On Valentine’s Day, our members demonstrated their comradeship by showing up at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) in good number. While there was much going on during the meeting, here are only the highlights – for those of you who couldn’t make it this time…
At the outset of the meeting, the President of the ILO Staff Union Catherine Comte-Tiberghien gave an update on the situation regarding the current negotiations with the administration. We were disappointed to hear that the re-establishment of meaningful dialogue in 2019 – after the events in 2018 which lead to disappointment and broken trust – is being hampered by the administration: Relevant documents for negotiations in the Joint Negotiation Board (JNC) were not sent with sufficient time in advance to allow the ILO Staff Union to prepare adequately for the important subjects on the table (diversity in recruitment and selection and proposed amendments to the ILO Staff Regulation, among others)! Fortunately, in our meeting with the Director-General after the AGM, he reaffirmed the “need for reliable and predicable social dialogue” – Stay tuned to hear what will happen in the JNC this year…
We were also given important news by the legal advisor of the Staff Union, Chloé Charbonneau-Jobin on the legal appeals against the revised post adjustment for Geneva. She explained that the ILO Staff Union had so far filed about 250 complaints against the decision of the Director-General, as implemented from April 2018. In its response, the Organization has chosen to present a political defence and, hence, adopted a position contrary to the position it had defended throughout the whole period preceding the decision to implement the revised post adjustment to the staff in Geneva. Pending another round of required written submissions between the ILO Staff Union and the administration, the Tribunal will render its decision, which is hoped to be delivered by the end of June 2019 this year.
As our members know, the vision for the ILO Staff union has been determined over a period of five years (from 2015-20), and will be renewed during the 100th anniversary of the ILO Staff Union in 2020. The specific objectives for 2019 to achieve this longer term vision were adopted by the AGM. Amendments included the need to emphasize the link between teleworking arrangements and the objective to achieve zero carbon emissions in 2050. Another amendment that received great support was the establishment of working group on the burning issues concerning Development Cooperation (DC) staff.
We thank all members for having attended and spent part of Valentine’s Day with us!!
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