CCISUA ATACC

Statement by the President of the Coordinating Committee for international staff unions and associations of the United Nations system at the meeting of the Administrative Committee on Administration

By Marlène Sequeira, Executive Secretary of the Staff Council

As President of the Coordinating Committee for International Staff Unions and Associations of the United Nations System, I am intervening in the name of thousands of colleagues around the world for whom the opportunity extended to staff representatives to dialogue with the Administrative Committee on Administration is a positive step forward. Such a procedure, although not quite new, requires some tuning before a real dialogue exists.

Let me start by congratulating our Secretary-General and our colleagues of the United Nations on the occasion of the granting of the Nobel Peace Prize 2001. I can be considered as an old timer since I started here at Headquarters 32 years ago and I am deeply touched by the granting of this Prize. It represents all that I have been working for: the ideals of the United Nations Organization. Thank you Mr. Secretary-General for helping our Organization through your special guidance in going that far.

The tragedy suffered on 11 September is recalled in our every day work because we are human beings and we have been hurt one way or another by the appalling events; it is also on our minds because, more than one month later, its impact has emphasized the need for understanding each other and acting in a way that is beneficial for each and all of us. A first step – that is of course essential – is to findsome way to protect, console and grieve. A second step is to analyze the reasons behind attitudes. The third step is to find how to go ahead while focusing on the lessons learned.Following the three steps mentioned, members of CCISUA have brought forward several issues of interest for the system at large. The objective must be considered as the basis for further discussions: the benefit of the individual in the interest of the Organization.

Workplace health, safety and security issues

What is in place in each of your organizations to respond to the health, safety and security issues as regards: (a) concrete measures to enhance staff security on the ground and especially in remote locations; (b) advocacy campaigns, training and other means to promote and improve the organization’s image; (c) efforts aiming at making your staff perceived outside the organization as being nonpolitical; (d) efforts in favour of the locally recruited staff who, in certain organizations, represent more than 70% of the workforce (recent events have shown that the argument that they are supposed to be protected by their national government does not hold any longer).

Sustainability

In view of the Human Resources Management Reform that is being put in place throughout the common system, members of CCISUA believe that they must play an important role in the implementation of the Reform forseveral reasons: (a) as our Secretary-General often stresses, staff members are the main assets of the Organization; (b) staff members add value to the Reform; (c) nothing can be put in place if the human element is not taken into consideration.

Therefore, what is being proposed to hire, retain and motivate the best staff members? What is being done to increase the skills and competencies of the staff so that it is able to add value to the organization? What is being envisaged – apart from promotion – to reward the personal contribution of the staff to the objectives of the organization?

Decentralization

One issue of importance to the staff is the impact of the delegation of authority to managers. I should like to take off my staff representative’s hat and put on that of manager to express the need for more responsibility at the line manager’s level for managing the budget and finance of his/her section or service or even division. Our programmes are specific and managers should know what they are managing and how to get results in keeping with the vision, the mission and the objectives of the organization.

I am taking off my manager’s hat and putting back on that of staff representative to stress the need for an accountability mechanism before any delegation of authority can properly work. In this regard, I would appreciate having some concrete examples of accountability mechanisms as set up in your organizations. Mainly, I would like to know if anything has been envisaged in order to repair a bad or wrong decision that has had a negative result on the human element within a section/service/division or even a department. We know too well how much harm can be done to individuals by supervisors who have not evaluated enough the impact of their decision on the members of their teams.

Members of CCISUA are very concerned about the fact that managers are hired or promoted without going through the assessment of their managing or supervising skills. We believe that while equal opportunity should be given to all for training and coaching, it is equally necessary to offer to all would-be candidates the opportunity to be fairly assessed. Any financial constraints must be considered as a financial investment for the benefit of the organization because the questions that we must keep on our mind are: are we certain that we are getting good value for the money invested and should we not be doing more to safeguard our investment?

Mobility

I would be interested to learn more about the mobility schemes that are in the works or already applied in your organizations. I would like to know how mobility has benefited the staff and how it was perceived at the start. CCISUA members fear that the mobility criteria as planned in the common system would become the determining factor for promotion eligibility as opposed to competency, hard work, knowledge and institutional memory.

What are the incentives that you have determined to promote mobility? Is the human element taken into account? What is being envisaged to help lateral moves of general service staff (interagency moves, field missions, etc.)?

Career Development Plans

As stated by the Secretary-General, the goal of the Organization is to build a highly competent, skilled and versatile international civil service capable of meeting the Organization’s present and future needs. Career development is an integrated process to reach that goal. Members of CCISUA would like to have concrete examples of career development paths offered to various staff members. It is obvious that not all staff members can become managers. Not all staff members have supervision or managerial skills, yet they are excellent at what they do; their competencies are essential to the goals of the Organization. Does that mean that they cannot be promoted to a P-4 or a P-5 post because these posts are reserved for managerial positions?

Conclusion

It has taken determination and courage on the part of some of our predecessors to bring the Organization this far. Some of them took risks to implement new ideas at a time when it would have been safer to keep a conservative approach to human resources management. Members of CCISUA strongly believe that this is the time to imagine, take some risks and go ahead. We are ready to bring forward innovative and constructive proposals in a spirit of col- laboration for the benefit of the staff and the interest of the Organization at large.