You will recall that the General Assembly recently decided to allow all staff on board as of 1 January 2018 to be able to work until 65. This would not however prevent staff who joined before 1 January 1990 or 1 January 2014 from excercising their acquired right to retire at 60 or 62 respectively.
While the General Assembly agreed to this in principle, the staff rules still need to be changed.
To this end, the following wording for the staff regulations and the staff rules has been proposed by UN management with staff unions for the General Assembly’s consideration this autumn:
Proposed change to the UN staff regulations
Regulation 9.2
Staff members shall not be retained in active service beyond the age of 65 years. The Secretary-General may, in the interest of the Organization, retain staff members in service beyond this age limit in exceptional cases.
Proposed change to the UN staff rules
New Rule 13.13
Acquired right to normal retirement age
(a) Staff members have an acquired right to their normal retirement age as defined under article 1 (n) of the Regulations of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund. The normal age of retirement for staff members who became participants in the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund prior to 1 January 1990 is 60 years. For staff members whose participation commenced or recommenced between 1 January 1990 and 31 December 2013, the normal age of retirement is 62 years. These staff members may choose to separate from service at their normal age of retirement, or anytime thereafter, before the age of 65.
(b) Staff members who wish to exercise their acquired right as described in staff rule 13.13 (a) above and separate from service at their normal age of retirement or anytime thereafter before the age of 65 shall give written notice of three months if holding a continuing appointment, or 30 calendar days if holding a fixed-term appointment. The Secretary-General may, however, accept shorter notice.
(c) Staff regulation 9.2 is not applicable to staff members who had reached their normal retirement age on or before 31 December 2017 and had received an exceptional extension of service by the Secretary-General beyond 31 December 2017. They will be required to separate upon the conclusion of their exceptional extension of service.
Please note that the trend has been for the General Assembly to agree changes to the staff regulations and rules where they concern the implementation of prior resolutions.
We will keep you updated on progress with the General Assembly.