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Letter sent by the
Staff Committee to the Secretary General with regard to
early separation offers
On Tuesday, June 29, 2010,
the enclosed letter was sent to the Secretary General.
Washington D.C., June 29, 2010
SA 42/09-10
Dear Mr. Secretary General:
The Staff
Committee has been observing with concern the differing
approaches taken by the Administration in dealing with
staff and the various offers of separation packages being
made by the Department of Human Resources.
With respect to
these separations, the Staff Committee first notes that on
repeated occasions, most recently at the May 11, 2010
Special Staff Assembly, you insisted that these packages
would be strictly “voluntary”. However, the manner in
which the packages have been offered leaves no doubt that
the affected staff members have very little choice in the
matter.
To begin with,
in certain cases, staff members who have been offered a
package have at the same time been told by the
Administration that there is no funding for their post in
the 2011 budget. In addition, the Staff Committee has been
contacted by several staff members who have received offers
and who were given less than 48 hours in which to respond.
Finally, and perhaps most troubling, is the fact that the
Administration is proceeding to terminate the contracts of
at least one of those staff members who refused the
separation package.
In this regard,
it makes absolutely no sense to call these offers
“voluntary”, as the end result appears to be the same for
those staff members who accept the package and those who do
not: separation from service.
In this
connection, it is worth noting that at the May 11, 2010
Special Staff Assembly, you stated,
“No voy a
echar a nadie que lleva 13 años en la institución.”
Nonetheless, it
appears that management has ignored this clear statement by
the head of the General Secretariat, and staff members with
many years of service (more than 13), have been informed of
the termination of their contracts on July 15, 2010.
We appreciate
that it is the discretion of the Secretary General to whom
and how to offer separation packages, and in addition to
decide which contracts not to renew. However, it is our
opinion, based on personal accounts received by the
Committee, that the Administration has opted to take
measures that we deem to be not transparent, and exercising
such a level of undue pressure that it is generating an
unnecessary level of adversity throughout the staff.
In light of the foregoing,
the Staff Committee would like to respectfully request the
following from the Administration:
• That the
process of voluntary separation be carried out with
transparency, by having the conditions for the separation
officially publicized;
• That a
reasonable period of time (no less than two weeks), be
given to staff members to decide on any package that is
offered to them;
• What criteria
are being used to determine which posts will be eliminated.
• Clarification
as to whether the positions that are becoming vacant will
be eliminated or frozen, or some alternative plan;
• Clarification
of what will happen to the functions carried out by the
staff members whose posts will be eliminated;
• The planned
monetary target for the reduction;
• If the
voluntary separation process does not meet the planned
target, what criteria will be used for a reduction in
staff; and
• Will the
criteria used in the past regarding the prohibition of
contracting staff members who have accepted separation
packages still be applied.
Respectfully,
René L. Gutíerrez
President
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