Tuesday, 24 April 2018: Ordinary General Assembly of the CERN Staff Association!
The Ordinary General Assembly is an opportunity for members of the Staff Association, and also non-members, to get an overview of:
- the Staff Association’s activities over the last year;
- the financial report and the estimated budget of the Staff Association;
- the work programme of the current year.
This is very interesting for anyone wishing to learn about the work carried out by the CERN Staff Association.
2017 Activities Report
Isabelle Mardirossian, Vice-President of the Staff Association, presented the 2017 Activities Report. The main aspects of the report were:
- a follow-up on the 2015 Five-yearly review: the decisions taken by the Council in December 2015, their implementation, and work that remains to be done; definition and implementation of the Promotion Guide and the 2018 MERIT Guidelines;
- work carried out within the CERN working groups, the subgroups of the Standing Concertation Committee (SCC) and the Pension Fund, on diverse themes such as religious practice in the workplace, mobility on CERN sites, data protection, stress management, pensions guarantees in the event of the dissolution of the Organization, review of the CHIS Rules, the governance of the Pension Fund, etc.;
- work carried out within the official bodies of CERN such as the Standing Concertation Committee (SCC), the Tripartite Employment Conditions Forum (TREF), and other committees and commissions; the number of meetings and other information.
Financial Report and Estimated Budget
The 2017 Financial Report, presented by Catherine Regelbrugge, was unanimously approved, without comment.
The presentation of the 2018 Estimated Budget, on the other hand, raised a question regarding the increase of provisions for defending the personnel. The response of Ghislain Roy, President of the Staff Association, was that the mandate of the Staff Association is « To serve and defend […] the interests […] of its members and all CERN staff (Art. I.1.2 (a) of the Statutes of the CERN Staff Association) and to provide assistance in individual or collective disputes (Art. I.1.3 (e) of the Statutes of the CERN Staff Association). The requests for assistance have doubled in the last two years, and it is therefore normal that the budget allocated to this mission should increase. Furthermore, this budget is also used for questions relating to the status as an international civil servant subject to national taxes (e.g. CRG, CRDS), and for providing the Staff Association with the legal expertise it may need for analysing texts and proposals of the Management. The 2018 Estimated Budget was voted by a majority of the members of the Staff Association present at the General Assembly.
2018 Work Programme
Ghislain Roy presented the programme of the ongoing year, with regard to, for instance:
- the Crèche and School, and the possible establishment of a Foundation;
- finalisation of the 2015 Five-yearly review by the end of 2018, including the implementation of talent management tools such as internal mobility, validation of acquired experience (VAE), and career development conversations;
- preparation of the actuarial reviews of the Pension Fund and the CERN Health Insurance Scheme (CHIS), requiring particular vigilance;
- internal enquiries and justice;
- the concertation process, which requires mutual trust and discussions conducted in good faith;
- preparation of a survey for the next five-yearly review.
In short, in the 2018 Work Programme, priority will be given to the finalising the 2015 Five-yearly review, restoring the concertation process, establishing a foundation for the Crèche and School, and preparing the next five-yearly review, which will begin in 2019.
Votes of the Staff Association members present
Following the approval of the agenda and the presentation of each item, the members of the Staff Association present at the General Assembly approved either unanimously or by a majority vote the:
- 2017 Activities Report;
- 2017 Financial Report and Report of the Auditors;
- 2018 Estimated Budget;
- 2019 contribution rates for members, unchanged for several years;
- principle of establishing a Foundation to take over the activities of the Crèche and School of the CERN Staff Association.
For more information, please do not hesitate to have a look at the presentations in Indico (https://indico.cern.ch/event/721921/) and join the Staff Association!
