Election of the new Executive Committee: Combining continuity and renewal

In agreement with the Staff Association’s Statutes the new Staff Council elected on Tuesday, 8 December, a new President and his Executive Committee for a two-year mandate 2016–2017. Alessandro Raimondo, the only candidate for president, presented a list of delegates for an Executive Committee, which combines continuity and renewal. These are important assets to start working in early 2016 on the implementation of the decisions of the 2015 Five-Yearly Review, especially in the field of the career structure.

The first five delegates in this table, constitute the "President’s Office." The names of the departmental delegates are shown in bold. They represent the Staff Association with their Heads of department or unit and, where applicable, in group leaders’ management meetings. Diversity for this Executive Committee consisting of 18 members is guaranteed thanks to the presence of seven nationalities and five women, in particular the two vice-presidents.

This list was unanimously elected, with three abstentions.

Michel Goossens, the outgoing president, thanked his close collaborators, especially Alessandro and Celine, vice-presidents, Almudena, Juan, and Caroline, members of his President’s Office, the other members of the Executive Committee and the Staff Council, as well as Catherine, Stephanie and Helena from the Staff Association Secretariat, for their dedication and motivation throughout the past two years. He said goodbye to the outgoing ten delegates and recalled that 15 new delegates, including two representatives for the fellows, joined the Staff Council for the 2016–2017 mandate. Celine, on behalf of the Staff Council, and Michel Vitasse, on behalf of the GAC-EPA, thanked Michel for all the years (29 in total) during which he contributed in various positions to the work of the Staff Council, most recently as President.

Major Challenges in 2016

As for the 2015 Five-Yearly Review and its implementation, the first work item to address will be the benchmark jobs, with a check of how staff member will be placed from the current career path/band structure into benchmark job/ grade pairs. We will also have to monitor the effects of the new career structure on our health insurance and Pension Fund, among others. The Staff Association must also remain vigilant with respect to possible changes that Member States might want to introduce into Annex A1 of the Staff Rules and Regulations, and continue to promote the alignment of our employment conditions with those in other international Organizations, but not exclusively.

Concerning the CERN Pension Fund, we have to analyze the results of the legal and actuarial studies, participate in the discussion on the governance, in particular promoting the synergy between the Fund and CERN, encourage the introduction of an internal taxation of our pensions, etc.

Another important theme is communication. Indeed, the Staff Association must work towards improving its image, make sure the all Staff gets to know the Staff Association better, get closer to non-French speakers and fellows, and encourage new memberships. All this to strengthen its representativeness. The Staff Association should establish a more regular dialogue with the Nine and GAC-EPA, have regular contacts with heads of Departments and Units (e.g., during group leaders’ meetings), talk with the Member State delegates via the Staff Association ambassadors. And last but not least, listen to what you have to say, easing communication by using all available channels (public meetings, Staff Delegates, social media, Echo, etc.).

Alessandro, the new President of the Staff Association, finished his speech by outlining four principles-values:

• Representativeness: diversity in nationalities, sectors, departments, ages, gender, languages, minorities.
• Transparency: bidirectional flow of information between President’s Office ↔ Executive Committee ↔ commissions ↔ Staff Council ↔ staff.
• Respect for: different trends, CERN rules (setting an example as delegate).
• Positivism: constructive participation of all delegates with one common aim: the interests of the staff and their families.

Indeed, the Organization should not only be at the cutting edge of science and technology, but it must also be a center of social excellence.

by Staff Association