Federation of International Civil Servants’Associations
Outcomes of the sixty-third Session
Of the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), New York, 10 to 28 July 2006
The ICSC covered fourteen agenda
items plus “other business” during its
three-week 63rd session. FICSA
makes opening comments after the
agenda item is presented by the ICSC Secretariat
as well as interjecting questions and comments
during the discussion. The report of
FICSA’s comments reflects both the opening
statement and subsequent comments/questions.
It should be noted that the ICSC is
demanding abbreviated text so the attached
text has been treated as such.
The ICSC Commissioners arrive at both “Decisions” and “Recommendations”. The
former occurs when an activity or study is
still on-going and is being monitored or the
General Assembly has delegated certain
authority to the Commission. When the decision
must be taken by the General Assembly
(GA), a recommendation is made from the
Commission to the GA.
Review of Pay and Benefits: Assessing the
implementation of the new Job Evaluation
Master Standard for the Professional and
higher categories
FICSA took note of the report and the
progress made so far. It was noted that while
there had been some training, it had not been
at the level anticipated or desired. FICSA
urged that non-classification staff and staff
representatives also be trained in the standard.
This was particularly important in the
field, where there was a considerably greater
feeling of remoteness and confusion. FICSA
also asked whether the secretariat had
checked the consistency of the ratings
throughout the system and what the experience
had been in that regard. The Federation
was particularly anxious to see the glossary
that would accompany the new Master Standard
and asked about its progress, particularly
in view of the fact that at least one organization
had referred to the glossary in its
vacancy announcements.
Decision
The Commission took note of the report
submitted by the secretariat and the rate of
implementation by the organizations. Recognizing
the importance of the new job evaluation
system for the overall reform of the pay
and benefits system, it decided:
- To encourage the organizations to increase the rate of application of the new job evaluation tools and to respond to the secretariat in a timely manner in supplying the information requested;
- To request its secretariat to provide a followup report in the sixty-seventh session of (July 2008) on the implementation of the new job evaluation method in the organizations that indicates the number and percentage of Professional posts to which the standard has been applied, the number and percentage of posts upgraded and downgraded achieved by applying the standard and the number of appeals against the results obtained by application of the standard; and
- To request its secretariat to report on the progress made with respect to the enhancement of the job evaluation system, including a status report on the development of a glossary of terms for use by classifiers across the common system.
Review of the pay and benefits system:
Education grant: review of the
methodology for determining the grant
The representative of the Federation of
International Civil Servants’ Associations
supported the statements by the Human
Resources Network and the Coordinating
Committee, adding that the lump-sum option
needed to be thoroughly explored. He pointed
out that, in reviewing costs, seeking commonality
was important. In addition, support
was expressed for extending the grant to five
years of tertiary education. The Federation
stressed the importance of testing aspects of
any proposed changes so that the staff could
have complete confidence that the real situation
was reflected. Concern was expressed as
to how the ceilings would be updated without
the individual claims being submitted.
Although the total cost of the education grant
scheme for the comparator and for the United
Nations were comparable, the Federation
stressed that the rationale was based on what
was best for the international civil service,
not on how that would compare with the comparator.
The Federation welcomed the idea
of creating a secretariat/ organization/staff
representative working group on the issue.
Decision
- The options relating to establishing separate global, area-wide or country-specific education grant ceilings by type of school (public or private) or by levels of education, as well as to calculating education lump-sums solely on the basis of tuitions should not be further pursued;
- A compact working group should be established,
comprising the representatives of the secretariats
of ICSC and CEB, representatives of selected
individual organization, nominated by the
organizations and one representative each from CCISUA and FICSA. The working group should
analyse, model and test the overall performance of
a lump-sum education grant scheme based on the
various parameters and options proposed, including
but not limited to those mentioned above,
bearing in mind the need to preserve the cost-neutrality
of the new arrangements as compared with
the present ones. The working group should report on its findings to the Commission at the earliest opportunity but not later than its sixty-fifth session in July 2007; and - The Commission further decided to recommend to the GA that the eligibility period for the education grant should continue up to the end of the school year in which the child completes four years of post-secondary studies and continue to be subject to the age limit of 25.
Conditions of service of the Professional
and higher categories: Education Grant:
review of the level
The representative of FICSA complimented
the Human Resources Network for the work
done on the issue. The education grant encouraged
staff to live outside their home country
and provided significant relief from one of the
problems inherent in living in another country.
FICSA was appreciative of the individual
attention given to the unusual and unique circumstances
cited by the Human Resources
Network. The Federation had been aware of
the situation in Paris for a number of years and
completely supported addressing the special
problems, which had only been compounded
over time. It was important therefore that the
realities of the situation in Paris be reflected.
Although the percentage increase indicated
appeared high, in reality it was not and, more
importantly, it was warranted. Regarding the
proposed increase for the United States of
America, the representative of FICSA stated
that, while understanding the need for pragmatism,
the Federation would have preferred that
the full, warranted increase were recommended,
in particular since the costs driving the proposal
were based on secondary education and
the university situation had not even been
taken into account. FICSA found the proposals
regarding boarding costs to be reasonable and
valid, noting that they were linked to the consumer
price index.
The Commission decided to recommend to the General Assembly that:
- In Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, the United States of America and the United States dollar area outside the United States, the maximum admissible expenses and the maximum education grant should be set as shown in annex… table 11, to the present report;
- The maximum admissible expenses and the maximum education grant should remain at the current levels for Austria, Belgium, Finland, France (subject to subparagraph (d) below), Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom;
- The separate zone of Norway should be discontinued and the education claims for that country included in the United States dollar area outside the United States;
- A separate maximum admissible expense
level equal to that applicable to the United States
of America should be established for the following
schools in France:
- American School of Paris
- British School of Paris
- International School of Paris
- American University of Paris
- Marymount School of Paris
- European Management School of Lyon
— The flat rates for boarding should be taken into account within the maximum admissible educational expenses and the additional amounts for reimbursement of boarding costs over and above the maximum grant payable to staff members at designated duty stations should be revised as shown in annex…table 32, to the present report;
- The amount of the special education grant for each disable child should be equally to 100 per cent of the revised amounts of the maximum allowable expenses for the regular grant;
- Special measures should be maintained for China, Indonesia and the Russian Federation, which would allow organizations to reimburse 75 per cent of actual expenses up to and not exceeding the level of the maximum admissible expenses in force for the United States dollar area inside the United States of America; and
- All of the above measures should be applicable as from the school year in progress on 1 January 2006.
The Commission also decided to recommend to the General Assembly that the eligibility period for the education grant should continue up to the end of the school year in which the child completes four years of postsecondary studies even if a degree had been attained after three years and students would continue to be subject to the age limit of 25 years.
Proposed agenda for the 29th session of
the Advisory Committee on Post
Adjustment Questions
The Commission approved the provisional
agenda for the twenty-ninth session
of the Advisory Committee on Post
Adjustment Questions (ACPAQ) with the
addition of an item entitled “Review of
formulas used to derive financial implications
of recommendations and decisions
of the Commission”.
Survey and report on gender balance in
the United Nations common system
The representative of the Federation of
International Civil Servants’ Associations
(FICSA) commended the Commission secretariat
for its very exhaustive report and
excellent attempt to understand and
describe the issues at hand. Regarding the
point that the retention of women needed
to be addressed, FICSA added that the
provision of exit interviews was one critical
and highly useful way of capturing the
reasons why staff members (both men and
women) leave an organization. At present
such interviews were either not conducted
at all or were not adequately carried
out. The report referred in particular to
problems of retaining women in the lower
grades, and FICSA considered that it
would be interesting to know why this was
the case. FICSA agreed with the Human
Resources Network that this was not just a
human resources issue but also an organizational
one. Although one always had to
be careful in using figures to judge gender
balance, it was nevertheless clear that the
trend had not been very positive.
- Take note of information provided with regard to the representation of women in the Professional and higher categories in the organizations of the United Nations common system and express its disappointment at the insufficient progress made, in particular at the senior level, where women continued to be significantly underrepresented;
- Urge the organizations that have not yet done
so to designate a senior-level focal point for gender
issues to provide leadership in formulating
appropriate plans and strategies for achieving
gender balance, including responsive workforce
and succession planning to cater for retirements; - Urge those organizations that have not yet done so to set realistic annual gender goals;
- Encourage the organizations to hold managers accountable through their annual performance appraisals for achieving established gender goals;
- Encourage organizations to focus on strategies for retaining women at mid-level grades of the organization;
- Continue to monitor future progress in achieving gender-balanced n the organizations of the United Nations common system every two years and provide a report on this issue at its sixtyseventh session (July 2008); and
- Request its secretariat to regroup regions and sub regions in line with the current groups used for election purposes in the GA.
1 Final annex not yet available.
2 Final annex not yet available.
To be continued (October).
© 2006 UN Special |