Be informed

What’s in store for UN staff in 2004-2005?

Marlène Sequeira, President CCISUA – Maria Dweggah, General Secretary, FICSA

Below are agenda items that will be presented for discussion at the 58 session of the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), which will be held in Paris, from 29 March to 16 April 2004. These include the continuing review of the pay and benefits system, with a review directed at modernizing and simplifying the system of allowances and benefits, the implementation of the pilot study on broadbanding; conditions of service of Professional and higher categories; paternity leave; gender balance; review of pensionable remuneration; and hazard pay.

FICSA will be holding its 57 Council in Geneva from 2 to 7 February 2004, kindly hosted by WMO. CCISUA will be holding its annual General Assembly in March in Beirut at ESCWA offices. The agenda items of the ICSC will be discussed in detail by representatives of staff association and unions at both meetings with a view to making recommendations and to developing strategies that will be adopted by the respective delegations who will be attending the Paris session and the subsequent summer session in New York and other high level meetings throughout the year.

By reading the provisional agenda, you can get a general idea of the issues that will be discussed in the next two years at the HLCM, HR Network, Fifth Committee and the General Assembly. The focus for 2004-2005 will be on entitlements, allowances and benefits, specifically for Professional and higher categories of staff, as well as on the pilot project on broadbanding which will be implemented at IFAD, WFP and UNAIDS.

FICSA and CCISUA are the two staff representative bodies officially recognized by the ICSC to defend the position of staff. As in the past, both federations will continue their collaborative efforts towards reaching a united front on issues of common interest. If you have any questions or comments concerning the items in the agenda, please contact your local staff association or union.

Provisional agenda of the 58 Session of the ICSC Paris, 29 March – 16 April 2004 (ICSC/58/R1)

1. Opening of the session
2. Report by the Chairman on activities since the fifty-seventh session of the Commission
3. Adoption of the agenda
4. Resolutions and decisions of the General Assembly and the legislative/governing bodies of the other organizations of the common system:
5. (a) Review of the pay and benefits system
   
   • Modernizing and simplifying allowances:
   • Overview of common system allowances and benefits
   • Mobility and Hardship allowance
   • Education grant: review of the methodology for determining the level of the grant
   • Implications of enlargement of the European Union on the operation of the Mobility and Hardship scheme on the post adjustment system
    (b) Development of modalities for strategic bonuses.
    (c) Implementation of the pilot study on broadbanding/reward for contribution
6. Conditions of service of the Professional and higher categories
    (a) Report of the twenty-sixth session of the Advisory Committee on Post Adjustment Questions
    (b) Review of the level of the children’s and secondary dependant’s allowances
7. Conditions of service applicable to both categories of staff: paternity leave
8. Statistical review of gender balance in the organizations
9. Review of the pensionable remuneration
10. Hazard pay for locally recruited staff