Commission on Legal Matters
What is a commission within the Staff Association (SA)?
A commission is a working group of the CERN Staff Council, led by a staff representative. The commission is composed mainly of staff representatives, but interested members of the SA can apply to participate in the work of a commission.
What is the commission on legal matters?
The commission on legal matters works on texts governing the employment conditions of staff (Employed Members of Personnel and Associated Members of Personnel). This covers legal documents such as the Staff Rules and Regulations, administrative and operational circulars, as well as any other document relating to employment conditions.
How is the work organised in this commission?
The revision process of the text is generally done along following lines:
- The HR department, and its legal experts, proposes new texts or modifications to existing texts. A schedule for the study of these texts is established each year and this calendar by the commission to plan its work.
- The new or modified documents are sent to the SA and transmitted internally to members of the commission on legal matters for preliminary reading. The commission proceed to a careful re-reading of the documents in session and proposes necessary changes or amendments. The commission also formulates remarks and requests for clarifications on the content.
- The comments, proposed changes, questions and requests for clarification by the Commission are submitted to the President and other bodies of the SA (Executive Committee and/or Staff Council). This is where the mission of the commission on legal matters ends.
- The texts are then discussed with the HR department in a subgroup of the Standing Concertation Committee (SCC/CCP), and further examined at a session of the SCC in order to finalize this work between Management and Staff Association.
What work awaits the commission in 2016?
The implementation of the five-yearly review, approved in December 2015 by the CERN Council, involves significant change to a number of circulars. All decisions concerning the diversity, and especially the new career structure, must be reflected legally in administrative and operational circulars before being implemented.
N.B.: it is useful to recall that the Admin e-guide is a simplified or detailed transcript (not validated by the CCP) of the Staff Rules and Regulations, and that only the administrative and operational circulars have a legal basis.
