STU/67th Council/17/022
9 Occtober 2017

202 EX/5 : Follow-up to decisions and resolutions adopted by the Executive Board
and the General Conference at their previous sessions

Part IV – Human Resources Issues

A. Use of non-staff contracts including consultants in 2016

Addendum by the STU

The UNESCO Staff Union (STU) welcomes the 3% cut in spending on consultant posts in 2016 as compared to 2015. It is nevertheless regrettable that while this expenditure was reduced by 12% at Headquarters, it was increased by 2% in the regional offices.

STU also deplores the fact that the number of service contracts increased by 75% in the field offices and by 25% at Headquarters.

Since 2012, we have observed in general a massive and worrisome decline in the number of staff members and of their share in the Organization’s overall workforce:

• At Headquarters, staff members decreased from 85% to 73% of the workforce, while non-staff members increased from 15% to 27%;
• In the field, staff members fell from 45% to 35%, and the number of non-staff members rose from 55% to 65%;
• In total, at Headquarters and in the field, staff members dropped from 66% to 51% of the overall workforce, while the number of non-staff members climbed from 34% to 49%.

We welcome the reduction in recruitment of retired staff members (from 50 in 2015 to 29 in 2016), but we insist that other solutions must be found and should undoubtedly involve improved planning of retirements.

While we have observed an improvement in the limitation of the employment of external staff, the problems relating to recruitment remain the same:

• excessive disparity in the types of contracts is a source of discrimination among UNESCO’s staff, in particular with regard to remuneration, employment rights, and social security and pension rights;
• illegal employment of external staff to carry out essential tasks leads to a double discrimination against the staff members who already have the expertise and are often marginalized in their work and career by the recruitment of external staff, consultants and service contract holders who do not enjoy the same wages or the same rights;
• adoption of curious working habits by some UNESCO staff members, who spend more time establishing temporary contracts to implement a programme than implementing it themselves, which is nevertheless their responsibility.

STU therefore requests that expenditure on consultants and service contracts be placed under the regular programme to assist programme specialists only when there is a need for very specific expertise.

With regard to long-serving temporary staff, STU calls for the establishment of a mechanism allowing them, after a certain number of years, to enjoy the same rights and duties as the staff members.

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