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The 70^th session of ICSC finished its work on 5 March. The Commission addressed a number of items including contractual arrangements, education grant, post adjustment, NPOs, GS job evaluation standards, performance management, exit interviews, mobility/hardship scheme, conditions of service in non-family duty stations and GS salary survey methodology.

General Service salary survey methodologies

The Commission considered a report of the working group. It noted that the review of the non-headquarters methodology was a work in progress and that the working group would produce a final report with all recommendations for consideration at the summer session. It requested the working group to take into account the reports submitted by FICSA and CCISUA. 

Exit interview questionnaire

The Commission expressed its appreciation that the organizations now had in place systems to conduct exit interviews on a systematic basis. It looked forward to further progress reports and analysis once the number of completed questionnaires reached meaningful numbers over time. It reiterated the necessity of systematically collecting data on the reasons why staff leave the organization, and of their experience while in service.

Performance management

ICSC was asked by the UN General Assembly to work closely with the organizations to identify workable means of rewarding performance and to submit an updated performance management framework for its consideration.

Because the work had been delayed, the framework was not ready for consideration at the 70^th session. Instead, the Commission postponed its consideration of the matter until the summer session.

General Service job evaluation standards

ICSC approved the new job evaluation system for GS and related categories at its summer session last year, and requested its secretariat to finalize the new job description format, a glossary and written guidelines on the use of the system, as well as benchmark post descriptions, and to present the final elements at its 70^th session for promulgation of the standard.

FICSA and CCISUA expressed their disappointment that at the fact that almost none of the steps required for promulgation of the new system had been taken. Agreement was still needed on the use and the text of the Grade Level Descriptors, and on the benchmark post descriptions and glossary. Plus, systematic testing, validation and training were still needed. FICSA presented a conference room paper expressing these views. 

The Commission however decided to promulgate the new job evaluation system effective 15 March 2010.

National Professional Officers (NPOs)

ICSC undertook a review of the terms and conditions of service of National Professional Officers and also looked at how the revised criteria for using NPOs were applied across the organizations.

The Commission decided to:

• Reaffirm the 2006 criteria governing the use of the NPO category
• Emphasize that the employment of NPOs should be grounded in a policy framework established by each organization’s legislative body
• Reject the notion of a regional NPO
• Specify that the use of NPOs at the headquarters duty stations was inconsistent with the criteria
• Language allowances should not be provided to NPOs but non-monetary language recognition schemes would be permitted
• Hazard pay for NPOs should be paid on the same basis of 25% of the mid-point of the GS salary scale

Post adjustment

ICSC made a number of decisions on technical issues affecting the post adjustment and called for the active cooperation of the organizations and staff federations to facilitate the successful conduct of the place-to-place surveys used to determine post adjustment through the formation of local survey committees. It also called on the organizations to facilitate the completion of the expenditures survey questionnaires by staff.

Education grant

The Commission reviewed several aspects of the way the grant is determined. These included the list of representative schools and how to track the movement of tuition fees for the purpose of making periodical adjustments to the grant. It also looked at the eligibility criteria for receiving the grant, and additional boarding and additional education grant travel in designated duty stations.

ICSC decided to recommend the following for approval by the UN General Assembly:

• The child in full-time attendance at the primary level shall be eligible for the grant when the child is five years of age or older at the beginning of the school year or when the child reaches the age of five within three months of the beginning of the school year
• The grant will not normally be payable beyond the school year in which the child reaches the age of 25, unless the education has been interrupted by national service, illness or other compelling reason. Then the period of eligibility shall be extended by the period of interruption. In cases of the special education grant, it may exceptionally be extended until the child reaches the age of 28
• The grant shall be payable up to the end of the school year in which the child completes four years of post-secondary studies, even if a degree is attained after three years
• A new list of representative schools which includes post-secondary schools
• Continue using representative school fees as the basis for adjusting the fees

Contractual arrangements

The Commission looked at how its Framework for Contractual Arrangements was being implemented by the organizations, and the use of Appointments of Limited Duration (ALDs), based on replies to questionnaire completed by 23 organizations.

ICSC decided to request the organizations to phase out ALDs within a period of three years (by 1 January 2014) by not issuing or renewing ALDs after 1 January 2011.

It also invited the UN Secretariat to inform ICSC at its next session of the UN revised proposals for the introduction of the contractual framework, in particular the modalities for granting continuing contracts.

Conditions of service in non-family duty stations

Because the length of service and the number of staff serving in non-family duty stations has continued to grow, the Commission looked at how to help staff maintain a second household and how to support rest and recuperation breaks. It noted that the organizations used different approaches and felt that the approaches should be harmonized. 

The Commission decided to:

• Develop options for an allowance to compensate all international staff assigned to non-family duty stations for the additional cost of maintaining a second household.
• The allowance would replace the current schemes
• The allowance would be paid in addition to all other allowances and benefits at the staff member’s duty station
• Consider the options at the summer session

Mobility/hardship (M&H) scheme 

The Commission considered a number of factors related to the mobility and hardship scheme, including:

• An overall evaluation of the scheme
• The scheme’s effectiveness and its impact on mobility
• The payment of a mobility allowance in H and A duty stations
• The five-year ceiling on the payment of the mobility allowance
• The three adjustment factors
• Additional boarding costs at designated duty stations
• Hazard pay

It decided inter alia to:

• Ask the working group to convene a second meeting before the Commission’s summer session to continue to work on technical issues
• Request the organizations to re-examine the possibility for upfront payments of allowances under the mobility and hardship scheme
• Request its secretariat to conduct a further assessment of the impact of the revised M&H scheme not earlier than 2013
• Request the working group to continue working on the question of the fourth assignment requirement in the case of H duty station postings
• Maintain the current five-year ceiling on the payment of the mobility allowance but to permit in exceptional cases when staff members remained at the same duty station at the explicit request of the organization or for compelling humanitarian reasons the payment of the mobility allowance at 100% for a maximum period of one year
• Maintain a pragmatic approach to reviewing the amounts payable under the M&H scheme
• Request the working group to initiate the examination of the hardship factors and their measurement for the appropriate classification of duty stations
• Request the working group to continue its work on reviewing the relationship between hazard pay, hardship allowance and the security factor under the duty stations classification methodology
• Postpone the revision of the criteria for the payment of hazard pay until the new security level system approach has been formally agreed upon
• Continue hazard pay and extended hazard pay as is currently the case
• Address on a case-by-case basis extraordinary cases similar to the one in Afghanistan, when the UN staff in a guesthouse attack in Kabul were the direct targets of deadly attacks