The 43rd meeting of the EUTELSAT IGO Advisory Committee (AC) was held last 14 December in Paris, chaired by Poland (Piotr Dmochowski-Lipski).
The meeting was attended by representatives of all six states on the AC, except for Luxembourg, i.e. France, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Switzerland. Belgium and Croatia participated as observers. Monaco (Frédéric Labarrere) was invited to take part as chair of the Assembly of Parties (AP).
This was an extraordinary session, basically focusing on revision of the organisation’s staff rules. That task will continue until presentation of a final text/recommendations to the parties, who meet in Assembly in April of next year. The proposed changes presented by the Secretariat have been very controversial and subject to successive editing proposals by the committee members, including Portugal.
The AC discussed a proposal from a human resources consultancy regarding the future pensions system. It analysed in detail various possible scenarios applicable to each element of the IGO secretariat. In 2002, after the organisation was privatised, a supplementary retirement plan was established with the AG2R insurer, which should now be updated to compensate for eventual detriments to staff who eventually retire.
The consultants therefore presented a comparative study on benefits gained by an employee who retires at age 65, by comparing the current AG2R system and the French social security system, and by comparison with the pensions system implemented by the company Eutelsat SA.
The executive secretary (ES) of EUTELSAT IGO, Piotr Dmochowski-Lipski of Poland, reported that negotiations have been under way with the company in that regard, given that the proposed revision of the staff rules implies major budget impacts, as demonstrated in a last-minute document presented by the financial adviser.
The ES reported that the 39th meeting of the Joint Eutelsat SA/EUTELSAT IGO Committee was held in Paris last 15 November, where the financial results of the current and past fiscal years were presented.
The Committee also analysed the revised budget for the period between July 2018 and June 2019, with slight modifications of some items. It was nevertheless found to remain within the total agreed with the company and approved at the last Assembly of Parties (AP).
The next AC meeting has been scheduled for 14-15 February 2019. It will be the last Committee session before the next AP (AP41), to be held this coming 10-11 April.
