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The 62nd FICSA Council met at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris from 2 to 6 February 2009

Mr. Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, welcomed FICSA to UNESCO and expressed personal satisfaction in being associated with the work of the Federation. He recalled that he had had the honour of awarding FICSA the René Maheu International Civil Service Prize in 2005 in recognition of its activities “in defence of international civil servants before inter-agency bodies and the legislative organs of the United Nations and the common system.” He expressed his support for the endeavours of FICSA to foster the development of the international civil service in accordance with the principles laid down in the United Nations Charter, and acknowledged the positive example set by FICSA.

The first keynote speaker, Mr. Kingston Rhodes, Chairman of the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), said that his presence bore testimony to the importance he attached to the Federation’s participation in the work of ICSC. The consultative process was the cornerstone of the Commission’s work. The role of staff representatives in advancing that process had been invaluable not only to common system staff, but also to the Commission as it sought to improve the conditions of service.

Mr. Rhodes continued by identifying the most formidable challenge it had been involved in over the past few years: reforming and modernizing the compensation structure so that the common system might recruit and retain staff of the highest quality and reward them on the basis of merit and competence. Throughout the process, the collaboration and cooperation of the FICSA membership had been key to engendering trust and confidence.

Following the presentation by the ICSC Chairman, Mr. Peter Waldorff, General Secretary of Public Services International (PSI), gave a presentation on the development of professional staff representation. In his own experience, the speaker mentioned some of the best practices his organization had identified in the management of the municipal sector in Norway. He felt it was quite feasible to achieve collective agreements in intergovernmental organizations. In the ultimate analysis, an effective staff association /union had to: set up goals; be prepared at all times; be seen as relevant; and deliver/achieve. Basic prerequisites were political and financial independence, the drive factors being more members and hence greater membership income.

Both speakers responded to questions from the membership, which is reported in depth in the Report of the 62nd FICSA Council.

The work of the Council is accomplished by its seven standing committees: human resources management, legal questions, social security/occupational health and safety, conditions of service in the field, general service questions, professional salaries and allowances and staff-management relations. The committees provide an opportunity for members to share information on the issues they have confronted in their organizations, and to help in defining the policy and work programme for the coming year by identifying priority areas for action by the Federation.

Legal Questions

The Standing Committee on Legal Questions looked at several internal FICSA issues, including the categories of membership and the rights, obligations and privileges attached to each category. It was decided to submit a proposal to the next Council session.

The Committee also addressed the issue of revising the Federation’s Statutes. It was decided that the members would submit their comments on the Statutes, and a proposal would be submitted to the next Council session.

It was noted that many of the positive aspects of the recent reform of the administration of justice within the United Nations had since been diluted. Deadlines had been disregarded and some organizations did not feel themselves bound by the new system. FICSA was asked to monitor the situation.

Human Resources Management

The Standing Committee focused on the need to bring some consistency into the organizations’ contractual policies, a particular aspect of which was the rise in the number of people working for the organizations who have neither fixed-term nor continuing contracts. The Council adopted a resolution on the matter, instructing FICSA to urge the organizations to prohibit the use of non-staff employees from performing core functions and asking FICSA to commission a study assessing the various contractual arrangements; the difficulties faced by non-staff employees; the level of use of non-staff employees and any evidence of abuse of these employees.

The ICSC GS classification standard, which is under revision, was still in need of refinement. Care was needed to ensure that GS job descriptions matched the classification standard. The Council adopted a resolution instructing FICSA to insist that all fundamental components of the system be finalized before the new standard is promulgated, and to ensure that implementation would not be of detriment to the acquired rights and current grades of the staff in service at the time of implementation.

On the subject of performance management, the Committee asked FICSA to work towards obtaining improvements in the following areas:

• the need to move from a post factum quantitative reporting system to a learning system in order to engender culture change;
• the requirement to provide training to managers and staff;
• the possibility for staff members to own the process in terms of participation and contribution;
• monitoring by HR for quality control; and
• the perceived relevance of the system to the performance of the organization

Social Security/Occupational Health and Safety

With respect to Article 35 bis (b) (i) of the Pension Fund regulations, the Standing Committee reaffirmed its support for lowering the eligibility period for divorced surviving spouses to 5 years.

Council was reminded of the need to establish focal points in each staff association/union to address the issue of HIV in the workplace. Council heard presentations from UN Cares and UN Plus and decided to enter into partnership agreements with them.

The Committee instructed FICSA to liaise with the Participants’ Representatives and FAFICS members of the Pension Board’s Working Group on Plan Design.

The Committee declared itself in favour of raising the age of separation to 65 and asked FICSA to monitor developments in that regard.

Conditions of Service in the Field

The Standing Committee focused on the hardship classification of duty stations and asked FICSA to urge ICSC to simplify the classification process.

The Committee welcomed the proposal to establish a network of local Federations of United Nations Staff Associations (FUNSAs). The network would provide a good vehicle for the exchange of experience of common issues and the intensification of cooperation. It took on even greater importance given the lack of joint consultative mechanisms for the resolution of staff-related issues.

Full support was expressed for the concerns of field staff and the hardships they faced, in particular the UNRWA staff in Gaza. FICSA was instructed to continue to intervene at the highest levels to ensure that hazard pay is paid to UNRWA staff in Gaza, and that compensation is paid to the survivors of the four UNRWA area staff who were killed in Gaza.

General Service Questions

With respect to the ongoing review of salary survey methodologies, the Standing Committee cautioned that the risks associated with outsourcing data collection should not be underestimated. The major concern was the lack of transparency surrounding the source of the data and the collection criteria. It was noted that the review was taking longer than originally foreseen, and that Headquarters surveys were not expected to commence before January 2011. Council adopted a resolution on the matter.

With reference to training workshops, the Committee had urged that the roster of resource persons and trainers be updated and terms of reference for the same developed as a matter of urgency. It had also been suggested that all resource persons, including retirees, should be sponsored by a member association/union.

The Committee recommended the following workshop schedule:

• Africa:            2 workshops (French and English) - Brazzaville, possibly in May-June
• Americas:      2 workshops (English/Spanish) – Santiago, possibly between June and October
• Asia:                1 workshop (English) - Manila, from July onwards
• Europe      1 workshop (English) – Central/Eastern Europe, to be identified
• M. East           1 workshop (English or Arabic) – To be identified

It was decided that the first workshop on salary survey methodology for non-headquarters duty stations would be held in Cairo, from 19 to 23 April 2009.

Professional Salaries and Allowances

In the course of briefly reviewing the follow-up activities over the past year, the Chair stressed the importance of maintaining a close watch over developments related to the education grant: a subject that had been the target of several thousand signed petitions expressing dissatisfaction with the new structure: a concern that was said to be shared by the administrations of many organizations.

In the study performed by Price Waterhouse Coopers that had revealed a significant loss in Professional salaries in all duty stations in the Euro zone, a different basket of goods had been used. FICSA should arrange for a study to be carried out using the same basket of goods and services as that used by ICSC.

It was also pointed out that given the absence of a grandfathering clause in the new procedures governing child allowances and secondary dependant allowances, administrations should be pressed upon not to implement the findings of the review.

The Standing Committee also stressed the importance of staff participating in the place-to-place surveys that would be conducted in 2010.  Given the low participation of staff in the 2005 surveys, data from 2000 that had been projected forward were being used instead of current data. FICSA should develop material to educate staff on the importance of participating in the surveys to be conducted in 2010.

Staff-Management Relations

The Standing Committee stressed the importance of publicising the model partnership agreements among the FICSA membership and the impact of training on ensuring the effectiveness of staff representation and staff/management relations.

In a joint session with the Standing Committees on Legal Questions and Human Resources Management, the Committee had had an extensive debate on whistle-blowing. It felt that the definition of whistle-blowing drawn up by the Government Accountability Project (GAP) was the most apposite.

The Standing Committee presented recommendations relating to: global satisfaction survey, portfolio and training for staff representatives, whistle-blowing and standards of conduct.