Staff Council budget changes and impact on future activities | Modifications du budget du Conseil et impact sur les activités à venir

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Published on Friday, 14 December 2018 09:57

You will recall our broadcast last month regarding the reduction in income to the Staff Council for the current financial year. In view of this, the Council conducted a review of its budget, which also prompted a more general review of our activities and expenditures for the 2018-2019 budget cycle. Measures were also taken to review our income stream for the coming years.

Among the changes we decided to reduce significantly the budget for representational activities and travel, for sports and other club activities representational activities and for the just-completed staff party.

We also decided to move the 2019 children’s party from its May slot (as it was in 2018) to a new December slot, for which it will now have a Christmas theme.

Knowing the importance of planning ahead when it comes to your children’s activities we felt it important to let you know this in advance. We hope to encourage increased volunteer participation, including for the role of Father Christmas. If you know any colleagues who would fit the bill, please let us know!

In the meantime, we wish you and your families the best for the coming holidays.

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Results of the survey on misconduct in the workplace | Résultats de l’enquête sur la conduite prohibée

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Published on Friday, 14 December 2018 09:32

The Coordinating Committee for Staff Unions and Associations (CCISUA), of which your union is a member, recently undertook a staff survey on harassment, discrimination, sexual harassment and abuse of authority (this survey was distinct from the management survey on sexual harassment only).

We are grateful to the respondents for their time and efforts, which will help us fulfill the primary purpose of the survey: to achieve a better understanding of your experiences and concerns, particularly at a time when the relevant policies are under review. On that note, the results will be shared with senior management globally, including the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) and equivalents, as well as relevant review bodies, working groups and the Secretary-General.

While we are pleased to report that over 6600 of you from across the UN System took the survey – with roughly 60% of female respondents – the preliminary findings of the survey are quite shocking. Nearly half of respondents (44%) believe they were subjected to abuse of authority, 40% were the victim of discrimination and 37% experienced harassment at the UN. Over 15% of staff reported suffering sexual harassment in the workplace.

The survey responses also point to a number of alarming patterns:

·         Misconduct is most frequently perpetrated by supervisors (46% in cases of sexual harassment, and over 70% in cases of discrimination, harassment or abuse of authority).

·         Less than one fifth of victims of misconduct chose to file a complaint; the two predominant reasons cited by staff were their lack of trust in the system and fear of retaliation.

·         Amongst staff who did file a complaint, 20% believe they were retaliated against for having done so.

·         Nearly half of investigations took more than one year to complete; staff felt the investigations were conducted in a professional manner in only one third of cases, and were fully satisfied with the outcome in only 10% of cases.

These troubling results point to a veritable crisis in the UN System's management of misconduct in the workplace. The responses to the survey suggest that staff do not feel treated with respect and dignity, and reveal a serious lack of trust in the system.

This survey serves as an important and credible reality check for the Organization on the experiences of staff across the UN System. We will be using your feedback to better inform our discussions with management on proposed changes to the relevant legislation, in order to better protect, you, the staff – the Organizations most valuable asset.

We will provide further detailed survey results in the coming days.

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Update on the new building and outcome of the hot-desking pilot project | Informations mises à jour sur le Plan stratégique patrimonial et conclusions du projet pilote sur le « hot-desking »

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Published on Thursday, 13 December 2018 17:46

You will have seen that the new building H is slowly coming together and the underground car park will soon have a new entrance.

The General Assembly has decreed that all staff in the new building, to be completed in 2020, be subject to hot-desking (variously referred to by the Administration as flexible workspace or smart working)in which there will be 4 desks for every 5 staff. Affected staff include OHCHR, OCHA and the Division of Administration, but, based on concerns received, not UNCTAD, ECE nor the Language Service.

However, we have come to learn that in the Report of the Secretary General to the General Assemblyin its current session, the UN Administration through the SG’s report requested CHF 67 million in additional funds to introduce ventilation in the older buildings of the Palais to allow for the introduction of hot-desking. This request was not consulted with the Staff Council. We will keep you informed of the outcome of this request once the General Assembly makes its final decision.

In preparation for this change in the workspace, a change that has not proven popular in New York and on which the Administration admitted at the last meeting of the Staff-Management Committee (SMC) they were unable to measure a resulting increase in productivity, the Council was invited to try out the pilot hot-desking environment in the Dépendance La Pelouse. We would like to thank the SHP team for inviting us to this space, and the friendliness of all staff working there. Nevertheless, having tried this hot-desking, our conclusions are not encouraging. The main points are as following: 

·         Hot-desking can be a challenge for activities requiring confidentiality. It may be difficult, if not many times impossible, to foresee confidential activities and book a conference room in advance each time. Unexpected confidential phone calls will not be possible without urging the caller to wait while confidential space is found or having to ask to reschedule the call.

·         It is no wonder that colleagues who arrive first in the morning prefer to take places to the back where no one will walk behind them – as to retain a natural level of privacy. Those that arrive later are only left with a choice of desk with the hallway behind them where people walk and have less privacy. Staff are therefore obliged to “compete” for more privileged / less annoying seats.

·         The fact that there are no fixed places makes it difficult to find a particular colleague, therefore losing time when needing to interact directly. This may be particularly troubling for colleagues who interact daily with different colleagues/clients.

·         In general, the noise level is significantly higher than in individual offices as one can hear everything taking place in the open space.

·         As for spontaneous discussions with colleagues, our experience is that in theory they should be moved to other spaces but in practice they take place in the hot-desking environment, disturbing others. This is particularly true to cases when work on the screen in front of somebody has to be debated.

·         Speaking on the fixed phone is often annoying for colleagues sitting nearby and who will unwantedly hear the other person’s conversation, however short one tries to be and however low voice is used. Negative implications for concentration will be inevitable, as well as reticence to discuss issues in detail in order to respect colleagues nearby.

·         For storage space, lockers of any size may not be sufficient to hold all the professional and personal equipment typically found on a desk.

This Economist article on the subject is also worth reading: Open offices can lead to closed minds.

At this stage we would like to remind you that the Council was officially invited to certain SHP planning meetings as of April 2015. The Council conducted a surveyin June 2015 in which many of you expressed your strong concerns with regards to hot-desking and open-plan offices. These were reinforced by a scientific studyundertaken by Swiss company, Ergorama, and a petition signed by over 1,000 of you against open space and hot-desking. The Council itself voted on October 2017 a resolutionof no-confidence in the project as it then was.

While we understand that SHP is bound by General Assembly resolutions we also understand that the GA’s resolutions were also based on the proposals submitted by our Management. We therefore regret that despite best efforts the concerns of staff were for the most part ignored, including many concerns expressed during the focus group meetings organized by the SHP team.

Nevertheless, the Council will need to remain engaged with UNOG leadership and the SHP team in order to make the current project as good as possible.

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Christmas concert this Monday 17 December | Concert de Noël, lundi 17 décembre

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Published on Wednesday, 12 December 2018 17:39

You are cordially invited to a free Christmas concert this Monday 17 December at 5.30 p.m. in the Assembly Hall of the Palais des Nations. 

Please drop by to hear a choir perform a one-hour program of festive songs (see flyer below). 

We hope this performance - initiated by staff, for staff - will give a jubilant start to your holiday season!

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