STAFF REPRESENTATIVES’ CORNER

This UN Special looks at two groups of staff members. They are staff on temporary appointments and those in the General Service. Often, there is quite an overlap between the two.

IAN RICHARDS, UNOG

Temporary contracts
As part of the reforms passed by the General Assembly during the mandate of the previous Council, staff engaged for less than a year are now given temporary appointments. While in certain cases this gives access to better benefits than before, such as settling-in-grant and annual steps, it’s also more restrictive. Temporary staff are limited to one year, exceptionally two and must then take a three-month break. They are also restricted to 1.5 days of leave a month.

What’s wrong here? Well firstly, it’s discriminatory. Temporary contracts don’t provide the same benefits for the same work.

Secondly, implementation has been inconsistent. At a meeting of OHCHR temporary staff last month, many highlighted inconsistencies in how they were treated, threats to terminate contracts with no compensation in case of pregnancy, and the absence of any official administrative instruction on temporary appointments to which they could refer.

Thirdly, staff are being given temporary contracts although they’re expected to perform continuing functions and in many cases are sitting in fixed posts.

The leave issue is important, especially during the transition. Staff previously on 2.5 days now find themselves with 1.5 days, a loss of acquired rights and a barrier to a healthy family life. At UNCTAD, staff representatives encouraged management to be flexible on the issue. Temporary staff have retained 2.5 days.

There’s also the fundamental question of why long-serving temporary staff, who are therefore valued by the Organization, are not being regularized if the post already exist to be filled. It’s not the hallmark of a healthy Organization and makes life diffi cult, especially with regards to living in Switzerland where a five-year carte de légitimation is necessary to obtain the basics of an apartment, a mobile phone subscription and a credit card.

It’s partly poor management. Vacancies are not being filled as quickly as they should be. The target is 120 days. In practice it can go up to three years. It’s also a political lack of will to actively regularize staff, even where the posts exist. The Council has been pressuring senior management on this issue and looks forward to a more coherent management strategy.

There are also specific reasons. For example, OHCHR has been over-zealously interpreting geographic representation, putting it according to the impressions of many staff above all else. This puts it at odds with the UN charter, which specifies that geographic representation is secondary to efficiency, competence and integrity.

General Service
The situation of general-service staff needs a fresh look. Now called international civil servants, very little has been done to actually integrate them into the wider organization and give them a sense of being international.

It may surprise professional colleagues to know that up to now, promotion up to G-4 has not been subject to review by a central body. This means that managers have been able to make selection decisions without the scrutiny of staff representatives – a situation that has undermined staff confidence in the system. This is set to change. Last summer, the Council obtained agreement from the Secretary-General in New York and the Director-General in Geneva to subject all appointments from G-3 and up to the central review bodies. We hope this will bring more fairness and transparency.

There are other issues too. A salary survey was conducted over two years ago. Its conclusion was that general service staff should not have their salaries increased. However, questions were raised about the quality of this survey and whether it used the most appropriate employers in Geneva as salary comparators. The Council does need to go back over this survey, examine the calculations, and ensure that the criteria for future calculations are robust.

Many colleagues are concerned about career deadlock. G staff cannot apply directly for P posts. Some take the G to P exam but it’s subject to many restrictions on age and nationality. It should be recalled that G colleagues have always been able to apply to P posts at the specialized agencies, but this doesn’t address the real desire of many to stay within our system and the Organization’s need to retain institutional memory.

As a first step, the Council has obtained the agreement of the Secretary-General to allow G staff to apply directly to P posts within the UN at other duty stations. However, this needs to be approved by the General Assembly. As a second step, the Council is also pushing for G staff to be allowed to go on limited duration secondments to other duty stations, enabling them to acquire fresh experience, which can only be good for their work back in Geneva. More soon.

In Brief
Mobility
The year started with the news that the mobility requirements previously planned by management had been withdrawn at the request of the General Assembly, motivated by unanimous opposition from the staff unions. The requirements included moving duty stations during the course of one’s career prior to applying for promotion to P-5 and above.

The Secretary-General will come back on mobility. In order to be proactive, the Council, which is a member of the global staff management working group on the subject, is putting together a strategy for a voluntary mobility policy. This policy should take into account the geographical spread of different occupational groups, career development and professional reorientation, inter-agency mobility and investment in training, including to become resident coordinators in the field. Mechanisms should also be put in place to help all staff (P and G) who wish to move to other duty stations for a defined period.

Connected to this, the Council has already obtained the agreement of the Secretary-General so that colleagues who are promoted while on secondment elsewhere in the system, will be able to apply back to the Secretariat as internal candidates at their new level. Up to now, external promotions were not recognized.