Continuing Contracts

Shuibao LIU (UNOG Staff Council member)

One of the main items of the XXVIth session of the Staff-Management Coordination Committee (SMCC), recently held in New York, was the issue of Contractual Arrangements. It is well known that the Organization stopped granting permanent contracts to staff members for many years except in cases of language staff and those who entered the Organization through national competitive examination. Indeed the issue has been the subject of discussion in ICSC, SMCC and other fora for years already.

In order to tackle this issue effectively, SMCC-XXVI established a Working Group, which, after heated debates, adopted some agreements.

SMCC agreed to the inclusion of continuing contracts in the Staff Rules and Regulations. The Committee agreed that, subject to the needs of service, staff that had satisfactorily completed five years of continuing service would receive a continuing contract. Once continuing contacts are in effect, staff having served on a fixed-term appointment for at least five years will, upon completion of their fixed-term contract, be converted to continuing appointment subject to the needs of service and satisfactory performance.

Many 100 series staff throughout the Secretariat, although having met the requirements to be considered for conversion to permanent appointments under Staff Rule104.120)(iii), were affected by the freeze imposed on the conversion of fixed-term to permanent appointment. SMCC agreed that a one-time review of all such staff would be conducted. To that effect, the Administration will review all staff that may have met the requirements to be considered for conversion to permanent appointment, analyze the results and submit proposals for consideration by SMCC-XXVII. Staff Rule
104.120)(iii) will be amended to reflect that, in future, staff on fixed-term appointments will be considered for conversion to continuing appointments.

SMCC agreed that staff that presently holds permanent contracts will not be affected in any way by the introduction of continuing contracts or any other form of non-permanent contracts.

The Working Group acknowledged that permanent appointments would offer the greatest stability and job security for staff. They ought to be retained in the Staff Rules and Regulations, since they provide the basis on which staff serving on permanent appointments is governed.

The main difference between fixed-term appointments and continuing appointments is that the latter offers greater financial protection for staff than the former. When a continuing contract is terminated, the staff member concerned will receive severance benefits, which is not presently the case for fixed-term contracts.

Of course, all staff representatives spoke in favour of permanent appointments. In their view, this type of appointments can better ensure the independence of international civil servants, which all of us will be officially called starting 1 January 2003. However, the Secretary-General is called upon to present proposals to replace “permanent”. Staff representatives were adamant to retain some sort of career appointment, whatever name is given.

Although continuing contracts may be discontinued at any time for the interest of the Organization, any termination will have to be justified by documentations that will specify every effort made to identify a suitable vacancy for the staff member and to provide training so as to facilitate his or her reassignment. In short, staff serving on continuing appointments will have some protection from any arbitrary termination.