Editorial

Thursday, 29th October, the Staff Council examined the Management proposals, results of the 2015 Five-Yearly Review. In a Resolution, the Staff Council wrote that it considered that the proposed "package" of measures was not balanced enough and made some additional requests, especially in the field of new career system.

At the meeting of the Standing Concertation Committee (SCC) of Monday, 9th November, representatives of the Management and the Staff Association reviewed in detail the document with the Management proposals. This document will be presented to the Member states at the next meeting of TREF on 26th November. Based on the concerns expressed in our Resolution of 29th October, six points, where consensus could not be reached at the meeting, remained pending at the end of the discussion in the SCC. It was decided that these six points would be submitted to the Director-General for arbitration, after a discussion in the Staff Council.

Thus, on Thursday, 12th November, the Staff Council met to determine its position relative to the package of measures proposed by the Management. The staff delegates first listened to a summary of the SCC meeting of 9th November given by staff representatives who attended the SCC meeting. Then the six points were presented:

  1. Elimination of “tracks”, which provide grouping of grades.
  2. Extension of the transition measures, with an improved "phasing out", by one year, until the next five-yearly review.
  3. Inclusion of the effect of the new career system in future actuarial studies for the CERN health insurance scheme (CHIS).
  4. Possibility for a female fellow on maternity leave to obtain an extension of her contract, in well-defined and specific cases, beyond the current maximum of three years.
  5. Guarantees on the implementation of talent management tools necessary for the operation of the new career system, including detailed monitoring using milestones defined and agreed to by the SCC.
  6. Fixed advancement budget for at least three years.

Going around the table, all delegates present were able to express their view on the proposed approach to not oppose the package of proposals if the Director-General accepts the six points submitted for arbitration.

The session concluded with a vote in which 29 delegates participated: 20 did not oppose the package of measures under the condition that the Director-General’s arbitration had a positive outcome, five were opposed, and four abstained.

A memorandum with our demands for the arbitration was addressed to the Director-General in the afternoon of 12th November. In the response, received on Friday 13th November, the Director-General replied positively to the six points mentioned.

As announced in our October meetings all staff will have the opportunity to give their opinion on the position taken by the Staff Council, through a consultation which will be organized shortly.

by Staff Association