UN Special N° 647 Janviere · January 2006 

Why a work stoppage?
On 28 October the Staff Association presented the Administration with the six WHO HQ staff demands as per the General Staff meeting on 5th October – requesting a written response to each demand by 11 November. These demands are the most urgent and essential of the 25+ requests made by the Staff Committee over the past year.
Information Note 38/2005 (24 November) is the Administration’s response. This response does not meet the minimum demands of staff although some of the wording seems positive. The Staff Committee believes that the disconnection between the Administration and staff has widened – and they have ceased to discuss these demands in good faith

A work stoppage has occurred on Wednesday 30 November
Nearly 500 of you voted for a work stoppage. Nearly 700 gathered from 10h00 to 11h00 outside HQ supporting WHO and WHO staff. Work stoppage is a legal right of International Civil Servants, according to ILO Conventions. No staff member can be harassed or negatively affected by participating in such a stoppage. Under no circumstances you should respond to the question whether or not you participated to the work stoppage and you should immediately report to the Staff Association.

Why was a work stoppage necessary?
Our work level is rising as global health issues expand. While WHO staff have responded by working even harder and longer over the past two years, the response from our leaders has been a consistent decrease of staff input into decision-making processes.
This has been applied throughout the Organization – managers have not routinely consulted with staff. We have become a top-heavy, top-down organization – and the messages to staff are clear: you are replaceable.
We are not contesting the Administration’s decision to reduce the number of staff. What we are contesting is the process by which staff numbers are shrinking and how staff, fixed-term and temporary, are being treated. The SDCR process is incoherent, secretive and essentially, an elaborate rubber stamping exercise for top management. Normal procedures are being completely disregarded. Not only is mismanagement common and unchecked – managers are also not subjected to re-profiling. The SDCR has contributed to a serious deterioration in the HQ working environment and as a result of the means to meet the Organization’s objectives.
We are all insecure. Just ask fixed-term staff members of 25 years who have received their three months’ notice. Security? WHO has brought in external staff on temporary contracts over the last year with complete disregard of staff it already has. We see incompetence rewarded, and high level posts protected. Before and during the SDCR, fixed-term posts are being abolished and short-term staff not renewed. Compensation and rotation for fixed-term staff have largely been removed. It is no wonder that a culture of fear permeates each department in HQ.
The first wave of staff affected by the «4 years and out» rule will occur in early 2006. The current estimate is that 300 short-term staff will be forced to leave, if the SDCR does not get them first. Yet the hiring of temporary staff continues unabated.

Recent budget decisions and allocations have left departments to fend for themselves and their staff. They are forced to become privatized entities surviving on extrabudgetary funds, and working on mandates requested by the donor which may not be in line with the WHO mandate.

In the past two months, FAO (a UN organization) and CERN have organized successful work stoppages. The WHO/HQ Staff Committee supported their actions and they have pledged their support for us.
The Federation of International Civil Servants (FICSA), our United Nations recognized representative within the United Nations Common System, is extremely concerned by the current difficulties in WHO’s Staff-Management relations. Your Staff Committee members are working closely with FICSA during our present Staff Management crisis.