Staff Management Committee XI report – Approved by the Secretary-General

Dear Colleagues & Friends,

 

I’ve attached the report of the recently held Staff Management Committee meeting in Brindisi in April this year.

 

Also attached is a note from the Chef de Cabinet outlining the Secretary-General’s decisions related to disagreements between staff and management.

 

The Unions are concerned with some of the outcomes and decisions and will further consult on some of the issues, in particular, related to the management of rosters as well as the issue of the proposed increased usage of appointments limited to specific entities.

 

We believe that the report and the letter from the CDC misrepresent the issue slightly by stating that “such limited appointments are already part of the existing policy framework.”

 

Relevant facts related to the proposal from management are being ignored, which sparked a very specific and strong rebuke from the UNFSU during the SMC proceedings.

 

The proposal by management concerning the increased usage of “appointments limited to specific entities” included a provision that such recruitments would take place without any oversight or involvement of the CRB’s thereby sidestepping essential elements that ensure an integer recruitment process. The management proposal furthermore included that such appointments would be limited to a period of “maximum 5 years minus one day” which seems to indicate a measure to ensure that staff on these types of contracts will not be vested in the pension fund and, therefore will also not have “tenure”, thereby limiting liabilities on the side of the organisation.

 

While management provided arguments that the increased usage of these type of “entity-specific” appointments would mostly be looked at for project-based entities and jobs, the memory of the use of the so-called “300 Series” staff contracts are still with many of us, and we see this proposed increase as an attempt to re-introduce contract modalities without adequate recruitment oversight etc. as was the case during the 300-series contracts which were ultimately discontinued.

 

Please take some time to read through the report and provide us with your feedback and inputs.

 

Kind Regards,