those wishing to depart early from the Organization. The study is expected to be completed by the end of 2007.

The Committee took note of the presentation of the MARS exercise by the Head of HR Department. The distribution of advancement steps was in line with that recommended at the beginning of the exercise. It was agreed that the Management and Staff Association would carry out further detailed analysis of the results. Concerning the 2007 advancement budget, a discrepancy was noted with the planned budget. Since this was the first year of the MARS scheme, it was agreed to consider the 2007 and 2008 advancement budgets together to be able to draw more reliable conclusions concerning the application of the scheme.

It was agreed to hold meetings in the second half of 2007 on: 28 August, 25 September, 30 October and 28 November.

by HR Department