Voting began on Monday 23 October and will close at noon on Monday 13 November. 

Use this link to cast your vote massively to elect the new Staff Council. https://staff-association-elections.web.cern.ch/!

Being a staff representative is an essential role

The staff representatives will attend meetings of the Staff Council (CP) and will, among other things, elect the Executive Committee (EC), set the policy of the Staff Association (SA) and supervise its implementation by the Executive Committee, and convoke the General Assembly in ordinary or extraordinary sessions.

The delegate will also act as a local contact and link between the members of the personnel and the Staff Association. His or her role is to provide advice and guidance to colleagues on the problems they encounter, just as he or she will share with the Association the concerns or issues that colleagues want the Association to address as a matter of priority.

Being a staff representative also means taking part in the work of at least one of the Staff Association's internal committees on specific issues (Pensions, Social protection, Conditions of employment, Health and Safety, legal issues, writing articles, or handling information and training matters) and thus putting forward his/her ideas and proposals, as well as being mandated by the Association to take part in the work of official bodies of the Organization or various Working Groups.

But to become a staff representative is first and foremost to be willing to serve and defend the members of the personnel and to be an active citizen of the Organization by contributing to the revision and establishment of its laws (Operational & Administrative circulars) and processes.

The Staff Council, what is it?

The Staff Council is the supreme representative body of the Staff Association and of the pensioners of CERN. It is composed of staff representatives elected by the members of the Staff Association. These representatives are elected for a two-year term. The Staff Council also includes Pensioners' Representatives, representing the pensioners and, elected according to the provisions ruled by the GAC-EPA.

The Staff Council is competent, amongst others, to[1]:

• Determine the broad lines of the Association’s policy;
• Supervise its implementation by the Executive Committee;
• Elect the EC;
• Put to a vote any decision of the General Assembly or any matter of general interest to the personnel;
• Appoint staff representatives to bodies in which staff representation is foreseen;
• Appoint Association representatives in each Department;
• Set up Commissions and Working groups;

Taking part in the election of your delegates in the Staff Council means choosing from amongst the candidates the persons you think best able to represent you. It also means participating in an important  democratic process within the Organization.

What happens to the newly elected, and the re-elected delegates after the election of the new Staff Council?

It is the outgoing Staff Council which is responsible for preparing the new staff representatives to take on their new roles. To do this, information days are organized in the form of a conference, familiarly known under the French term ‘Assizes’. This year, the meetings will take place on 27 and 28 November, bringing together staff representatives from the current and new Staff Councils.

The main purpose of these meetings is to inform the delegates about the place of the SA within the Organization, the Bodies, Committees, Forums, etc., and outside the Organization (relations with the staff associations of other international organizations), as well as how the SA operates internally. It is a form of "induction".

Inform, but not only!

In addition to providing information, the aim of the Assizes is to integrate the newcomers by inviting them to discover the SA's various internal committees, explaining the upcoming challenges and projects for the 2024-2025 term, and also to meet the other staff representatives with whom they will be working and voting on a wide range of subjects during the next two years… in other words, inviting them to find their place.

Amongst all this information and the presentations of the internal committees, training possibilities are also mentioned; for example, training concerning the Pension Fund or the CERN Health Insurance Scheme (CHIS), the five-yearly review, etc.

These training courses, which are offered to new delegates, enable them to acquire the knowledge they need to take part in the Association's work on specific topics.

Finally, the question of the constitution of the new Executive Committee will be discussed, taking into account the election of the EC at the beginning of December. This topic, will be the subject of a forthcoming article in which the new Executive Committee will introduce you to its work programme for 2024-2025 and the challenges to be faced by the Staff Association during that period.

[1] https://staff-association.web.cern.ch/internal-organisation/staff-council