Since 1955, CERN has its own Pension Fund that is shared with ESO (European Southern Observatory, located in Garching, Germany and La Silla, Chile). The goal of the Pension Fund is to insure its members, its beneficiaries as well as the members of their families against the consequences of disability, old age and death.
It is a defined-benefit Fund, and hence it is CERN and ESO’s responsibility to ensure that benefits (pensions) can be paid at any moment to its beneficiaries, until the death of the last survivor. Employed members of the personnel of the Organisations, as well as these Organisations, contribute monthly to the PF and each member acquires accordingly a right for pension that depends on the conditions defined in her/his work contract.
The CERN-ESO Pension Fund has about 3700 members and 3600 beneficiaries.
The Pension Fund is managed by a CERN unit (PF), that has the rank of a department and whose head is the Fund’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO). It is supervised by a Governing Board (PFGB) that reports to the Finance committees and the Councils of the Organisations. The PFGB is composed by 10 members representing the Councils of the Organisations, their staff associations and their pensioners. It is chaired by one of the delegates to the Councils and its members can only serve for 2 mandates of 3 years.
Useful links:
- Pension Fund
- Pension Fund Governing Board (PFGB)
- ESO web site
- Key information guide for beneficiaries