FICSA CIRCULAR
Report on the 64th session of the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC)
MARIA DWEGGAH, FICSA
FICSA participated in the 64th session of the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC) in New York, from 19 to 30 March 2007. Most of the items pertained to the on-going review of conditions of service. The full list of items on the agenda included:
- Separation payments
- Contractual arrangements
- London salary survey
- Job evaluation standards for the GS category
- Entitlements of international staff in non-family duty stations
- Grade equivalency studies used to help determine Professional salaries
- Post adjustment questions
This was the first session under the Chairmanship of Kingston Rhodes, and the Vice-Chairmanship of Wolfgang Stöckl (both elected for a four-year term). In his opening remarks, the Chairman emphasized the leading role played by ICSC in the achievement of human resources management reform to support organizational reform aimed at capacity building in the UN system. Conditions of service should be harmonized and coherent to ensure that they were equitable for all staff. He called for a re-commitment to a modern, equitable, dynamic and meritbased common system and the provision of true technical expertise and independent leadership by the Commission. He stressed the value of shared perspectives and his efforts to reach out to organizations and staff to exchange views and affirmed his view that staff and administrations both play a critical role in strengthening the organizations.
Later, under the consideration of the item dealing inter alia with the resolution adopted in December 2006 by the UN General Assembly, which allowed to put into effect many of the decisions and recommendations of the ICSC, the Chairman paid tribute to the role played by the Vice-Chairman in unblocking groups of Member States in order to move issues and decisions forward, and in removing the General Assembly’s backlog in considering the Commission’s annual reports.
Separation payments
The paper presented by the secretariat on
this item concluded that the current package
of separation payments worked well and that
there was no compelling need for change.
The HR Network expressed its support for
greater harmonization of separation payments
and one common schedule for the common
system. They also supported the introduction
of end-of-service grants, and basing the
termination indemnity on the length of service,
not the type of contract, as is done now.
As is the case with most of the ICSC agenda
items, FICSA had discussed this issue at the
HR Network session preceding the ICSC and
shared the views of the HR Network. In addition,
FICSA supported a termination indemnity
for staff on temporary contracts that
were terminated by a decision of the organization
prior to completion of the contract.
While there was a great deal of discussion, consensus was not reached. One Commissioner felt that the money allocated for separation benefits would be better used for recruitment and retention bonuses (Some of the Commissioners have long supported the introduction of such bonuses). The representatives of the administrations and the staff offered reasons for maintaining the separation benefits, particularly the termination indemnity, which could serve to purchase a pension or compensate for unemployment. The termination indemnity was a dignified, fair and reasonable way to say good-bye to staff members who lost their jobs due to downsizing, outsourcing and off-shoring. Because consensus was not reached, the item was deferred to the Commission’s summer session with a request to the ICSC secretariat to provide more data.
Contractual arrangements
This item pertained primarily to the UN Secretariat
and its Funds and Programmes. The
Commission was asked to assess whether
a proposal by the UN Secretary-General
for one contract under the 100 series for all
UN staff was in accordance with the newly
approved ICSC Framework for Contractual
Arrangements. At the UN, the proliferation of
contract types had led to complexity and
inequities amongst staff performing the same
jobs on different types of contract and the
administration was looking to simplify the
system and make it more equitable. Some
of the Commissioners expressed concern
that the proposals did not fit into the ICSC
Framework. The item was deferred to the
summer session.
London salary survey
The ICSC is nearing the end of this round of
headquarters’ salary surveys for determining
the remuneration of General Service staff.
The London survey was the only one discussed
at this session. The ICSC secretariat
presented an update on the survey and reported
that, on the basis of the 16 employers
surveyed to date, the result of the survey
would be a 0.43 per cent increase in General
Service salaries in London. The methodology
calls for 20 employers to be included in the
survey, and because of the potential meagre
increase and the insufficient number of employers,
the Commission was being asked
whether to extend the data-collection phase
or to consider a procedure for the use of
data from external sources.
There was a discussion about the desirability of purchasing data from external sources. After being informed by the ICSC secretariat that the use of external data would be expensive, and since no other duty station in the present round of surveys had resorted to purchasing data, the majority agreed that it would seem preferable not to use such data for London.
The Commission decided to extend the deadline for the completion of data collection, to explore the use of data from external sources, which would be used if the employers were not available, and to reconsider this item at the summer session. It was also noted that the collection of such data and its possible use would provide background for the review of the methodology beginning in 2008.
Job evaluation standards
for the GS category
The ICSC secretariat presented the report of
the working group and further reported that
they expected to be able to hire a consultant
by the end of April to develop an electronic
system to classify posts as had been done to
classify posts in the Professional category.
The HR Network thanked the working group for its accomplishments so far. It was a very important exercise, not simple, and very processoriented. It required a great deal of commitment and consultation to obtain the buy-in of staff. There had been excellent communication with the parties concerned. The HR Network did not have any objections to extending the time needed to complete the work.
In noting that it had participated fully in the working group, FICSA reminded the Commissioners that its participant had advocated extending the timeline for the work.
The Commissioners questioned the terms of reference of the consultant and stressed that the consultant should not be accountable to the group but to an individual ICSC secretariat member. As had been advocated for the classification system for the Professional category, a glossary should be compiled to ensure that all of the terms were understandable and translatable. The question of having but a single standard was raised and it was agreed that more than one standard under a coherent system would be acceptable to the Commission. The final product should be delivered in July 2008.
Entitlements of international staff
in non-family duty stations
Mr. Wyzner, the former Vice-Chairman and
now a Commissioner, introduced the report of
the working group, followed by remarks by
the Assistant Secretary-General of the Department
of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO)
and a PowerPoint presentation made by the
ICSC secretariat. With the further assistance of
Ms. Myers, a Commissioner who had been a
member of the working group, participants
were led through its recommendations.
The overriding aim of the working group was to harmonize the conditions of service of Professional staff working at non-family duty stations, a cadre that had increased dramatically during recent years. This harmonization was necessary because ICSC had earlier supported having two different systems, but the report of the Secretary-General had presented a new vision of “One UN” which called for staff from all organizations to work more closely together, especially in the field. Thus, their conditions of service should be equitable. The Commissioners raised a great number of questions about the details, and the UN representatives provided clarification.
The recommendations of the working group were approved, with several small changes. The UN and the HR Network were grateful for a successful outcome on this issue, which will facilitate the management of staff working at non-family duty stations. The working group’s recommendations will now be considered by the General Assembly. The greatest obstacle will most likely be the increased costs due to harmonization.
Grade equivalency studies used to
help determine Professional salaries
The establishment of grade equivalencies between
jobs in the UN common system and the
US federal civil service is a critical element in
the net remuneration margin calculations,
which contribute to setting the pay for staff in
the Professional and higher categories. For
that reason, ICSC conducts periodic grade
equivalency studies at approximately fiveyear
intervals. The last study was carried out
in 2000. In the context of the current study,
the ICSC secretariat reported on its inability to
obtain the required information from the
Office of Personnel Management of the US
federal civil service in Washington, D.C.
The HR Network expressed its appreciation to the ICSC secretariat for its efforts to obtain the data required to complete the study. It was apparent that it had been an uphill task and had yielded little result. There was a consensus that this was an unacceptable situation. This study contributed to setting the pay for over 25,000 staff members. The comparator was increasingly fragmented and not cohesive. It used a great number of pay systems and the General Schedule (the original and primary pay scale) covered no more that 30 per cent of the US federal civil service workforce. In addition, the comparator’s Senior Executive Service (SES) had suffered salary compression and inversion. SES pay had been capped and cost-of-living (COL) increases had been denied five times during the 1990s. This had a negative impact on the margin. US federal government pay scales were seen as unfair, with few commonalities of interest. One organization could not help but ask if the UN system was truly applying the Noblemaire principle. The pay setting process was being held hostage to a lack of information from the US Government, and the situation could not be allowed to continue. This matter needed to be settled by the summer session.
FICSA endorsed the statement made by the HR Network. FICSA had met with the US delegate to the Fifth Committee who had expressed his embarrassment about the situation. FICSA stressed that it was becoming increasingly difficult to explain the current situation to its constituency. It had become a very unacceptable situation requiring a rapid solution.
The Commissioners decided that the ICSC secretariat should work together with the HR Network to develop alternative approaches for the grade equivalency studies, using staff that were proficient in modelling and statistics. The HR Network supported this approach and stated that it would begin work as soon as the ICSC session finished and would select technically competent people.
Post adjustment questions
The Commission had before it the report of
the 29th session of the Advisory Committee
on Post Adjustment Questions (ACPAQ). This
is a highly technical committee, in which
organizations and staff participate, that makes
decisions about the methodologies used
to establish the post adjustment. All of the
ACPAQ recommendations were adopted,
with the support of FICSA and the HR Network.
FICSA expressed its support for a full
out-of-area survey, which is used to determine
one of the components of the post adjustment
methodology, and would promote
the survey among its membership. A detailed
report of the ACPAQ session will be issued in
the near future.
