"I’m at the end of my rope, my life is constantly up in the air, it is impossible to know how things will be tomorrow", admits Jacqueline*. They work three, five, sometimes eleven years in a row on the basis of short-term contracts. "They" are the "ex-col", read: the external collaborators of the international organizations (IO).

Problem: the in-house unions of the international organizations care only for the employees holding an indefinite or long-term contract. "We are not a priority for them: the unions in the IO are often nothing more than an instrument of power" declares Marie-France*, a temporary staff member of the UN for more than seven years. Yet this type of staff makes up at least 20 to 30 per cent of the total staff of the organizations. While some temporary staff are hired only for the conferences held in Geneva, the majority of them are employed on a long-term basis. Such as Christine*, who provides high-level services to the International Labour Office and has her own view about the reasons for the keen interest of the international organizations in the temporary staff status: "It enables them to reduce operating costs, particularly through savings on the social benefits."

Contrary to the regular staff, the "short-termers" have few rights. "I have no guarantee of being re-employed", says Jacqueline, whose contract ends just before Christmas. "And my holidays are not paid." The situation is critical as the non-renewal of her contract may cost her her residence permit in France and force her to return to Latin America although her two children go to French school.

Some one hundred members

A new Union - ÉQUITÉ - has been set up to represent these "precarious" workers from the international organizations. Its leader is the former députée from the Alliance de gauche Salika Wenger, and it counts some one hundred members. Full of energy, Salika Wenger wants the voice of these precarious workers to be heard: "It is time for the international organizations to apply internally the principles they preach to the outside world! And since I have no connection with those organizations, nobody will be able to put pressure on me."

"Everybody denies the existence of those employees", Salika Wenger adds, "whether in the international organizations or in the Swiss civil society, or even in the Geneva unions which often ignore the problems of the community of international organizations." Starting today, ÉQUITÉ has an office and a specialized lawyer who will reply to the concerns of the "forgotten-ones" from the international organizations.

The Union is autonomous and operates in the framework of Swiss law, thus guaranteeing anonymity to its members. "Fear and psychological pressure are permanent features of that world; under such conditions we cannot think of sending the temporary workers to the front-line and making their situation even worse," Salika Wenger adds.

Michel Chevrolet

"73. The organizations of the United Nations common system must again become model employers. The United Nations cannot promote the Global Compact nor can the ILO promote decent work for all while adopting forms of employment that clearly go against the values that the organizations promote to the outside world and the ideals staff members should feel responsible for contributing to, in accordance with the standards of conduct which the Commission has just adopted. FICSA urged the organizations to go back to the original concepts, namely: (a) contracts without indication of a term, be they called career, permanent, indefinite or continuing, as the basic form of employment relationship; (b) fixed-term contracts for work that is by its nature of limited duration; and (c) temporary contracts for work that is truly of a temporary nature.

"74. The General Secretary called upon the organizations to stop deviant practices. ‘Long-term short-term staff’ is one. Totally unacceptable are the ‘when actually employed’ contracts, which were used, for instance, in Somalia for work corresponding to full-time employment."