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STU/70th Council/23/031
9 November 2023

42nd Session of the UNESCO General Conference

ORAL STATEMENT BY THE UNESCO STAFF UNION (STU)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear colleagues,

On behalf of STU, allow me first of all to express our solidarity with our colleagues who, with courage and a sense of duty, operate and defend UNESCO's ideals in difficult conditions, in the heart of areas affected by tensions and conflicts.

Throughout the year, STU has raised a large number of issues concerning the well-being and working conditions of UNESCO staff, that you will find set out in Addendum 42 C/49 Add.2, which contains our comments on the Human Resources Strategy.

I would like to come back to an issue we addressed at the recent 217th Executive Board, concerning the administration of internal justice within UNESCO, in the light of a recent report by the Joint Inspection Unit of the United Nations system entitled "Review of the internal pre-tribunal-stage appeal mechanisms available to staff of the United Nations system organizations"

Recommendation 7 encourages the executive heads of the United Nations system organizations to adjust by the end of 2025 the regulatory frameworks of their organizations and to remove all restrictions regarding legal representation of their staff in internal justice processes, with the aim of allowing their staff to choose their legal counsel freely and without restriction.

I would like to remind you that at present, staff members appealing against an administrative decision or disciplinary sanction can only be assisted on the Appeals Board by another active staff member, who is not necessarily a lawyer or an expert in international civil service law. The result is an "inequality of arms" between the staff member concerned and the Administration, which can call on its lawyers from the Office of International Standards and Legal Affairs. This inequality puts any claimant at a disadvantage and usually adds inefficiency to the system.

An important informal recommendation contained in this JIU report encourages the Administration to identify, for accountability reasons, the manager who took the contested decision. The implementation of this proposal by the Administration would greatly enhance accountability and prevent managers having taken contested administrative decisions from avoiding their responsibility.

In STU’s view, implementing these recommendations would not only make the internal justice system fairer and more equitable, but also more efficient and less costly for the Organization.

Mr. Chairman, Excellencies,

Allow me to return to the situation of staff at the UNESCO Institute for Statistics in Montreal, for which STU has been raising serious concerns for many years now, and for which any adequate measures have been taken to date to resolve the problems identified. STU notes with concern that DG's report makes no mention of a major strategic transformation underway at UIS, strongly impacting staff. Despite our best efforts, we are witnessing constant changes that demonstrate a lack of long-term strategic vision. These changes are not clearly communicated to staff, generating anxiety and demotivation at a time when expectations regarding the provision of quality statistics to Member States are growing.

Is the Institute still capable of attracting and retaining talent, and promoting an organizational culture of responsibility and well-being? Drastic staff cuts and long lead times for recruiting new talents, with too many positions remaining vacant for years despite a supposedly urgent need, seem to suggest that this is not the case.

The situation at UIS Montreal is a good illustration of the challenges we face when major transformations have little or no governance, manifested in disproportionate expectations placed on a declining workforce or the ever-increasing proportion of affiliated staff. The statistics are merciless in this respect: whereas on January 1, 2023, UNESCO affiliated staff (that is temporarily contracted staff) represented 51% of the workforce, last June, the percentage of affiliated staff went up to 58% of the organization's total workforce.

Such a rapid transformation alarms STU and calls for a thorough examination of its impact on the operation of a specialized agency such as ours. Savings and flexibility cannot be the only criteria guiding us through this complex transformation, at a time when many temporary contract holders, who have been working with UNESCO for many years, are waiting for their situation to be regularized, and when we expect the new Human Resources Strategy to concretely address the issue of career development, particularly for locally-recruited staff, who are often deprived of such opportunities despite ever-increasing responsibilities and expectations.

Mister Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues,

I would like to end this intervention on a positive note. As you know, as part of the restructuring that followed the financial crisis caused by the non-payment of the annual contribution by the United States since 2011, several colleagues were redeployed to posts at a lower grade. Ten years later, there were still few colleagues in this unfair and frustrating situation, and thanks to a constructive dialogue between the STU and the Administration, they will be returned to their 2014 grade as of January 2024. There could be no better way for us to celebrate the return of the United States to UNESCO, and we would like to publicly thank the Administration for this.

On behalf of STU, I thank you for your attention.