Presentation of the Federation of International Civil Servants’ Associations (FICSA) to the Fifth Committee at its 60th Session on agenda item 131: United Nations common system
Mr. Chairman, Distinguished
delegates, Ladies
and Gentlemen,
FICSA is pleased to
have the opportunity to
address this Committee
once again under the
agenda item United
Nations common system.
Before turning to specific
items in the 2005
Report of the International
Civil Service Commission,
I would like to
say a few words about the United Nations
system and the women and men who serve
as the foundation of this system, namely,
the international civil service. In the midst
of unprecedented media coverage of the UN
and its activities, which has unfortunately
brought more criticism than praise, international
civil servants stand in the midst of
developments intended to change and
reform the UN system. Yet we stand and
watch as bystanders rather than active participants
in the process.
For over 50 years, FICSA’s role has been to
ensure that the UN system’s most precious
asset – its staff – may work in an environment
that provides fair and equitable conditions of
service and upholds and respects the underlying
principles of the international civil service,
which were established as early as 1919
at the League of Nations. Sadly, developments
we have witnessed over the last few years
have resulted in our conditions of service
being scrutinized, our abilities and dedication
to service being questioned, and a clear drift
away from the principles underlying a true
international civil service.
Whenever the opportunity has arisen,
FICSA has participated in inter-agency fora,
addressed this august committee and its
technical advisory body, the ICSC, to ensure
that staff conditions of service are upheld at
a level befitting of an international civil service– sometimes with success, sometimes
with deep frustration. We continue to seek
opportunities to intervene in a constructive
manner and provide informed views in additional
fora.
FICSA urges Member States to keep in
mind the basic principles of an international
civil service whenever any decisions that
impact on staff conditions of service are
considered or as reform measures for the
UN are being formulated and adopted. Furthermore,
FICSA believes that staff deserve
both the right and the courtesy of full and
active involvement in changes and reforms
that will impact directly and heavily on
their lives and their livelihood. Such
involvement will also positively affect the
change process.
Last year, FICSA expressed great concern
regarding staff security issues, in the
shadow of the 2003 tragedy at the Canal
Hotel in Baghdad. While FICSA continues to
closely follow staff security issues with the
same vigilance as it has always done, we are
pleased to note the significant
and very positive
developments that have
occurred since last year,
most notably as a result
of the creation of the
UN’s new Department of
Safety and Security. We
have watched as this new
department has taken
shape over the preceding
year, and continues to
develop, under the leadership
of the Under-Secretary
General for Safety
and Security. In fact, we
have very much welcomed
the positive and
proactive manner in
which Mr. Veness has
embraced staff concerns
and ensured communication
with the staff is maintained regularly
and in a constructive manner.
However, two goals still remain unfulfilled
to achieve a viable and strong unified
security management system. The first is
the assurance of an agreed and enforceable
accountability framework – one that recognizes
one clear line of accountability – to
the UN Secretary-General. While respecting
that individual agencies, funds and programmes
have their own security arrangements
in place, for there to be a unified and
strengthened security management system
that will ensure consistency and accountability
in the security provisions provided to
staff throughout the UN system, there must
be agreement, adherence and recognition
by all agencies, funds and programmes in
the UN system of one line of accountability.
Secondly, it is to be noted that in this
very room last year, Member States committed
the necessary funds in order that
the new DSS and a strengthened security
management framework for the UN system
could be realized. FICSA urges Member
States to work towards the achievement
of central and regular funding for
the UN’s security management system. Only through sustained and regular funding
can an equitable, consistent and sustainable
level of protection to all staff
throughout the system be assured,
regardless of organization, agency, programme
or fund.
Before turning to A/60/30, it is incumbent
on us to mention our colleagues at UNRWA
who are working in Gaza and the West Bank
and who, despite recent developments, are
still subject to daily-heightened security
concerns and the need to work in a highly
volatile and difficult environment. FICSA
has advocated for years that hazard pay be
paid to UNRWA area staff. Despite strong
messages of support from many,
ranging from the former Commissioner-General of UNRWA to members
of the International Civil Service
Commission, this payment
remains unfulfilled, with no funds
pledged for hazard pay for area
staff.
All channels of communication
on this issue lead to one conclusion
and one conclusion only.
Member States, both donors and
non-donors, need to do their
utmost, in the interest of fairness
and equity, to ensure that some
way is found to pay hazard pay to UNRWA area staff. Last year, we
had suggested that one solution
could be a special annual allocation
for this purpose. Taking this
positive step would not only contribute
greatly to providing
enabling conditions for UNRWA to
fulfill its mandate, but would
ensure the health, well being and
lives of its staff and their families
and significantly raise staff morale.
I now would like to turn to the
issues addressed in Volume 1 of
the ICSC report. As always,
FICSA’s views on all issues considered
by the ICSC this year are
clearly indicated in A/60/30, though
often in a condensed form in the
interest of streamlined reporting.
Not only did FICSA participate
fully in both ICSC sessions in
2005 but also in the two working
groups that were held to consider
the revision of the mobility and
hardship scheme in light of the
decision taken to delink the
existing scheme from the base
floor salary scale. Regarding the
proposed new scheme, the conclusions
reached by the working groups and subsequently
considered by the Commission as
a whole, represent the collaborative
effort of staff representatives, administrations,
Commissioners and the ICSC secretariat.
While FICSA would have preferred
to retain the existing scheme, which we
felt was viable and successful in its purpose,
we believe that the proposal presented
represents the best compromise
reached under the circumstances and
fully support the CEB’s statement on this
issue. FICSA would also like to put on
record that the actual modus operandi of
using working groups to address complex
issues under the Commission’s consideration
proved to be a most effective and
inclusive tool in this instance and we
would encourage its continued use in the
future.
At the Commission’s 61st session,
FICSA heard progress reports from the
volunteer organizations participating in
the pilot study for broadbanding and pay
for performance. After hearing those
reports, FICSA reiterated its long-standing
and serious concerns about the present
review of the pay and benefits system
and the suitability of concepts such as pay for performance and broadbanding
being applied in the UN
common system. Regrettably, these
concerns were heightened upon
learning that modalities for the
pilot study in some organizations
did not adhere strictly to criteria
for the pilot study that had already
been decided by the Commission.
We would like to stress that FICSA
has never been opposed to the
principle of a review or reform in
general. However, we do maintain
that when a review process is
developed, it must proceed in
accordance with agreed principles
and modalities. Otherwise we risk
making a mockery of prior discussions
and end up with skewed
results and difficulties in conducting
a fair and proper evaluation.
Regarding the salaries of staff in
the Professional and higher categories,
FICSA takes note of the
recommendation of the Commission for
an increase of 2.49% to the base/floor
salary scale on a no loss/no gain basis,
with effect from 1 January 2006.
At the ICSC’s summer session, FICSA
also took note of the margin forecast for
2005 and its close proximity to the 110
level. In light of repeated resolutions by
the General Assembly for the maintenance
of the margin at 115 over a period
of time, FICSA was extremely distressed
by the lack of a clear recommendation
from the Commission for a return of the
margin to the 115 level.
Although FICSA has stated before that the
ICSC took the right step in addressing contractual
arrangements with a view to simplifying
them, we nevertheless urge Member
States to ensure that the opportunity to make
a career in the UN system is upheld by rejecting
the inclusion of contracts that do not safeguard
this possibility and the value of career
service in the common system. This supports
our previous arguments regarding the need to
preserve the sanctity and values of the
international civil service. Fair and transparent
contractual arrangements, offering
careers to a designated proportion of staff,
are a vital element in preserving such a service.
I would like to conclude by saying a few
words about another item that will be considered
by this Committee under this agenda
item, namely the Report of the Panel on the
Strengthening of the International Civil Service.
FICSA was pleased to see that this item
is still in fact on the programme of work of
this Committee and would urge at this session
that the first eight recommendations of the
report be considered in depth with a view to
their adoption. This is sorely needed. In
FICSA’s view, the remaining recommendations
in the Panel’s report (which constitutes
over half of the report), does not adhere to
the terms of reference that had been intended
in Resolution 57/612. In actual fact,
these recommendations were made
within a context defined by the Panel
itself, as indicated in paragraph 15 of
its report which states clearly that the “Panel’s response to the Assembly’s
request to comment on the role and
main characteristics of the international
civil service focuses on concrete
measures to strengthen the management
of human resources” and
other issues. We believe this has
already been accomplished by virtue
of recommendations 1 to 8 of this
report and, if adopted, would go a long
way in ensuring that the Commission
itself may be given the necessary tools
to effectively examine and make recommendations
on conditions of service
in the common system.
FICSA therefore urges Member
States once more, in considering
the Panel’s report, to focus on recommendations
1 to 8, and to leave
the formulation of recommendations
relating specifically to conditions of service
in the common system to the ICSC as
the body established by the General
Assembly for this very purpose.
Mr. Chairman, distinguished delegates,
ladies and gentlemen,
Thank you once again for this opportunity
of addressing this Committee on issues of
deep concern to staff. We are available to
answer any questions or provide any further
clarifications if needed on any of the issues
mentioned and would be pleased to provide
our policy papers on any of the issues mentioned,
upon request.
We look forward to continued collaboration
to ensure a strong, united and
viable United Nations system for this millennium.
(New York, 20 October 2005).
