In the previous ECHO we informed you about the petition to support CERN Users who are facing financial difficulties following CERN's decision to reclassify subsistence payments made to CERN USERs under a new category, namely a “cost of living” (COLA) allowance.

These capped monthly allowances are intended to crudely compensate for the disparity in cost of living between their home country (including non-Member States) and the Geneva area. The replacement of subsistence by COLA was met with a fair amount of apprehension on the part of the CERN community because it could possibly expose the recipients of these payments to financial hardship as a result of COLA payments being taxable, while those earlier classified as subsistence were not.

Let us express our support for the User Community without which CERN could not exist, by signing this petition by clicking on the "Sign Here" button at the top right of this page or simply by clicking here.