For New ESO Pensioners

Welcome to the Group of ESO Pensioners

 

Congratulations - and welcome to the growing group of ESO pensioners! As you now have noticed we have our own website within the ESO domain with usefull information for you as an ESO pensioner. More about that below.

As an ESO pensioner the HR Department should have given you the document Leaving ESO, containing the following section:

ESO Pensioners Association

The “Groupement des Anciens du CERN – ESO Pensioners Association” (GAC-EPA) is an association created to enable retired staff to stay in touch after they leave ESO, and to represent and defend the interests of ESO and CERN retirees, in particular beneficiaries of the CERN Pension Fund. The GAC-EPA is recognized by the managements of both CERN and ESO as the official representative of the pensioners, and it has a seat on the Administrative Council of the Pension Fund.

The Association is run by a committee elected by the members, one of whom has the mandate of “ESO Representative” that is elected every two years directly by the ESO members of the Association. More information on membership of the association and other details can found on the GAC-EPA page and on the GAC-EPA website at www.gac-epa.org, including on how to become a GAC-EPA member – which is strongly recommended.

ESO Pensioners' Website

The ESO pensioners’ website contains quite a lot of information that might be useful, including past newsletters, photos, links (also to GAC-EPA) and relevant documents and presentations from the ESO intranet as you will probably no longer have access to this after you leave. Some of the web pages are protected from public viewing (basically to allow us to copy information from the intranet without having to ask ESO each time). You can get the credentials for the protected pages upon request.

ESO pensioners are represented in the ESO Health Working Group that monitors the workings of the ESO health insurance scheme and provides recommendations for improvement.  Martin Cullum is presently the delegate for the retired staff. If you have any specific problems or questions relating to the Cigna scheme, please let him know (with a copy to me as well).

Although you will have to return your ESO access card on your last working day, you can also ask for a Pensioner's access card.  It will allow you access to the car park, main entrance and Max Plank gate. It is similar to your ESO card but with Pensioner written on it. You can apply for it via the forms that are handed out to you by HR, together with the Leaving ESO document.

We occasionally distribute information of interest to registered ESO pensioners (e.g. upcoming meetings, health insurance information, etc.) and use for that purpose an e-mail list. Note that this is a closed list, i.e. only those on the list can use it without moderator intervention, and only the list members can see the addresses of their fellow members. In the package that ESO HR handed out to you before your retirement, there was a form to subscribe to some of the services that our association provides. Alternatively, you can also use the on-line registration form.

Kind regards,

Erik Allaert
GAC-EPA ESO Representative

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