SECRETARY-GENERAL TELLS COMMITTEE UN SALARIES MUST BE MADE MORE COMPETITIVE TO ENABLE ORGANIZATION TO ATTRACT AND RETAIN BEST QUALIFIED STAFF

20 November 1995

Press Release
GA/AB/3043

SECRETARY-GENERAL TELLS COMMITTEE UN SALARIES MUST BE MADE MORE COMPETITIVE TO ENABLE ORGANIZATION TO ATTRACT AND RETAIN BEST QUALIFIED STAFF

19951120 Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali urged the General Assembly to adopt, as an immediate priority, the recommendations of the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC) to raise the remuneration of international staff as he addressed the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) this afternoon on the United Nations common system.

Speaking as the Chairman of the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC), he stressed that the heads of United Nations bodies were concerned that their establishments were no longer competitive in relation to some international organizations and national civil services. Therefore, the common system's conditions of service must be improved to attract and retain the best qualified staff. Although late and insufficient, the salary measures proposed by the ICSC were a first urgent step towards restoring competitiveness.

In the interim, he said, the executive heads had urged the Assembly to endorse the ICSC's recommendation that the salary scale should be restructured to correct existing imbalances in relation to the comparator -- the United States federal civil service. Also, a longer-term strategy should be introduced to ensure that the common system's conditions of service fully reflected the realities of the labour market.

The ACC regretted the ICSC's delay in responding to repeated Assembly requests that it study all aspects of the application of the Noblemaire principle, the Secretary-General said. When the principle was formulated in 1921 for the League of Nations, there were no other global institutions. Currently, the Bretton Woods institutions and many international and regional organizations were increasingly competing with the common system for qualified staff.

[The principle states that salaries for staff in the Professional and higher categories shall be established by referring to the highest paid national civil service. The United States federal civil service has been used as the comparator.]

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In a statement read on his behalf, the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) stated that his agency lacked incentives to entice enough specialists with the needed qualifications. For instance, a senior energy economist who went from the IAEA to the World Bank would receive a 40 per cent higher salary, a personnel management specialist who moved to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) could get up to 50 per cent more and a nuclear inspector who left for EURATOM might see his income rise by at least a third.

Federation of International Civil Servants Associations (FICSA) President Wayne Dixon said his body had requested a 25 per cent across-the- board salary increase for professional staff throughout the system, which he hoped would be approved. The International Civil Service Commission (ICSC) in its current format, "is a travelling, political three-ring circus that has lost its entertainment value". The Geneva staff, who had demonstrated on 9 November, would strike if the ICSC's report was accepted in its totality by the Assembly.

The Russian Federation argued that it was not convinced that the United Nations system was not competitive. Its representative said that view was shared by an overwhelming majority of United Nations staff themselves. He said he had difficulties with the ICSC recommendation that remuneration be raised for professional and higher staff categories. He was concerned that a major increase in salaries was being proposed without justification.

The President of the Coordinating Committee for International Staff Unions and Associations (CCISUA), Mohamed Oummih, said the ICSC had refused to recommend changing the comparator for political reasons. It had allowed a minority of its members to prevail over a majority. The current Assembly should take decisions that would allow staff to resume taking part in a consultative process on the common system's conditions of service.

The representative of Spain, also speaking for the European Union as well as Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, and the Slovak Republic, said the Union was ready to review innovative ways to improve the consultative process in light of the positions taken by staff bodies, the organizations and Member States.

Statements were also made by the representatives of Norway and Ecuador, also on behalf of the Rio Group. ICSC Chairman Mohsen Bel Hadj Amor introduced the Commission's report.

The Fifth Committee is scheduled to meet again at 10 a.m., tomorrow, Tuesday, 21 November, to take up the reports of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS).

Committee Work Programme

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) met this afternoon to begin consideration of the United Nations common system and to hear an address by the Secretary-General.

The Committee had before it the 1995 report of the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC) and a statement by the Secretary-General on administrative and financial implications of the Commission's decisions and recommendations. Also before the Committee were statements by the Administrative and Coordination Committee (ACC) and comments by the Coordinating Committee for International Staff Unions and Associations of the United Nations System (CCISUA) and by the Federation of International Civil Servants Associations (FICSA).

The 15-member Commission advises the Assembly on salary and compensation issues, including post adjustment and pension, for professional and higher level staff as well as on General Service remuneration and conditions of service. It encompasses 14 organizations which together with the United Nations itself participate in the United Nations common system of salaries and allowances. In 1995, the Commission held two three-week sessions -- in May, Montreal, and in July/August at Headquarters. The ACC -- composed of the Secretary-General and executive heads of specialized agencies and IAEA -- ensures that activities of the various bodies are fully coordinated.

On remuneration of professional and higher categories of staff, the ICC, in its report (document A/50/30) asks the Assembly to consider reaffirming the continued applicability of the Noblemaire Principle. (That principle states that salaries for staff in the Professional and higher categories in the United Nations system shall be established by reference to the highest paid national civil service. For that purpose the United States federal civil service has been used as the comparator. In that connection, the Commission also decided to report that the superior conditions of the German civil service in relation to those of the United States federal civil service could be considered as a reference point for managing the remuneration margin. (The margin is the average percentage difference between the remuneration of United Nations staff in New York and that of the United States federal civil service.)

The Commission recommends that the Assembly review the results of the study the Commission had undertaken to identify the best paid national civil service and the reference studies regarding remuneration in other international organizations. The review would determine which of the diverse views expressed in the Commission regarding competitiveness of the United Nations remuneration systems might be reasonably supported. Regarding the German civil service, the Commission decided that “the conditions for changing the comparator were not, under the current circumstances, in place." It also

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decided that in the comparisons of total remuneration between the Swiss and United States federal civil services, the Swiss federal civil service could not be considered as an alternative to the current comparator.

The Commission recommends that the 115 desirable mid-point of the United Nations/United States net remuneration margin should be restored in 1996. To restore that margin of 15 per cent above the United States federal civil service remuneration, the Commission recommends an increase in the base/floor salary scale, equivalent to 3.1 per cent, with effect from 1 March 1996, and an increase in post adjustment indices by 5.1 per cent, as of 1 July 1996.

The annual costs of the recommendations, including associated additional expenses, are estimated at $157.4 million. The system-wide cost for increases in the base/floor salary scale and the post adjustment system for the professional and higher categories of staff is estimated at $103.6 million for 1996.

(Note: The base floor salary scale is a universally applicable salary scale for staff in the professional and higher categories and reflects the minimum net amounts received by United Nations staff members around the world. The post adjustment index is the measurement of living conditions of those categories of staff in a given location compared with costs in New York at a specific date. Post adjustment is a supplement to base pay and is calculated as a percentage of net base pay.)

The Commission also seeks the Assembly’s guidance on alternative approaches regarding the setting of a single post adjustment index or two post adjustment indices for persons working in Geneva. The Commission’s conclusions on that matter refer to the difference in cost of living for staff who work and live in Geneva as opposed to those who work in Geneva but reside in the contiguous area of France (some 40 per cent of professional staff) where the cost of living is lower. Several annexes to the Commission’s report elaborate the legal issues relating to the definition of the area of the Geneva duty station and the related post adjustment issue.

The details of the implications of the recommendations for General Service and other locally recruited categories of staff are elaborated in the Secretary-General's statement on the administrative and financial implications of the Commission's recommendations (see pages 3-4 of this press release). For the common system as a whole, the revised scales and dependency allowances for New York would cost an estimated $4.5 million per annum. In addition to expenditure reductions expected for some categories in New York and in Geneva, expenditure reductions of about $3.3 million per annum are anticipated in the salaries of General Service and related categories in Rome as a result of the Commission’s decision to phase out the adjustment for the language factor over a period of time.

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The Secretary-General's note on the administrative and financial implications for the regular budget of the United Nations 1994-1995 and 1996- 1997 of the Commission's decisions and recommendations (document A/C.5/50/24 and Corr.1) estimates that additional costs for the regular budget would be $355,000 for 1995; $14.8 million for 1996 and $22.9 million in 1997. Subject to the Assembly's approval of the Commission's recommendations, the related change in requirements under the regular budget will be included in the recosting of the 1996-1997 proposed programme budget.

The total costs for the regular budget, of the Commission's recommendations of an increase in the base/floor salary scale and the increase of the post adjustment indices for the professional and higher categories of staff are estimated to be $18.2 million in 1996 ($10.6 million for base/floor salary scale and $7.6 million for post adjustment indices). The estimated costs for 1997 are $29.3 million ($14.2 million and $15.1 million, respectively).

The financial implications of the New York salary survey for staff in the General Service and other locally recruited categories (increases in salaries and dependency allowances offset by reduction of expenditures) is $1.18 million for 1995. That includes a 1.13 per cent increase for General Service and Public Information Assistant categories with effect from 1 January 1995; a 0.15 per cent increase for the Language Teacher category, also effective 1 January 1995; a reduction in the salary scale and a lower cost of living adjustment for the Trades and Crafts category; savings in the salary scale of the Security and Safety category; and increases in the dependant spouse allowance -- in New York-based organizations -- and child allowances.

The salary surveys for General Service staff and the Language Teacher category in Geneva resulted in expenditure reductions of $1.3 million and $5,200, in 1995 respectively. The survey results showed that United Nations salaries for those categories were 7.4 per cent and 1.3 per cent higher than the General Service comparator scales and the 1994 Language teacher salary scale. The financial implications of the Rome survey for the 1995 regular budget are $23,400. That was the result of a recommended salary scale increase of 1.4 per cent, effective from 1 November 1994.

A note by the Secretary-General on the United Nations common system (A/C.5/50/11) transmits a statement adopted by the ACC at its second regular session in 1995 for submission to the Assembly. The central issues faced by the ICSC are the review of its consultative process and the completion of its examination of the Noblemaire Principle. The ACC states that "the Commission regrettably has fallen short on both counts." It stresses that measures taken "are less than those needed to restore an active and full consultative process". A key element to reform the Commission is the selection of members with the requisite technical skills and broad managerial capabilities to

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enable it to keep pace with global trends in human resources management and the Organization's changing needs.

In that connection, the ACC proposes a revision of the appointment procedures for the Commission's members to reflect the totality of the common system. Specifically, it proposes that 10 of the 15 Commission members would continue to be appointed from candidates proposed by Member States; three members would be appointed by the Assembly from a list of at least six candidates put forward by the ACC; and two from a list of at least four candidates put forward by staff bodies. The ACC also proposes the appointment of some members from other governing bodies on a formula that would provide adequately for the representation of different agencies. The terms of appointment should be limited to two four year-terms, and targets should be set for achieving gender balance among the Commission's members.

Regarding the issue of common system remuneration, the ACC stresses the critical need to restore competitive conditions of service to attract and retain high calibre staff. In that regard, it requests the Assembly to increase remuneration levels with immediate effect to bring the current margin to the mid-point of its range and to restructure the salary scale to correct existing imbalances. As part of a longer-term strategy, it asks the Assembly to instruct the Commission to update the application of the Noblemaire Principle to reflect the current realities of the global labour market; to make the remuneration system more competitive with bilateral and other multilateral financial aid agencies; to begin to close the gap between United Nations remuneration and national and international public and private comparators; and to introduce innovations that would help to motivate staff. On the Commission's proposed salary measures, the ACC states that "they are a badly needed step towards the proper compensation for the work of staff".

In its comments on the common system (document A/C.5/50/5), CCIUSA requests the Assembly to address without delay the question of the restructuring of the Commission and to suspend the comprehensive review of pensionable remuneration scheduled for 1996 until the question of the consultative process has been addressed and resolved. It also requests the Assembly to adopt in full the Commission's recommendations on remuneration. The Assembly should bear in mind that common system remuneration was frozen and lost purchasing power at a time when remuneration levels everywhere were going up, and that the recommendations represent only part of what is due to the common system.

On the issue of its participation in the Commission, Staff Coordinating Committee states that it had decided to withdraw in light of the Commission's decision not to recommend a change of comparator for Professionals and higher level salaries. The Commission's decision was made despite clear evidence that the German civil service was better paid than the current comparator and despite the fact that an overwhelming majority (11 out of 15) of the

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Commission's members supported that conclusion. The issues raised by the "minority group" were mostly aimed at rejecting the German civil service as a replacement for the present comparator.

Another contributing factor to CCISUA's decision to withdraw from the Commission was "the climate of intimidation in the Commission that renders participation by its interlocutors meaningless". The CCISUA states that the Commission's report was adopted by less than two thirds of its members and does not accurately fully reflect the debates, including CCISUA's reasons for withdrawal. The Coordinating Committee also cites an incident indicating "the lack of impartiality and independence of some of the Commission's members". The question of the Commission's functioning is of crucial importance and should not be forgotten in the current flurry concerning the Commission's recommendations on remuneration.

In its comments transmitted under the Secretary-General's note FICSA summarized the issue to be addressed in the following question: "Why is the United Nations system not consistent in extending to its own staff members the fundamental rights, workers' rights and the right of association that it promulgates in Member States?" The Commission's crucial weakness lies in a total absence of any pragmatic system of direct staff/management negotiations or even a semblance of consultation. Stressing that the Commission's consultative process is flawed in several other ways, FICSA highlights a number of deficiencies.

In FICSA's view, the Commission has been deficient by being, among other things, unresponsive to the common system, overcentralized and catering solely to the needs of the system's political branch -- the United Nations in New York. The Commission's decision-making process follows perceived political priorities of the General Assembly. Other deficiencies include the lack of a mechanism to ensure that the Commissioners have the required competencies. There was also a lack of accountability for the Commission's decisions and recommendations. In addition, FICSA states that the Commission has evolved into a regulatory body and that its functioning has been blurred by procedural rigidities.

"Collective bargaining is and remains, our goal", FICSA states, and recommends a tripartite mechanism -- Member States, the organizations, and the staff -- as the best guarantee for a fair and equitable system of setting conditions of service, similar to the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Board and the International Labour Organization's (ILO) Governing Body. To set up the new mechanism, the Commission would have to be phased out gradually over a reasonable period of time, not exceeding one year, which would allow for a revision of its statutes.

As elaborated in one of the appendices to the note, FICSA proposes a body of 21 members, elected or appointed, on a rotating basis by the Assembly,

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the other governing bodies of the specialized agencies, the administrations reporting to the Assembly, the specialized agency representatives and by the staff federations. Decision-making would be by majority vote.

In its report (document A/50/30) the ICSC reports on its decisions in response to the Assembly's request in resolution 49/223 that it review its consultative process. The Commission also considered accusations of "its alleged politicization" as well as the views that it is an "unbiased body of technical experts". Members of the Commission felt that the proposals for structural change advanced by the Consultative Committee and the staff bodies went beyond the Commission's current mandate.

In recognition of the need to respond to the concerns expressed, the Commission decided to implement measures to promote transparency, openness, and a more participatory atmosphere in its proceedings as well as more orderly agenda management, the report continues. The Commission would also change the timing and length of its sessions by holding a four-week session in spring and a two-week session in summer in the even numbered years, when personnel matters are discussed in the Assembly’s Fifth Committee. In non-personnel years, it would hold a single session of one month duration.

On issues of concern to the common system, the ACC addresses the matter of staff security in a note transmitted by the Secretary-General (document A/C.5/50/29). Expressing concern about the increase in attacks on staff of the United Nations system and the fact that they are called on to work in high risk and insecure situations, the ACC calls on governments to take all measures to ensure the safety of United Nations staff. It also calls on governments which have not done so to ratify the Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel, adopted by the Assembly at its last session. In that connection, it trusts that the Office of Legal Affairs would study the Convention in order to propose measures that would ensure the extension of its coverage automatically and equally to the United Nations and associated staff working in unsafe or potentially insecure situations. The ACC also insists that projects relating to the safety and security of staff be excluded from any budgetary restrictions resulting from the United Nations financial crisis.

BERHANYKUN ANDEMICAEL, Director of the New York liaison office of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), speaking for IAEA Director-General Hans Blix, said that the Agency had joined the consensus on the statement of the ACC. The IAEA was concerned that the common system did not respond to its specific problems and of several other agencies outside New York. The United Nations system was not designed as a monolith as each agency had its own mandate, programmes and financial and human resources. When it came to conditions of employment, however, little account had been taken of the diversity of agencies. He supported the statement of the ACC that Commission

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2members should be appointed by the Assembly from a list of at least six candidates forwarded by the ACC and two from a list of at least four candidates suggested by staff bodies. If a tripartite search mechanism was put in place, the future composition could be expected to meet the need for high competence and the need to have direct knowledge of the problems in the common system and of the problems experienced by those who worked in it.

He said the IAEA had had to face new challenges, such as developments after the Chernobyl accident, services tied to nuclear safety and radiation protection and those relating to safeguards against clandestine installations, after the discoveries in Iraq. Remuneration and other conditions of service had a very significant impact on the recruitment situation. The Agency needed highly specialized staff that could be secured from a small and increasingly competitive global market. Professional staff must be placed on par with other national experts they worked with. The common system was patterned after a civil service in the 1940s and no longer met the requirements of a highly specialized work force in the 1990s. It lacked incentives to entice enough specialists with the needed qualifications. Since 1984, professional remuneration in Vienna had lost more than 20 per cent of its buying power. Therefore, there were problems in attracting staff of the right calibre. For instance, the income of a senior energy economist who went from the IAEA to the World Bank would increase by 40 per cent; a personnel management specialist who moved to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) could get up to 50 per cent more; and a nuclear inspector who left for EURATOM might see his income rise by at least a third.

He welcomed the ICSC recommendation for a two-step salary increase next year, expressing the hope that it would be accepted.

MOHAMED OUMMIH, President of the CCISUA, said he represented over 25,000 men and women all over the world. The cause of the Coordinating Committee's frustration with the ICSC was not because the Commission was not yielding to staff representatives' requests. The main reason for its withdrawal was that body's refusal to fulfil its obligations under its statute.

In refusing to recommend a change of comparator for political reasons, the Commission had reneged on its technical mandate and allowed the views of a minority of its members to prevail over a majority, he said. The Commission had procrastinated in conducting a study of the best paid national civil service for six years. The study was part of the comprehensive review exercise of 1988-1990. The staff of the common system had thus been disadvantaged twice. In addition, the Commission's recommendations were now being considered against a background of financial crisis that had now been, perhaps, all too conveniently exaggerated.

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While the remuneration paid by many national civil services had kept pace with cost-of-living adjustments, the United Nations remuneration had been frozen and United Nations staff had lost at least 18 per cent of their purchasing power.

The work of the Commission should be made transparent to all parties. It was essential that meetings should be open and that all documents be of general distribution to provide a system of checks and balances currently unavailable. The Commission or the mechanism that might replace it should be made a truly technical body that would make only technical recommendations to the Assembly, which would then take the financial/political decisions. Should the ICSC be retained in its current form, CCISUA had proposed that at least one third of its members should be high-ranking officers from national statistical offices with solid backgrounds in international cost-of-living comparisons and remuneration issues.

Problems with the ICSC would persist until either a new system was established for determining conditions of service in the common system or until it became a truly technical body, he said. An ICSC which could not hold a meaningful dialogue with any of its interlocutors had abdicated its mandated responsibilities.

Succumbing to political pressure was no longer viable or desirable. In that context, the Assembly should put a moratorium on the consideration of pensionable remuneration issues scheduled for next year until the question of the consultative process had been resolved.

The common system's pay philosophy was enshrined in the Charter and the Noblemaire principle, he continued. To the extent that the ICSC confirmed its traditional interpretation of the principle and then failed to recommend a change of comparator, to the extent that supplementary payments were made to attract the nationals of Member States with high standards of living and hard currencies, one could only wonder whether the common system at this point had a pay policy/philosophy based on any considerations other than solely financial ones.

The underlying problem was much larger than the question of the ICSC's existence or demise, he said. It had to do with commitment to the Organization and its goals. An organization that was always running into financial difficulties, where staffing policies were often determined by political pressure, would hardly run properly or efficiently, no matter how much restructuring or staff reduction was undertaken.

The CCISUA hoped, he said, that the current Assembly session would take decisions that would allow staff to reconsider their position regarding their participation in the process dealing with the conditions of service in the common system organizations.

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WAYNE DIXON, President of FISCA, said the Federation, representing 30,000 staff members of the specialized agencies and technical programmes, favoured binding negotiated agreement through a tripartite mechanism in place of the structure of the Commission. The ICSC secretariat should be replaced by a technical bureau with fewer resources and staff. The proposal was a radical change from the Commission's current structure. "Minor changes to the existing structure will not be sufficient. To the staff of the specialized agencies, the Commission, in its present form, no longer exists."

The General Service salary methodology, he said, continued to yield unacceptable results for staff at Headquarters and in field duty stations. The FICSA strongly protested against the manner in which the surveys were carried out by the Commission and the action taken by one agency to implement the survey results unilaterally. Referring to interaction between the ICSC and the staff on the survey, he said "FICSA would like to remind all those concerned in this matter that efficient and independent staff representation is an inalienable right" inscribed in various United Nations instruments. He added that the Federation had submitted a resolution to the Secretary-General for a 25 per cent across-the-board salary increase for professional staff throughout the system. Expressing the hope that the Fifth Committee would endorse the request, he said it had been justified by hard evidence and would also restore the competitiveness of the common system and its specialized agencies. The Commission no longer enjoyed the support or confidence of any of its partners because it was no longer a technical body. The ICSC, in its current format, "is a travelling, political three-ring circus that has lost its entertainment value".

The Commission, he continued, had not been able to fulfil its mandate regarding the Geneva post adjustments since it was now requesting the Assembly to provide guidance on the issue. The post adjustment for Bern, Geneva, and Lausanne and Zurich should not be changed. On the issue of potential staff lay-off, he said "staff members had become innocent victims of the domestic policies of one major donor country". The message being sent out was that the have-nots of this world can do without the humanitarian and development assistance being provided by our agencies. The Geneva staff, who had held a demonstration on 9 November, would strike if the ICSC's report was accepted in its totality by the Assembly.

Regarding the participation of the specialized agencies and technical programmes in the common system, he said, "We see our destiny as being fundamentally different from that of `Big Brother' in New York". The Federation would no longer tolerate a system that dictated policies that were detrimental to the agencies' well-being and were imposed by powers that barely acknowledged their existence. He advocated a radical change in the system to incorporate the specialized agencies as major players or the development of a separate system for the agencies.

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EVGUENI N. DEINEKO (Russian Federation) said his delegation had difficulties with the ICSC key recommendation that remunerations be raised for professional and higher staff categories. He expressed concern that a major increase in salaries was being proposed without justification. The proposal appeared to conform with the methodology. However, that was not because there had been a change in the common system's relative conditions of service to warrant such a raise but because the methodology itself had been altered in recent years. The sole apparent aim of the proposal was to bring down the net remuneration margin. Since 1992, the Assembly had approved all ICSC recommended raises based on the evolution of the comparator's remuneration levels; however, the margin had dropped by more than 13 per cent in the same period. The ICSC should reconsider its decision on applying the method of "equal weights". Also, the Fifth Committee should not use such a doubtful premise in making decisions.

He said he was not yet convinced that the United Nations system was not competitive. That assessment was shared by an overwhelming majority of United Nations staff themselves. That could be seen in the worldwide survey called "Picture of the United Nations Staff" prepared for the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations by United Nations staff. From the staff who considered that the recruitment system did not allow the United Nations to hire the best candidates, only 5 per cent referred to salary levels as a reason. Thus, from the total of 4,252 employees questioned, only 3.5 per cent viewed the level of remuneration as an impediment to hiring the most qualified candidates. Further, the United States federal civil service remained the United Nations comparator and references to other potential comparators should be discarded as unacceptable.

On the recommendation to restore the desirable mid-point of 115, he recalled that the mid-point had been suspended when its application had threatened a freeze on salaries. The Fifth Committee and the ICSC should avoid being involved in playing with the methodology; they should take a consistent stand on the matter so there were no grounds for adjustments. Also disputable was the way in which the ICSC proposed to increase the margin in 1996 up to 115. The idea of increasing the base/floor salaries without consolidating the equivalent part of the post-adjustment index was unprecedented. The proposed reform of the salary scale structure would lead to the differentiation of remuneration, to the benefit of senior staff of the secretariats. The scaling forward of all post-adjustment indexes was not only unprecedented but absurd. It contradicted the idea of post-adjustment, which was meant to compensate for differences in cost of living in the common system's various duty stations. Besides, the proposal to split the raise into two parts was an indirect recognition by the ICSC that the raise it was recommending was excessive.

He said his delegation would only accept the proposal that the adjustment of salaries be strictly within the framework of the existing

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methodology without the innovations introduced by the ICSC this year. A scale based on such an adjustment would reflect the only actual change during the year: the 3.22 per cent increase of the comparator gross remuneration granted in January 1995. The appropriate net scale increase by 3.1 per cent should be carried out following existing practice of consolidating the equivalent part of post-adjustment index. Even that increase should be considered in the context of their timeliness and the current financial crisis. He supported the ICSC recommendation on the continued application of the Noblemaire principle, which should be based exclusively on the comparison with the highest paid national civil service. The current interpretation of the principle seemed excessively generous. The idea of changing the ICSC structure into a tripartite body could not be supported. However, the possibility of making its proceeding more open to Member States could be explored.

RAFAEL MUNOZ (Spain), speaking for the European Union as well as for Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania and the Slovak Republic, stressed the importance of the common system. It established a reference framework that promoted cohesiveness, which should allow for mobility of staff. Member States should ensure that the working conditions were competitive.

He regretted that the ICSC was still not in a position to present the final results of the study on the Noblemaire principle. The European Union expected to see concrete results before the start of the Assembly's fifty- first session. The similarities between the United Nations staff categories with the United States and the dissimilarities between the United Nations and potential comparators should not constitute an insurmountable obstacle in carrying out technically adequate studies to determine that another public administration be used as comparator.

On the ICSC structure, he said the organ should abide by its distinct technical character and the best way to have that character was through the presentation and subsequent election of candidates who were truly technical experts and who were not subject to political interference. The Assembly had called for improvement in the consultative process with the understanding that it would be achieved in keeping with the status of the ICSC as an independent body. However, the European Union would be willing to review innovative formulas to improve that process in light of the positions taken by staff bodies, the organizations and Member States.

He asked for additional information to clarify the use of a different public administration from the present one as a comparator. Information should be provided to clarify the change in the methodology implemented in carrying out the comparisons with the American system and on its relation with

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the remuneration margin. Stressing that the competitiveness of conditions of service of the United Nations system must be ensured, he said the European Union could not accept that those conditions would be influenced by the non- payment by some Member States of their mandatory contributions

DAG BRISEID (Norway) said the common system had served the United Nations well and should be maintained. However, it could not function well unless it was competitive and able to attract highly qualified employees capable of meeting the new challenges of the Organization. That was not the case at the moment. United Nations staff remuneration was falling behind in comparison with staff at regional organizations such as OECD and at global organizations such as the Bretton Woods institutions. The ICSC should apply an accepted methodology for the calculation of adjustment in remuneration in a purely technical fashion. Member States should respect the Commission's expert character and see to it that its members contributed to the body's technical expertise. The common system could not be static and must be revised and modernized regularly to enable it to tackle new and unexpected situations. It must retain flexibility in hiring highly qualified staff.

The United Nations reform process needed highly professional staff and management; hence, the system's competitiveness must be restored, he said. Current uncertainties relating to the general financial situation and conditions of service must not be allowed to paralyze the implementation of mandated programmes. In that connection, the ICSC recommendations could not

be considered in isolation from management and administrative reform. At present, Member States should be prepared to make the necessary investment for a more efficient future organization, which meant investing in human resources. Norway supported the remuneration increase proposed by ICSC.

FABIAN PALIZ (Ecuador), also speaking for members of the Rio Group, said the Commission had tried to improve both its technical expertise and independence, which should be maintained and strengthened. Its efforts to improve its work were commendable, as it would provide the Fifth Committee with the necessary technical information for its decision-making. It had rightly decided to adopt some procedural changes on its own and left the Assembly to consider whether deeper changes were necessary. The current form and role of the Commission should be maintained. It should continue to make proposals for adoption by the Assembly. Any negative comments that might follow its recommendations should not unduly affect its views.

He said he appreciated the intense work carried out regarding the application of the Noblemaire principle. Comparisons had been made with the Swiss and German civil services and with some other international

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organizations. The conclusions of the ICSC were technically correct. The Fifth Committee should await the results of informal consultations. Despite the complexity of the issue, it should be possible to reach conclusions. The ICSC should complete its surveys of the conditions of service at duty stations for the General Service category. It should help identify changes that should be incorporated in the current methodology. The non-participation of staff representatives was a cause for concern. To allow for a democratic process, the unions should resume taking part in the work of ICSC.

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