Payment of travel expenses on termination of contract

Applicable à
General

1. Preconditions

Entitlement to payment of travel expenses is governed by the provisions of article R V 1.09 of the Staff Rules and Regulations as well as by Administrative Circular No. 30.

Under these provisions, entitlement to payment of travel expenses on termination of contract is subject to the following conditions:

  • Staff members, fellows, scientific associates or students appointed before 1st January 2007 (excluding former local staff members)

    • their home station must be outside a radius of 20 km from CERN, and

    • they must establish their new place of residence at least 20 km in a straight line from the previous place of residence within two years of contract termination;

  • Staff members, fellows, scientific associates or students appointed on or after 1st January 2007 (including former local staff members)

    • their home station must be outside a radius of 70 km from CERN, and

    • they must establish their new place of residence outside a circle with a radius of 70 km with its centre at CERN within two years of contract termination.

For staff members and fellows, definition of the home station is governed by the provisions of article R II 1.25 of the Staff Regulations and its location is determined when their contract is drawn up.
For associated members of the personnel, the home station is replaced by the place of residence determined at the time they take up their appointment.

2. Deferral of payment of travel expenses

If the member of the personnel is awarded a new contract with CERN - without any interruption-, the Organization pays travel expenses on termination of contract once only for the member of the personnel and the members of his family, subject to the following conditions:

  • his entitlement to travel expenses is deferred until he no longer holds a contract for a working week longer than 20 hours. From that point in time, the journey must be made within two years.

  • if the working week is less or equal to 20 hours, his journey must take place within two years of termination of the contract that granted him entitlement to payment of travel expenses.

 

Follow this link to the table providing an overview of the conditions applying to the payment of travel expenses.

Procédure

A member of the personnel’s entitlement to travel expenses is taken by HR department on termination of his contract and can be consulted by departmental secretariats in HRT (Planning Menu; reports: Arrival entitlements and Departure entitlements).

It is the responsibility of the departmental secretariat to check whether the new place of residence has been established outside a radius of 20 or 70 km, depending on the applicable regulation. The following function can be used for this purpose: Calculation of the distance in a straight line from CERN.

In addition, the departmental secretariat must check with the member of the personnel that his bank account is still open. If this is not the case, the member of the personnel must communicate his bank account details via the EDH document Coordonnées bancaires / Bank details. If his contract ended more than two months previously, the ex-member of the personnel must provide his bank details to the secretariat, which will attach them to the Demande de remboursement pour voyages d'arrivée et de départ / Arrival and Departure claim and specify it in the comments.

1. Staff members, fellows and scientific associates

1.1 Benefits

1.1.1 Cost of the journey

On termination of contract, the cost of the journey corresponds to the cost of the one-way journey from CERN to the home station or to the new place of residence provided that the latter cost does not exceed the cost of the one-way journey to the home station.

If the journey is organised by CERN through CWT, tickets will be issued for the following travel classes:

  • Plane: economy or equivalent
  • Train: first-class, sleeper or couchette
  • Boat: cabin berth or equivalent

If the member of the personnel opts to make his own travel arrangements, the Organization will pay the cost of the cheapest form of public transport, taking into account travel time, to the train station, airport or port closest to the place of residence of the member of the personnel.

1.1.2 Luggage expenses

The Organization will reimburse luggage expenses:

  • up to a maximum of 30 kg,
  • by CARGO air freight,
  • for the journey from the airport from which the member of the personnel leaves CERN to the airport he uses to reach his place of residence.

CERN will also reimburse the luggage expenses of family members up to a maximum of 30 kg per person.

To obtain this reimbursement, the member of the personnel must submit a receipted invoice from the CARGO service of a passenger transport or freight airline company (e.g. Swiss World Cargo in the case of Swiss International Airlines).

The invoice must show the following information:

  • the number of kilos of luggage transported by the carrier,
  • the departure and arrival airports,
  • any costs arising from import/export formalities and customs duties, and
  • details of any additional services invoiced (e.g. special insurance, etc.).

The Organization will reimburse only the cost of air freight. It will therefore not reimburse:

  • the cost of delivery (from or to the place of residence) or packaging,
  • any costs arising from import/export formalities and customs duties, and
  • any additional service.

N.B. Any excess luggage registered at the time of check-in is not considered to be air freight. Consequently, the member of the personnel will not be reimbursed for any excess baggage surcharge by an airline company.

1.2 Members of the family

The same conditions apply to the payment of travel expenses on termination of contract for family members of:

  • staff members and fellows: provided that they take up residence with the member of the personnel within two years of termination of his contract.
  • scientific associates
    • holding a contract of at least six months;
    • provided that they take up residence with the member of the personnel within two years of termination of his contract.

1.3 Payment of travel expenses

If the journey is organised by CERN through the CWT travel agency, the member of the personnel will receive his travel documents directly.

In this case the travel agency forwards the invoice to the departmental secretariat which completes a Demande de paiement au tiers / Third-party payment request in EDH, providing the following information:

  • the supplier = CWT
  • budget code = group budget (by default)
  • account to be debited = depending on the member of the personnel status
  • account to be credited = CWT

When the member of the personnel travels by his own means, the travel is paid on the basis of the document Payment scheme for student travel (simple-way) for ADMI, TECH, DOCT (01.06.2023).

By analogy with the home leave procedure, the following rule should be applied:

  • amount of the student lump-sum for travel for the member of the personnel and each member of their family aged 12 or over at the time of travel,
  • 50% of the student lump-sum for each member of his family under 12 years at the time of travel.

Travels that are processed through the Demande de mission / Travel request (TRVL) using the travel type "other travel of associated members of the personnel" must follow the duty travel procedure. This payment scheme doesn't apply to them.

In other cases, travel expenses are paid on the submission of a claim by the member of the personnel to their departmental secretariat, either on their departure or as soon as the departmental secretariat receives the receipted invoices (and at the latest within two years of his termination of contract).

The departmental secretariat completes a Demande de remboursement de mission / Duty travel claim  in EDH, providing the following information:

  • effective date = last day of the contract
  • type of journey = departure
  • itinerary and cost of the journey

Further information is available in the Quick Reference Guide of the EDH document (French only).

2. Students (technical, doctoral or administrative)

2.1 Benefits

Students’ travel expenses on termination of contract must be paid as a lump sum.

The amounts per country are indexed every year: consult the table annexed to the memo Payment scheme for student travel - ADMI, DOCT, TECH (01.06.2023).

Travel expenses on departure are paid to the place of residence, which is determined when the student takes up his appointment. Where the student returns to a new place of residence, the applicable lump sum is the one of the country of the new destination but the cost of the departure journey cannot exceed that of a trip to the place of residence determined upon taking up their duties.

Students are not entitled to travel expenses for family members or to luggage expenses.

2.2 Payment of travel expenses

Reimbursements are paid on submission of a claim by the student to his departmental secretariat either on his departure or at the latest within two years of termination of his contract.

Check in HRT the eligibility for the departure travel and the former place of residence determined at the time of taking up their duties.

Ask the student what their new place of residence is, i.e. the country to which the student has or will actually travel when their contract expires.

The lump sum payment for the departure trip must be made the last month of contract by the Departmental secretariats The EDH form Demande de paiement de voyage pour les étudiants / Travel claim for students must be completed with the following information:

  • claim type = student's departure travel

  • beneficiary = name of the student

Effective date, contract dates, former residence (at taking up appointment), budget code and debit account are automatically displayed in the claim.

  • Add a new line item

  • Copy in this new line item the country of the former place of residence, the budget code and debit account displayed in the travel fees part (= yes)

  • Enter in the new line item the amount applicable to the country concerned (consult the memo Payment scheme for student travel - ADMI, DOCT, TECH (01.06.2023) to determine the correct amount)

  • Close the travel fees part (= no)

In the event that the student takes up residence and travels to a country other than their former place of residence determined when taking up their duties, the applicable lump sum amount is the most economical of the two and must not exceed the amount defined for the former place of residence, i.e. the departure trip is paid within the limit of the fixed price of the country of the former place of residence.

The departure destination location does not need to be changed in the personnel database should the new destination be different. In this case, the departure destination serves to define the limit of the lump amount that can be granted. If a lower lump sum is finally paid, this is visible in the Demande de paiement de voyage pour les étudiants / Travel claim for students in EDH.

3. Volontaires Internationaux

The procedure detailing the payment of travel expenses on termination of contract for Volontaires Internationaux is available via Volontaire International Traineeship in the framework of an agreement with a national funding agency (TRNE "Special Programmes").

4. Summer students

The travel expenses of summer students are paid once when the contract expires. The HR department service responsible for summer students automatically makes the necessary arrangements for the payment of a lump sum amount.

Summer students are not entitled to travel expenses for family members or to luggage expenses.

5. Users and non-scientific associates

Travel expenses on termination of contract may be paid at the discretion of the Director-General if the preconditions are met, as a function of the date that the contract of association is drawn up and within the limits defined in paragraph 1.1.1 Cost of the journey.

In this case, the members of the personnel concerned must apply to their departmental secretariat.

Users and non-scientific associates are not entitled to travel expenses for family members or to luggage expenses.

Révisions
No revision Modifications Approved
     
1 Suppression of the sentence: "travel expenses on termination of contract are not paid should the member of the personnel resign during his first year of service" following corrigendum of AC 30 (Rev. 2/Corr.) September 2009
2 New lump sum system for arrival and departure travel of students 01.08.2014
3 Application of the new lump sum system to all students, independently on their date of taking up appointment 01.07.2016
4 Suppression delay of submission for the reimbursement requests for the students 18.04.2017
5 Additional information: If the member of the personnel opts to make his own travel arrangements, the Organization will pay the cost of the cheapest form of public transport, taking into account travel time, to the train station, airport or port closest to the place of residence of the member of personnel. 31.05.2018
6 "Return journey" replaced by "one-way journey" in order to avoid confusion. 24.10.2018
7 New memorandum "Payment scheme for student travel (TECH, DOCT, ADMI) - valid from 1st April 2019". 26.03.2019
8 Clarification: If the member of the personnel is awarded a new contract with CERN - without any interruption-, the Organization pays travel expenses on termination of contract once only for the member of personnel and the members of his family. 09.09.2020
9 Revision of the paragraph 1.3 with the use of the payment scheme for students while member of the personnel travels by his own means. 15.12.2020
10 Update of the management of bank details. 06.08.2021
11 Adding the procedure for Volontaires Internationaux 21.12.2021
12 Revision of paragraphs 2.1 and 2.2: Where the student returns to a new place of residence, the applicable lump sum is the one of the country of the new destination but the cost of the departure journey cannot exceed the one of a trip to the place of residence determined upon taking up their duties. 15.06.2022

General

1. Preconditions

Entitlement to payment of travel expenses is governed by the provisions of article R V 1.09 of the Staff Rules and Regulations as well as by Administrative Circular No. 30.

Under these provisions, entitlement to payment of travel expenses on termination of contract is subject to the following conditions:

  • Staff members, fellows, scientific associates or students appointed before 1st January 2007 (excluding former local staff members)

    • their home station must be outside a radius of 20 km from CERN, and

    • they must establish their new place of residence at least 20 km in a straight line from the previous place of residence within two years of contract termination;

  • Staff members, fellows, scientific associates or students appointed on or after 1st January 2007 (including former local staff members)

    • their home station must be outside a radius of 70 km from CERN, and

    • they must establish their new place of residence outside a circle with a radius of 70 km with its centre at CERN within two years of contract termination.

For staff members and fellows, definition of the home station is governed by the provisions of article R II 1.25 of the Staff Regulations and its location is determined when their contract is drawn up.
For associated members of the personnel, the home station is replaced by the place of residence determined at the time they take up their appointment.

2. Deferral of payment of travel expenses

If the member of the personnel is awarded a new contract with CERN - without any interruption-, the Organization pays travel expenses on termination of contract once only for the member of the personnel and the members of his family, subject to the following conditions:

  • his entitlement to travel expenses is deferred until he no longer holds a contract for a working week longer than 20 hours. From that point in time, the journey must be made within two years.

  • if the working week is less or equal to 20 hours, his journey must take place within two years of termination of the contract that granted him entitlement to payment of travel expenses.

 

Follow this link to the table providing an overview of the conditions applying to the payment of travel expenses.

Procedure

A member of the personnel’s entitlement to travel expenses is taken by HR department on termination of his contract and can be consulted by departmental secretariats in HRT (Planning Menu; reports: Arrival entitlements and Departure entitlements).

It is the responsibility of the departmental secretariat to check whether the new place of residence has been established outside a radius of 20 or 70 km, depending on the applicable regulation. The following function can be used for this purpose: Calculation of the distance in a straight line from CERN.

In addition, the departmental secretariat must check with the member of the personnel that his bank account is still open. If this is not the case, the member of the personnel must communicate his bank account details via the EDH document Coordonnées bancaires / Bank details. If his contract ended more than two months previously, the ex-member of the personnel must provide his bank details to the secretariat, which will attach them to the Demande de remboursement pour voyages d'arrivée et de départ / Arrival and Departure claim and specify it in the comments.

1. Staff members, fellows and scientific associates

1.1 Benefits

1.1.1 Cost of the journey

On termination of contract, the cost of the journey corresponds to the cost of the one-way journey from CERN to the home station or to the new place of residence provided that the latter cost does not exceed the cost of the one-way journey to the home station.

If the journey is organised by CERN through CWT, tickets will be issued for the following travel classes:

  • Plane: economy or equivalent
  • Train: first-class, sleeper or couchette
  • Boat: cabin berth or equivalent

If the member of the personnel opts to make his own travel arrangements, the Organization will pay the cost of the cheapest form of public transport, taking into account travel time, to the train station, airport or port closest to the place of residence of the member of the personnel.

1.1.2 Luggage expenses

The Organization will reimburse luggage expenses:

  • up to a maximum of 30 kg,
  • by CARGO air freight,
  • for the journey from the airport from which the member of the personnel leaves CERN to the airport he uses to reach his place of residence.

CERN will also reimburse the luggage expenses of family members up to a maximum of 30 kg per person.

To obtain this reimbursement, the member of the personnel must submit a receipted invoice from the CARGO service of a passenger transport or freight airline company (e.g. Swiss World Cargo in the case of Swiss International Airlines).

The invoice must show the following information:

  • the number of kilos of luggage transported by the carrier,
  • the departure and arrival airports,
  • any costs arising from import/export formalities and customs duties, and
  • details of any additional services invoiced (e.g. special insurance, etc.).

The Organization will reimburse only the cost of air freight. It will therefore not reimburse:

  • the cost of delivery (from or to the place of residence) or packaging,
  • any costs arising from import/export formalities and customs duties, and
  • any additional service.

N.B. Any excess luggage registered at the time of check-in is not considered to be air freight. Consequently, the member of the personnel will not be reimbursed for any excess baggage surcharge by an airline company.

1.2 Members of the family

The same conditions apply to the payment of travel expenses on termination of contract for family members of:

  • staff members and fellows: provided that they take up residence with the member of the personnel within two years of termination of his contract.
  • scientific associates
    • holding a contract of at least six months;
    • provided that they take up residence with the member of the personnel within two years of termination of his contract.

1.3 Payment of travel expenses

If the journey is organised by CERN through the CWT travel agency, the member of the personnel will receive his travel documents directly.

In this case the travel agency forwards the invoice to the departmental secretariat which completes a Demande de paiement au tiers / Third-party payment request in EDH, providing the following information:

  • the supplier = CWT
  • budget code = group budget (by default)
  • account to be debited = depending on the member of the personnel status
  • account to be credited = CWT

When the member of the personnel travels by his own means, the travel is paid on the basis of the document Payment scheme for student travel (simple-way) for ADMI, TECH, DOCT (01.06.2023).

By analogy with the home leave procedure, the following rule should be applied:

  • amount of the student lump-sum for travel for the member of the personnel and each member of their family aged 12 or over at the time of travel,
  • 50% of the student lump-sum for each member of his family under 12 years at the time of travel.

Travels that are processed through the Demande de mission / Travel request (TRVL) using the travel type "other travel of associated members of the personnel" must follow the duty travel procedure. This payment scheme doesn't apply to them.

In other cases, travel expenses are paid on the submission of a claim by the member of the personnel to their departmental secretariat, either on their departure or as soon as the departmental secretariat receives the receipted invoices (and at the latest within two years of his termination of contract).

The departmental secretariat completes a Demande de remboursement de mission / Duty travel claim  in EDH, providing the following information:

  • effective date = last day of the contract
  • type of journey = departure
  • itinerary and cost of the journey

Further information is available in the Quick Reference Guide of the EDH document (French only).

2. Students (technical, doctoral or administrative)

2.1 Benefits

Students’ travel expenses on termination of contract must be paid as a lump sum.

The amounts per country are indexed every year: consult the table annexed to the memo Payment scheme for student travel - ADMI, DOCT, TECH (01.06.2023).

Travel expenses on departure are paid to the place of residence, which is determined when the student takes up his appointment. Where the student returns to a new place of residence, the applicable lump sum is the one of the country of the new destination but the cost of the departure journey cannot exceed that of a trip to the place of residence determined upon taking up their duties.

Students are not entitled to travel expenses for family members or to luggage expenses.

2.2 Payment of travel expenses

Reimbursements are paid on submission of a claim by the student to his departmental secretariat either on his departure or at the latest within two years of termination of his contract.

Check in HRT the eligibility for the departure travel and the former place of residence determined at the time of taking up their duties.

Ask the student what their new place of residence is, i.e. the country to which the student has or will actually travel when their contract expires.

The lump sum payment for the departure trip must be made the last month of contract by the Departmental secretariats The EDH form Demande de paiement de voyage pour les étudiants / Travel claim for students must be completed with the following information:

  • claim type = student's departure travel

  • beneficiary = name of the student

Effective date, contract dates, former residence (at taking up appointment), budget code and debit account are automatically displayed in the claim.

  • Add a new line item

  • Copy in this new line item the country of the former place of residence, the budget code and debit account displayed in the travel fees part (= yes)

  • Enter in the new line item the amount applicable to the country concerned (consult the memo Payment scheme for student travel - ADMI, DOCT, TECH (01.06.2023) to determine the correct amount)

  • Close the travel fees part (= no)

In the event that the student takes up residence and travels to a country other than their former place of residence determined when taking up their duties, the applicable lump sum amount is the most economical of the two and must not exceed the amount defined for the former place of residence, i.e. the departure trip is paid within the limit of the fixed price of the country of the former place of residence.

The departure destination location does not need to be changed in the personnel database should the new destination be different. In this case, the departure destination serves to define the limit of the lump amount that can be granted. If a lower lump sum is finally paid, this is visible in the Demande de paiement de voyage pour les étudiants / Travel claim for students in EDH.

3. Volontaires Internationaux

The procedure detailing the payment of travel expenses on termination of contract for Volontaires Internationaux is available via Volontaire International Traineeship in the framework of an agreement with a national funding agency (TRNE "Special Programmes").

4. Summer students

The travel expenses of summer students are paid once when the contract expires. The HR department service responsible for summer students automatically makes the necessary arrangements for the payment of a lump sum amount.

Summer students are not entitled to travel expenses for family members or to luggage expenses.

5. Users and non-scientific associates

Travel expenses on termination of contract may be paid at the discretion of the Director-General if the preconditions are met, as a function of the date that the contract of association is drawn up and within the limits defined in paragraph 1.1.1 Cost of the journey.

In this case, the members of the personnel concerned must apply to their departmental secretariat.

Users and non-scientific associates are not entitled to travel expenses for family members or to luggage expenses.

Revisions

No revision Modifications Approved
     
1 Suppression of the sentence: "travel expenses on termination of contract are not paid should the member of the personnel resign during his first year of service" following corrigendum of AC 30 (Rev. 2/Corr.) September 2009
2 New lump sum system for arrival and departure travel of students 01.08.2014
3 Application of the new lump sum system to all students, independently on their date of taking up appointment 01.07.2016
4 Suppression delay of submission for the reimbursement requests for the students 18.04.2017
5 Additional information: If the member of the personnel opts to make his own travel arrangements, the Organization will pay the cost of the cheapest form of public transport, taking into account travel time, to the train station, airport or port closest to the place of residence of the member of personnel. 31.05.2018
6 "Return journey" replaced by "one-way journey" in order to avoid confusion. 24.10.2018
7 New memorandum "Payment scheme for student travel (TECH, DOCT, ADMI) - valid from 1st April 2019". 26.03.2019
8 Clarification: If the member of the personnel is awarded a new contract with CERN - without any interruption-, the Organization pays travel expenses on termination of contract once only for the member of personnel and the members of his family. 09.09.2020
9 Revision of the paragraph 1.3 with the use of the payment scheme for students while member of the personnel travels by his own means. 15.12.2020
10 Update of the management of bank details. 06.08.2021
11 Adding the procedure for Volontaires Internationaux 21.12.2021
12 Revision of paragraphs 2.1 and 2.2: Where the student returns to a new place of residence, the applicable lump sum is the one of the country of the new destination but the cost of the departure journey cannot exceed the one of a trip to the place of residence determined upon taking up their duties. 15.06.2022