Editorial
Dear Colleagues,
Our public meetings (slides and video) which took place from 21st to 28th March 2011 have now ended. Overall several hundred of you attended and we sincerely thank you. This high attendance underlines the interest you show in the subjects discussed. The subject of the Pension Fund remains the most important one, with the second set of measures which aim to restore full funding.
These measures concern the pension plan for staff recruited from 1st January 2012, as well as the transition measures for active staff who retire on or after the same date.
At these public meetings the Staff Association announced its intention to organize a referendum at the beginning of April concerning this second stage. Indeed, the ideas put forward a that time (Echo no. 122 and Echo no. 121), are most unfavourable to our future colleagues, and we have pointed out to both the Management and TREF (tripartite forum for discussion between the Member States, Management, and the Staff Association) that they were unacceptable as they stood.
We have said time and time again that CERN is an International Organization (IO) and we therefore cannot stand by and watch our Organization being treated worse than all other IOs. All the more when the same Member States, present in these Organizations, want to impose conditions which would subject future CERN staff to the worst pension plan of all IOs.
Following these recent discussions, it has been agreed that the internal concertation process between the Management and the Staff Association, at a standstill for some time now, would resume at a steady rhythm to try and find a mutually acceptable solution in the coming weeks. A meeting of the SCC (Standing Concertation Committee) sub-group on pensions took place on Monday 4th April and progress has been made on certain points compared to the original positions.
We therefore need to give the concertation process the time to find an acceptable solution for all parties. It would be pointless to ask for your opinion now, when positions are finally changing. This is why the Staff Council, at its meeting on 5th April, decided to postpone by a few weeks the launching of the referendum in question.
In the meantime, we will keep you informed of any changes to this subject which is very important for the future of CERN and of all present and future staff.
