Second SCC meeting of the year 2023
As we mentioned in our ECHO 400, for transparency and to ensure all staff are kept up-to-date about our discussions with the Administration, the Staff Association is sharing our understanding of the exchanges during the Standing Committee on Consultation (SCC) meetings with you.
This year’s second SCC meeting was held on 9 March in a rather tense atmosphere, notably on the subject of travel. For that reason we have chosen to report in this ECHO on the discussions concerning that specific issue. You can find information about all of the points on the agenda in the full version of this article on our website.
Institutional and official travel excluding home leave: The Administration's Technical Working Group on Travel
First some background: at an SCC meeting in June 2022, the Administration announced its intention to make savings on the travel budget and, without prior consultation, to introduce the systematic reimbursement of accommodation expenses on the basis of actual costs. The SA objected to these measures.
During the September 2022 SCC meeting, the Administration returned to this issue and proposed to set up a group of technical experts, including SA representatives, and to broaden the scope of the discussion to cover not only official travel (e.g. to conferences and workshops), but also statutory travel (such as travel for home leave, travel for family reasons and travel expenses to enable children of staff studying outside the local area to visit their families).
The SA agreed to participate in this working group of technical experts, in order to better understand the Administration's ideas and to see if any proposed changes could be in the interests of Members of the personnel as well as those of the Organisation. This soon appeared to be a mission impossible.
At the March 2023 SCC meeting, the proposals put on the table, supposedly justified by the objectives of fair treatment and administrative simplification and rationalisation, were as follows:
- Concerning arrival and departure travel, to replace the current method of reimbursement for Members of personnel and Fellows (actual expenses) with the method currently applied used for students and GRADS (a flat rate per country). Whilst this reimbursement method was agreed for GRADS when the new Graduate Employment Scheme was introduced, the SA was unaware that the reimbursement method applied students had been modified since 2014 without consultation and without having been brought to the attention of the SCC.
- Concerning official travel/missions, the proposal remained the same as that of June 2022, i.e. to reimburse accommodation costs exclusively on the basis of real costs and to remove the currently permitted option of being reimbursed by a lump sum, the Daily Travel Allowance (DTA) covering all expenses (accommodation, meals and sundry expenses).
- The Administration considers the current provisions as an "anomaly" and proposes to delete the reference to the DTA (the previous Management that proposed these provisions to the Organisation's governing bodies and the latter which approved them will certainly appreciate this description). It should also be noted that Members of personnel and their families are entitled to a lump sum (DTA) for travel on entry into service, termination of contract, change of duty station, missions and travel for family reasons.
- The working group did not have time to come up with definite proposals regarding other types of travel. However, the preliminary idea is to replace the current calculation method for the reimbursement rate for home travel for Members of personnel and Fellows with a flat rate per country---again, the method currently applied for students and GRADS.
Committed, as ever, to defend the interests of the personnel, the Staff Association’s position as presented during the SCC is that:
•Not only the country but also the final destination must be taken into account when making travel reimbursements based on geographical granularity in making travel reimbursements. Costs will vary according to the final destination in a country thus fair treatment of travellers requires the destination to be taken into account. A flat rate per country is not acceptable.
•The calculation method used for home travel for 40 years, automated and implemented in EDH since 2002, is already a simple, streamlined and satisfactory administrative process.
•The DTA principle should be preserved. The fact that DTA is only applied during missions is not an anomaly and should not justify the removal of a right of Members of personnel and family members in the Staff Rules and Regulations.
On this point, since no joint proposal could be drawn up, let alone agreed in the SCC, the Association indicated that such changes, which affect the financial conditions of staff (Chapitre V des S&R), could not be made outside of a five-yearly review and that these discussions should therefore wait for the next five-yearly review.
The Staff Council confirmed this position and, on this basis, was opposed to both the proposed changes and the continuation of discussions in the Technical Working Group.
The Staff Council furthermore mandated the delegation to the SCC to make the following statement:
"The Staff Council is opposed to the proposed changes concerning the reimbursement of travel expenses, which is a social and financial condition of employment of staff, as defined in Annex A1 of the S&RP, and therefore no changes can be made to it outside of a five-yearly review".
The Chair of the SCC asked for a legal opinion on the merits of the SA's position. To be continued…
Official travel: Reducing greenhouse gas emissions
Following the publication of CERN’s second environmental report, a working group was formed with a mandate to develop recommendations for updating the Official Travel Guidelines to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from official travel. In particular, the working group was asked to:
•consider how to empower and encourage CERN Members of personnel to make climate-friendly decisions when planning their travel to and from CERN, and
•examine the infrastructure and framework necessary to continue and increase remote participation at events whilst ensuring their optimal quality.
The working group requested that the following principles be incorporated into Administrative Circular No. 33 (Missions):
•Assessment of the need to travel (as opposed to virtual alternatives)
•Priority be given to environmentally friendly means of transport (taking into account all other aspects including the efficiency of transport and the preservation of proper travel conditions for the Members of personnel going on mission in the interest of the Organisation).
The Staff Association (SA) has of course supported this approach but will monitor developments to ensure that proper travel conditions are indeed preserved.
