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STU/65th Council/13/008
11 September 2013

As previously announced, on 4 October, the STU met with the Director-General and informed her of the staff’s irritation with the restructuring process.<

The STU has especially pointed out the following issues:

• Almost complete absence of consultation of staff in the preparation of the restructuring plan that is being presented to the Executive Board, in spite of clear instructions issued to each ADG;
• Absence of common criteria for potential abolishing of posts and redeployment of incumbents;
• The practice of transferring staff between services in spite of the fact that the new structures have not yet been established.

The STU shares with you the letter addressed to the Director-general following the meeting.

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Dear Director-General,

Following our last meeting of 4 September 2013, STU wishes to reiterate its strong concerns regarding the impacts of the reform and restructuration process to be engaged by the Administration and the abolition of posts (vacant or occupied) resulting from a budget reduction exercise towards the US $507 million expenditure plan for 2014-2015.  We hereby would like to re-state the following points which were discussed at the above-mentioned meeting:

• The consultation exercise with staff was not done by any of the Sectors in a way which would really implicate staff, except, to a certain extent, in Natural Sciences Sector. In fact, in some cases no meetings were even held and, in most cases, only general information on the reform process was merely provided in a unidirectional way to staff but staff was never consulted on the restructuration proposals and priorities, be them programmatic, organic/structural or staff related . It is unfortunate at this stage that your instructions to ADGs and Heads of Services were not respected. As a result, the prevailing sentiment among the overwhelming majority of non-managerial staff is that they have been largely marginalized from having any say in the future of the Organization and the process leading to it.
• Clear explanation and information shall be made to all staff by you, the Deputy Director General or anyone else on criteria used to establish new structures, how staff costs will be reduced per expected results and how vacant and/or occupied posts will have to be abolished, and give a view of the general picture of the Organization. Some staff are working on different Expected Results while others are not. Transparency in providing information is essential for staff comprehension of the restructuration process and his motivation and involvement.
• It is important that all staff are involved in the reform process and restructuring proposals through constructive and transparent consultation meetings with ADGs, Directors, Chiefs of sections, etc. to re-motivate the staff and move towards more solidarity and positive ideas/proposals.
• Some staff movements have already been made within some sectors although the proposed structures are not yet endorsed. Deputy Director General and Director of Human Resources should review carefully these recent staff movements and cancel them if inappropriate at this stage, in line with HRM and BSP instructions that for the time being no movements should take place. Otherwise, in the unfortunate case that a redeployment exercise becomes necessary house-wide, these previous movements would have effectively pre-empted any possibilities (vacant posts) that would be available for affected colleagues to be redeployed to. Likewise for any external (or even internal) classic recruitments which should be immediately stopped, in order to guarantee maximum redeployment possibilities for any colleagues whose post may be abolished.
• The STU wishes that you, Mrs. Director General, and the rest of your team continues to shows your strong will and determination to defend the staff during the next Executive Board and that, if it becomes necessary, all is done to enable a full, real, transparent, fair, equitable and efficient redeployment of all staff that may be affected by suppressions of posts.

For its part, the STU would like to reassure you of its commitment to continue to cooperate with you in order to achieve the best solutions in the interests of both the Organization and of its greatest asset, the staff.

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