FICSA Circular 940 2002

FICSA/CIRC/940, Geneva, 13 November 2002

    REPORT ON THE FICSA WORKSHOP ON GENERAL SERVICE SALARY SURVEY METHODOLOGY FOR NON-HEADQUARTERS DUTY STATIONS

    Rabat, 30 September to 4 October 2002

  • The workshop was opened on Monday, 30 September, in a meeting room of the Hotel Mercure in Rabat by Ms. Khadija El Rharbi, President of FLPNUM, who welcomed the participants and introduced the workshop.
  • The 15 participants representing 5 duty stations were mostly from UN organizations based in Rabat. The attendance was not very high.
  • Part of the session on the preparatory phase of the salary survey was dedicated to job classification for General Service posts which the participants found to be extremely interesting especially for the preparation of benchmark job descriptions.
  • Very few of the participants had experience in salary surveys and those who had were not fully acquainted with the criteria governing the whole process. The majority felt that this should be the first approach to the exercise. For this reason the participants attention on the various phases of the salary survey methodology was continuous and at a high level of interest. The training aimed to provide both groups of participants an organic overview not only of the methodology, but of the whole survey exercise, highlighting those steps which, due to their impact on the final results, needed an in-depth and accurate analysis.
  • Numerous questions were raised by the participants, some of which were linked to the methodology and generally revealed concern on its failure to look at all the conditions of employment provided by local employers to their staff, while others were related to other conditions of employment of the UN staff.
  • One important point raised by the participants was the difficulty of finding and convincing local employers to participate in a survey, and then to reveal all their conditions of employment. Since it appears that this problem has also arisen in HQ duty stations, it would be advisable to study corrective measures or even new approaches, especially in the light of the upcoming revision of both methodologies (HQ and non-HQ).
  • The exercises performed during phases 3 and 4 together, with the simulation of a data collection interview were greatly appreciated by the participants who could actually test what they had learned.
  • I would like to emphasize the timely and effective organization of the workshop. The FLPNUM President in Rabat provided the best to make participants feel at home. A special thank you should be addressed to Ms. Khadija El Rharbi who provided all the assistance the participants and the trainer needed during the 5-day session.
  • The workshop closed, as planned, on Friday, 4 October.

    • Comments and Recommendations

    1. It was not possible to follow the construction of a salary scale with the aid of a PC as the computer programme relevant to a real comprehensive survey, to be used as a teaching aid, was not available. This situation is, unfortunately, become very common in non-headquarters duty stations. Since an example derived from a real situation is a very productive training aid, I would recommend that FICSA get in touch with the responsible or the designated organization (usually UNDP) to ask formally that the computer programme used for the comprehensive survey as well as corresponding database be provided to the Local Salary Survey Committee (LSSC) of the duty station where the survey was carried out. The staff representatives should have access to that programme and even make a copy for the use of the Staff Association itself.
    2. On that point there is no need to recall that it is the right of each one of the parties participating in the exercise to have a record of the data collected and of the results obtained after the calculations were carried out by the computer programme. In fact, in HQ duty stations, this right is recognized by the ICSC whose Secretariat always provides the LSSC with a disk/CD-rom containing either the computer programme or the information relevant to the survey.
    3. There is no reason to deny such a right to the staff of non-headquarters duty stations. The refusal to grant such a request under the excuse of the confidentiality of information provided by the comparators is a mere pretext, since employers are reported in the computer programme under conventional codes (e.g. Employer A, Employer B, etc.) so it is impossible to know the exact source of the information in the database.
    4. Moreover, confidentiality is always requested of the members of the data-collection teams as well as the members of the LSSC who, it is necessary to recall, have themselves selected the employers to be surveyed.
    5. With regard to the workshop programme, I would suggest modifying its content for future workshops, giving more emphasis to the preparation and data-collection phases of a survey, and devoting less time to the technical phases, that is, to the data analysis and the salary scale construction.
    6. According to my experience, people approaching the survey matter for the first time which happens frequently, find it rather difficult to understand and retain the technical procedures which are the core of phases three and four.
    7. Seldom are secretarial or administrative staff familiar with the statistical concepts and computing procedures, and their efforts to follow and understand the rather complicated statistical procedures, needed to obtain a salary scale, would justify a change in the programme of the workshop.
    8. Locally-recruited General Service staff claim that duties and responsibilities listed in their job descriptions do not effectively reflect those performed but they do not know where and to whom to address their complaints. Moreover, they are completely in the hands of their supervisors who, in the case of a formal appeal, do not refrain from threatening various retorts.
    9. In Africa, to maintain continuous and productive contacts with each non-headquarters duty station, it would be necessary to emphasize the need to create focal points in the major areas of the continent, whose main task should be the coordination of activities of the countries located in that area.
    10. Small agencies do not have any chance of seeing their complaints received by the responsible organization unless the same requests come from a consistent number of complainants.

      FICSA Resource Person

      Francesco Di Pancrazio

    LISTE DES PARTICIPANTS
    Rabat - Maroc

     PAYSNoms et PrénomsTITREADRESSEEMAIL
      FLPNUM Morocco  
      PNUD Mme Latifa Bakhiyi
    M. Mohamed Cheddad    		  
      UNICEF Mme Salima Haloui
    Mme Nadia Alioua
    Mme Samah Lemrini    		  
      FNUAP Mme Khadija El-Rharbi  
      WORLD BANK M. Majid Kettani  
      CINU Melle Siham El Yazidi  
      PAM Mme Fatima Bahi  
      ILO Mme Samia Ouzgane  
    1. Mauritanie Mme Oumou Kalsome Faye, OMS Assistante administrative et gestionnaire du personnel Bureau du représentant de l’OMS pour la Mauritanie, B.P. Nouakchott, Mauritanie fall.oumou@mauritel.mr
    whorem@mauritel.mr
    2. Mauritanie M. Mamadou Ndim, FNUAP Assistant administratif et financier du FNUAP B.P 620, Nouakchott, Mauritanie marieme.bekaye@undp.org
    3. Comores M. Abdallah Zain-El-Abidine, FNUAP Président de l’Association locale du personnel du PNUD/FNUAP et Assistant au programme et aux finances du FNUAP   zain.el.abidine.abdallah@undp.org
    3. Comores M. Mbaé Matuarfi, PNUD Trésorier de l’Association locale et Assistant au programme du PNUD    
    4. Dakar, Sénégal Mme Josiane Diop   Via ICAO SA Montréal  
    5. Niamey, Niger M. Laouan Brem Boundi Chargé du personnel, PNUD   boundi.laouan@undp.org
    regestry.ne@undp.org