Opening Statement by the President of Federation of International Civil Servants’Associations (FICSA) at the 59th Session of the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC)

CCISUA and the ICSC

12 July 2004, UN Headquarters, New York

Mr. Chairman, Members of the Commission, Ladies and Gentlemen, As staff representatives we are often portrayed as resisting change. It is said that we want to keep everything exactly as it is and not evolve with the times. Last December, more than 50 staff leaders from the common system met for three days at UN Headquarters to take a strong look at ourselves.

We came away from that meeting with a clearer understanding that the United Nations is a mirror image of the world; just as political unrest sweeps the globe, so is this Organization’s staff now plunged into desperate hardship conditions and worse, the targets of terrorist assassins. We came away committed to being the most knowledgeable and professional staff representatives. In this regard, CCISUA asserts that staff representatives have technical experts among their ranks and believes that staff representatives should be represented in all ICSC working groups, including the upcoming review on pensionable remuneration. We also committed ourselves to employ collaborative approaches that would enable us to join with our interlocutors in seeing the problems from both sides and finding solutions together. Towards that end, we welcomed the Global Compact of the Secretary-General and the efforts of the United Nations to apply international labour principles to their own work- force.

Although this is not the first time I am participating in an ICSC meeting, there is a very strong sense that this session represents a crossroads for the Commission, the organizations, and the staff. At this point, CCISUA encourages every member of this tripartite body to exercise the utmost spirit of collaboration, to look honestly at the realities of UN life. There is a temptation when sitting in comfortable conference rooms in the most beautiful and safe cities of the world to forget that this is not where the majority of UN staff spend their working lives. Some of our colleagues work without amenities, including properly functioning electric or running water. And worst of all, they work in fear – in fear for their lives. The tragic events of last August and the recent helicopter crash in Sierra Leone are becoming all too familiar events for our colleagues. And on Staff Day 2004 last month, 111 names of our colleagues were read out at a memorial service as having given their lives for the cause of peace last year alone.

The Secretary-General has placed a great deal of confidence in this body as having the potential to be a real driving force in strengthening the international civil service. He has stated that your actions could contribute immensely to improving staff morale and commitment and the entire United Nations community is expecting the Commission to rise to this challenge. We fully support our Secretary-General and his vision for a relevant United Nations. CCISUA is equally confident that the Commission can rise to the challenge he has offered.

We are confident that the Commission can stop the constant erosion of staff benefits. We are equally confident that the Commission can leave politics and finances to those who are tasked with such matters and concentrate on technical reviews aimed at improving organizational performance, promoting modern human resources management policies and ensuring conditions of employment remain competitive and commensurate with the organizations’ expectations of staff.

As the debate begins on the various items, CCISUA will make its interventions. However, there are a few major overall points that we would like to stress now.

[With regard to contractual arrangements, CCISUA wishes to emphasize the importance of strengthening the international civil service and maintaining its independence. The abolition of permanent contracts and career perspectives will result in the contrary. Why should it be considered that new, younger staff members no longer expect to forge a career, as is noted so often in the documents before us?

On the 4^th of June this year, the Secretary- General released the results of an Organizational Integrity Survey that was conducted by the Office of Internal Oversight Services. That survey, conducted at a time when staff in the United Nations on insecure contracts are at an all-time high, showed clearly the problems associated with precarious contractual arrangements. 46% (per cent) of staff that responded felt that if they denounced the lack of integrity they see around them they would not be protected from reprisals and that such action would limit their careers. Those results speak clearly for themselves and they confirm what staff representatives have said for many years.]

While reviewing the Noblemaire principle, we must bear in mind the principle set forth in article 101.3 of the UN Charter, i.e., “the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff and in the determination of the conditions of service shall be the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.” The review should not be transformed into yet another cost-containment exercise.

We feel strongly that if reviews on questions concerning, amongst others, the pay and benefits systems, education grant, mobility/hardship allowance and hazard pay are conducted independently from the review and update of the Noblemaire Principle, they will be devoid of proper parameters.

CCISUA is more than willing to consider streamlining the processing of education grant. However, we would encourage the Commission to ensure that the value of the entitlement and the link to actual cost is maintained as this is a key strategic entitlement. CCISUA would also encourage the Commission to explore the possibility of educational assistance to local staff and staff who are working in their home country. As our Secretary-General proclaimed last year, we are all international civil servants. Educational assistance, in various forms, exists in a number of transnational corporations – some are comparators in comprehensive salary surveys. We feel that benefits geared towards the welfare of our children should be incorporated in each salary system to avoid the appearance of an imbalance among staff.

CCISUA fully support the view express by the HR Network that the review of mobility/hardship allowance, hazard pay and strategic bonuses should not be conducted on a piecemeal basis. It should be closely linked to the Noblemaire Principle and we strongly oppose the de-linking of this scheme from the annual adjustment procedure applied to the base/floor scale. In the face of increasing security risks and deteriorating public health situations, shrinking the mobility/hardship allowance, in our view, will only reduce staff mobility.

We look forward to full participation in the discussions at this session on these and other important issues affecting staff welfare and conditions of work. Thank you.

FICSA is pleased to participate in this 59^th Session of the Commission and looks forward to a positive outcome. There are many very important issues on this very full agenda that will require careful thought, attention and discussion. We will not address any of these issues now but as they are being discussed.

We do wish to bring to the Commission’s attention at the outset the current climate in which FICSA is entrusted to execute its mandate on behalf of the staff that we represent. This climate is unfortunately one of deep apprehension, bordering on distrust, which is indicative of the general mood amongst all staff throughout the UN system, whether represented by FICSA or CCISUA or no federation at all and in virtually every duty station around the world, from New York to Nairobi, from Bujumbura to Lima.

There is among the staff a feeling of despair, fear, uncertainty, doubt, mistrust and apprehension about the actions underway, whether they be imagined, suggested or real. Instead of viewing proposed reforms as beneficial as they are presented, many staff instead perceive these as yet another attempt to undermine their conditions of service and to undermine and demean the contribution many staff have made to the UN system over the course of their careers. Regrettably, instead of producing the desired result, i.e. strengthening the international civil service, the inverse may be occurring – staff morale is eroded daily, the building blocks of the international civil service are crumbling and all of this is happening at a time when not only does the world need the UN more than ever but the UN itself is under direct threat from a security perspective.

We feel it is our duty to inform the Commission from the outset of this prevailing perception by staff – not to intimidate, not to threaten, not to manipulate, but merely to inform and to set the record straight. An essential role of staff representatives is to provide this type of information. A great deal of the perceptions about staff are from reports and newspaper articles and often those reading these reports come to eventually believe they are true, although predicated on erroneous assumptions and incomplete information. These perceptions include the assertion that there is too much ‘dead wood’ in the UN system, that staff members are adverse to mobility and that staff live in an ‘entitlement’ culture. Erroneous perceptions are expected but they are dangerous when they can be used as the basis on which to justify changes and, when all is said and done, may very well not be in the best interest of the UN system.

FICSA represents a very significant number of staff who have entrusted the Federation to defend their conditions of service that have prevailed in the UN for over 50 years and with that, the good name of staff. FICSA strives to maintain the reputation of being reasonable in its deliberations with the management, inter-agency bodies and the Commission itself. And we have every intention of continuing to act in a responsible and measured way. However, we cannot control the actions of all staff, nor do we officially represent every staff member in the UN system. It is our sincere belief that discontent among staff is growing and more radical actions by the staff, as evidenced by the recent submission of petitions to the ICSC regarding pension issues, could increasingly become the norm.

FICSA appeals therefore to the Commissioners, the ICSC secretariat, and the representatives of the administration that we conduct these deliberations never losing sight of what the UN stands for, how we can truly strengthen the role and effectiveness of the UN on the global stage and of the thousands of dedicated international civil servants who as always stand ready to serve diligently, responsibly and sadly, sometimes with their lives.