COMMISSION PROTSOC

Work of the Staff Association's internal commission on social protection issues, better known as ProtSoc

As you already know, representatives of the Staff Association participate in many official bodies of the Organization, including committees and joint groups.

One of the most significant of these is the Standing Concertation Committee (SCC), whose first meeting of the year took place on Thursday 20 February. The Staff Association would like to inform you of the outcome of one of the agenda items concerning the amendments to the CHIS rules, presented in session by the President of the CHIS Board.

The modifications presented will allow:

  • To open the provisions for electronic submission of reimbursement claims
  • To bring the text into line with the latest versions of Operational Circular No. 11 (Protection of Personal Data) and Administrative Circular No. 11 (Categories of Personnel)
  • To delete certain parts of text that have become obsolete (e.g. transitional provisions), to improve the formatting of the document and to correct certain inconsistencies not found in previous versions.

You are probably wondering about the process to be followed for such changes and how the Association is involved. Here are the answers to these questions:

How were the changes made?

Firstly, you should be aware that the CHIS Board is a sub-group of the SCC that oversees CERN's health insurance scheme. As such, these modifications were first submitted, studied and discussed within the CHIS Board.

Who was involved in the discussion of the proposed text changes?

The CHIS Board is a joint committee, its members are appointed on the one hand by the Management, and on the other hand by the Staff Association and the CERN and ESO Pensioners’ Association (GAC-EPA). Your representatives today, appointed by the Staff Association, are Sebastien Evrard and Joel Lahaye, accompanied by Morna Robillard and David Jacobs for the GAC-EPA.

How are the changes being considered by the Staff Association?

Your representatives for the CHIS Board are also the staff representatives who co-chair the Social Protection Commission (ProtSoc) within the Staff Association.

The mission of the Commission is to monitor the development of the CERN Health Insurance Scheme (CHIS) and to examine any question relating to the social cover of CHIS beneficiaries as well as any other question relating to social protection in general.

It is in this commission that all staff and pensioners' representatives are invited to participate in order to study the subjects that have been raised at CHIS Board meetings, such as this revision of the regulations.

How are the amendments approved?

Proposals for amendments prepared by management are examined collectively within the CHIS Board or in a small working group for greater efficiency. This is an opportunity for the Staff Association representatives to put forward the positions defined by the ProtSoc commission.

Once the discussions between the members of the CHIS Board are completed, the final proposal of the new rules is brought, presented and explained to the SCC for consultation between the management and the staff representation. The aim of this consultation is to find a consensus on the proposal, which can still be amended at this stage. Finally, the SCC recommends the proposal to the Director General who takes the final decision to approve or amend the new rules proposed.

by Staff Association