STU/66th Council/15/015
17 April 2015
196th Session of the Executive Board of UNESCO
Document 196 EX/5 part V
Follow-Up to Decisions and resolutions adopted by the Executive Board and
the General Conference
at their previous sessions
Part V
Human Resources Issues
ORAL STATEMENT BY THE UNESCO STAFF UNION (STU)
Thank you Mr Chairman, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
First of all, STU would like to express its deep concern about the increasing deterioration in working conditions and benefits that the staff is enduring, as well as its disastrous impact on programme implementation.
As highlighted by the External Auditor in his report, STU deplores the double failure of the Administration: on one hand “the lack of a policy to identify and preserve talent ” and on the other hand “the absence of a skill-based management policy ”.
Under such circumstances, it should not come as any surprise that an important “brain drain” has been observed in recent years. While this is clearly not in the “best interest” of any agency, it is particularly damaging to UNESCO, an organization that must be intellectual, and especially because of the loss of institutional memory it is causing.
This loss of institutional memory is increased by the excessive and growing number of contract staff , both at Headquarters and in the field. This contract personnel is even in some cases financed on the regular programme budget, at the expense of the implementation of the programme. STU supports in this regard the recommendation of the External Auditor, demanding “that the Organization standardize the general review of service contract personnel in order to (i) ensure that the use of this type of contract is in conformity with the Organization’s administrative rules and reserved for the temporary situations for which it was designed”.
Concerning the mandatory age of separation , STU is fully in favor of going ahead with the decision made by the General Assembly at its 68th session to implement 65 as the mandatory age for existing staff, effective as at 1January 2016, as long as it is applied without prejudice to the acquired rights , that is, while respecting staff’s right to retire at 60 (if recruited before 1990) and 62 (if recruited after 1990).
Regarding gender equality , STU is concerned about UNESCO’s delay on this matter and regrets that this principle is not respected enough, in particular at senior grades, while these appointments should be made on the basis of competence and merit.
What is more, women have lost 20% of maternity leave since the release of the Administrative Circular AC/HR/42 published on 1 October 2014, which suppressed the additional leave for breastfeeding purposes, unlike other agencies where the duration and conditions of breastfeeding leave are much more favourable. STU has asked the General-Director, to date in vain, for the withdrawal of the Administrative Circular.
Finally, STU again sounds the alarm about the Medical Benefit Fund (MBF). STU takes note that the Administration expects to be able to report to the new MBF's Advisory Board by the end of 2015. However STU finds it inacceptable that since the last meeting of the former MBF's Board of Management in October 2013, no meetings of any kind to exercise staff’s rights in the management of the Fund have been convened, and requests for meetings by elected representatives to that Board have been ignored.
The Administration's disrespect for the participants, who are co-owners of the Fund, which has been autonomous since its creation in 1948, is surely not acceptable.
Thank you for your attention.
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