As you know, the Administrative Tribunal of the International Labour Organization (ILOAT) recently declared wage cuts in Geneva illegal. However, this judgment does not apply for the moment to the UN because they depend on another jurisdiction (UN Administrative Dispute Tribunal) This means that in the same duty station, for the same work, Specialized agency officials will now be paid differently than those working at the UN and its agencies such as UNICEF UNHCR etc., This is an unprecedented situation for the professional category where two salary scales will be applied in the same place of employment.
The same kind of situation has existed for many years for the General Service category in many duty stations. (In Bangkok, we are even considering setting up a 3rd salary scale …)
All UN Staff Federations, FICSA, CCISUA and UNISERV and several individual associations and trade unions (including ILO) are seizing the opportunity of this latest decision of the ILO Administrative Tribunal to a real reform of the ICSC is undertaken. In recent days, several letters from the various associations and unions have been sent to the President of the ICSC:
- Letter from the federations to the ICSC
- Letter from the WHO Staff Association to the ICSC
- Letter from the ILO Staff Union to the ICSC
In a week, the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC) will meet in Vienna. Federations, associations and unions (including the ILO) will be present to make the voice of all UN staff heard and to ask:
- The application of a single salary scale in Geneva following the judgment of the ILOAT
- Require that a reform of this body and its methods of operation and consultation with the staff be examined as soon as possible
In order to help us in this request, we encourage you to sign the petition launched by the UN staff unions and associations in order to show the ICSC their determination.
Sign the petition here