From the President of the Staff Association
(202) 458-6230- Fax (202) 458-3466
July 23, 2010
SN-3/10-11
Letter from the Secretary General to the President of the Staff Association
This letter is in follow up of the letter sent by the staff committee on June 29, 2010.
Dear President:
I am writing in reply to your letter dated June 29, 2010 regarding packages for separation from service.
As has been widely reported to staff, the Organization is facing a cut in the Regular Fund budget for 2011. This situation makes it untenable to keep in the 2011 program-budget the current number of positions financed by the Regular Fund.
Accordingly, and in order to make up for the budget cut, I told the Staff Assembly on May 11, 2010 that the measures taken would be to reduce the number of positions of trust, positions that will become vacant due to staff retirement, and positions held by staff who are interested in a voluntary separation from service.
Furthermore, in response to a question on the status of staff members on fixed-term contracts, I explained that I was not going to remove anyone who has been with the Organization for many years unless this was voluntary.
In view of the foregoing, I am hereby advising you that there is no formal separation from service program. For now, only staff members who have come forward to express interest are being attended to, which is why no official announcement about a program has been sent to all the staff. In some specific cases the Administration has offered separation packages to certain staff members who might be interested in voluntary separation by agreement between both parties.
Given the interest expressed by several staff members, separation from service packages were prepared. These packages include the statutory benefits as well as additional incentives. It is important to note that the Administration has spared no effort in coming up with packages that are beneficial to both parties.
The total value of each package varies,
depending on a range of factors, including: (i) A staff member’s years
of service, (ii) Whether the staff member had been recruited
internationally and is on a G-4 visa; and (iii) Number of hours of
accrued vacation leave. Please find attached the benefits chart
explaining the separation from service package.
It should be noted that these voluntary separation packages give rise to
very costly compensation and the only way to finance these costs is
through the savings resulting from the vacant positions derived from
separations in 2010. Because of this, and given that there are only six
months left of 2010, staff members who are considering the option have
been asked to notify the Department of Human Resources of their interest
within a relatively short time. There has been no case of staff being
pressured to leave the Organization.
Interested staff members have received personalized attention from
Department of Human Resources specialists, who have explained in detail
the terms and conditions of the packages for separation from service and
have also addressed all the concerns expressed by staff members.
It is important to point out that in the case of the Inter-American
Children’s Institute (IIN), which has replied in a separate letter,
three terminations were effected as a result of a reorganization of that
office. Staff members were notified well in advance of that development.
I wish to inform you that as we were preparing the 2011 budget, we
identified a need to reduce certain additional positions that have been
reviewed with each Secretary in order to determine whether it would be
feasible to eliminate them based on the priorities for the next period
of mandate.
The 2011 budget proposal will be submitted in a few days to the
Permanent Council for approval by the General Assembly in September
2010. Only after its adoption will any reorganization be undertaken in
areas where vacancies are created, and so in principle the functions
corresponding to such vacancies must be absorbed by the existing
workforce or eliminated.
Finally, I want to stress that although the budgetary difficulties
facing the Organization call for speedy action with savings by the
Administration, no effort will be spared to explore different
alternatives that may enable staff to save their jobs and at the same
time tackle the onerous budgetary situation.
I have asked Ambassador Frank Almaguer, the Secretary for Administration
and Finance, to meet with the Staff Committee to address your specific
concerns.
Sincerely,
José Miguel Insulza
Secretary General