After two years of extensive discussions within and outside the Standing Concertation Committee (SCC), the legitimate interests of members of personnel have finally been addressed, by the revision of Administrative Circular No. 33 "Duty Travel". We would like to take you through the stages of this long process.

A never-ending story

At the June 2022 SCC meeting, FAP department proposed that reimbursement of accommodation during duty travel assignments be paid only on the basis of actual costs, eliminating the possibility of requesting payment of the applicable Daily Travel Allowance (DTA). This would have resulted in the amendment of Article R V 1.27 of the Staff Rules and Regulations (S&RP) and the revision of Administrative Circular No. 33 (which recently entered into effect in January 2020 — see ECHO 2020-029). The Staff Association (SA) rejected this proposal, on the grounds that its sole aim was to make savings on the personnel budget.

In September 2022, the Management put an item concerning the travel policy back on the agenda of the SCC. This time, the proposal was to set up a technical Working Group with representatives from HR, FAP departments and SA to review not only the reimbursement of accommodation expenses for missions, but also all statutory travel reimbursements (home leave, additional travel to the home station, travel for family reasons, travel expenses to enable children of members of personnel studying outside the local area to visit their families, and travel expenses when taking up an appointment or leaving CERN).

The SA had agreed to take part in this Working Group of technical experts, in order to gain a better understanding of the Administration's ideas and to determine whether they would be in the interests of both members of personnel and the Organization.

Further discussions led the SA to the firm conviction that the Administration's objective was still to make cost savings by lowering the reimbursements for all types of travel. The March 2023 SCC revealed the impossibility of reaching agreement on this subject, leading to the suspension of discussions and the failure of concertation. The representatives of the SA on the SCC were mandated by the Staff Council to make the following statement:

"The Staff Council opposes the proposed changes to the reimbursement of travel expenses, which is a social and financial condition of employment for members of personnel, as defined in Annex A1 of the S&RP and therefore no changes can be made to it outside of a five-year review." 

The subject was then shelved, but reappeared at the SCC on 28 June 2023, once again put on the agenda by the Management. What determination!

Four proposals were put on the table:

• Concerning duty travel: remove the option of paying the DTA (Daily Travel Allowance) and limit the payment of accommodation expenses during duty travel to the actual costs.
• Concerning travel when taking up an appointment or leaving CERN: for Staff members and Fellows, replace the current method of reimbursement (actual costs) with a flat rate per country, as applies currently only to Students and GRADs.
• Concerning the principle of the DTA: for Staff members and family members, suppress the right to the Daily Travel Allowance for statutory travel.
• Concerning HOME LEAVE: change the current calculation method.

Unable to bring the concertation to a successful conclusion on any of these points, before this meeting the SA had sent a letter to the Director General, asking her to remove the point on travel from the SCC agenda of June 28. The item was maintained, and at the SCC meeting the SA again refused to enter into the matter, reiterating its position:

“The reimbursement of travel expenses—of all types—is fully governed by Chapter V of the Staff Rules and Regulations (S&RP) of CERN. As such, it is a social and financial condition of employment for members of the personnel, as defined in Annex A1 of the S&RP and is therefore subject to a five-yearly review. In the past, it has been possible to modify financial and social conditions outside the five-year review when and only when the Management and the Staff Association agreed.”

Despite all of this, the Management kept on pushing tirelessly to achieve savings and in September 2023, the item on travel was again on the agenda of the SCC. A new letter was sent to the Director General asking her to remove travel from the SCC agenda. The item remained on the agenda and once again the SA refused to enter into discussions on the subject.

At this point, the Human Resources department proposed to hold informal discussions before the October 2023 SCC to find common ground and reach a genuine concertation on travel.

The result of the informal discussions with the Human Resources department and well-prepared concertation at the SCC

About duty travel

Agreement was finally reached on the reimbursement of actual accommodation costs up to 60% of the Daily Travel Allowance. In exceptional cases, if accommodation costs exceed this limit, and the excess has been approved in advance by the head of department of the person concerned, the latter will be reimbursed for all accommodation costs, without prejudice to the 40% of the Daily Travel Allowance allocated for meals and miscellaneous expenses.

Therefore:

• Article R V 1.27 "Daily Travel Allowance" of the Staff Rules and Regulations, approved by the Council in December 2023, will reflect the principle that accommodation expenses during DUTY TRAVEL are either:

1. paid directly by the Organization, or
2. reimbursed on the basis of actual costs, up to the limit of the Daily Travel Allowance (DTA).

• The resulting amendments made to Administrative Circular No. 33 "DUTY TRAVEL" were approved by the SCC in February 2024, reflecting the guarantees agreed at the SCC meetings of 19 October and 29 November 2023.
• In addition, the Staff Association raised two other points:

1. Concerning article 18 of AC No. 33, the SA asked for clarification of the concept of "reasonable". The Management replied that the service responsible for reimbursement who decides. However, after concertation, the members of the SCC agreed that a traveller disputing a refund can ask their head of department to intervene and support the case with the department responsible for processing refunds.
2. With regard to article 68 of AC No. 33, the SA asked for this article to be deleted on the grounds of potential unfair treatment and the prevention of abuse. The Management did not accept this request but proposed (and it was accepted) to monitor the number of travellers requesting a lower refund.

About travel when taking up an appointment or leaving CERN

Agreement has been reached on the payment of a lump sum for all categories of personnel, although it remains possible for employed members of the personnel only, to be reimbursed at actual costs under certain conditions.

The new calculation method must be closely monitored, and an annual report will be made to the Standing Concertation Committee to provide full statistics on the application of Administrative Circular No. 33, the cases encountered, and any changes made to the lump-sum values.

Likewise, concertation on the texts is to be continued until the amendments to Administrative Circular No. 30 "Financial benefits on taking up appointment and on termination of contract" are approved by the SCC.

About the DTA

The abolition of the Daily Travel Allowance for travel when taking up appointment or leaving CERN (set out in the current texts) has been abandoned.

About home leave

In October 2023, during the SCC meeting, the Management postponed the discussion, but the Association reiterated once again that concertation on home leave has not simply been postponed, as this point can only be treated as part of a five-year review.

Here you have in a few pages, the summary of two years of tense discussion and difficult concertation.

The Staff Association has always advocated that under no circumstances should anyone travelling on behalf of the Organization be personally financially penalised. Today, to be sure of this, we are asking you to inform us of any situation where the reimbursement of official travel has not covered all your expenses. We will review each case and work with you to ensure that ALL your legitimate expenses are covered.

We look forward to your feedback!