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(Geneva, Switzerland) Workers at the United Nations agency responsible for ensuring that governments and employers uphold international labour standards say that their own employer is not abiding by the decent work principles it espouses.   

Staff at the Geneva headquarters and more than 50 field offices of the International Labour Organization will begin a global job action on Wednesday 10 November, and continue throughout the Governing Body, to press their demands that management comply with freedom of association and collective bargaining rights, and ensure fair hiring processes and job security for employees. This first worldwide staff action in the ILO’s history will coincide with an ILO Governing Body meeting that brings together country government, worker and employer representatives.

FICSA sent the following letter of support to Juan Somavia, ILO Director-General. The letter will be read out today to the Extraordinary General Meeting:

“Dear Mr. Somavia,

“We have followed with concern the process of deterioration of relations between staff and management of UN organizations. How much longer must we wait for the recognition of basic labour rights for international civil servants? It is now time to consider the state of labour relations in the international public service.

 “As you know, there are many thousands of intergovernmental organizations and international civil services – ranging from the large, well-known universal institutions such as the ILO, the UN, the World Bank or WTO to small, barely-known bilateral or regional organizations. Despite the variety in size, purpose, scope and membership, intergovernmental organizations share a number of characteristics.

 “International civil services are:

• Sovereign bodies created by treaty among sovereign States
• Independent of any authority outside of the organization
• Exempt from national labour laws and regulations
• Subject to international administrative law

“They also have in common a basic imbalance of power in the relationship between employer and employee. This has led to serious shortcomings in the terms and conditions of employment and service in many organizations. 

“For example:

• Freedom of association is not recognized in some organizations, and is restrained in others
• The right to be consulted on terms and conditions of service and staff welfare issues, when it exists, is frequently ignored by Management
• The right to collective bargaining does not exist for international civil servants
• Mechanisms for hearing and settling individual and collective disputes are lacking in many organizations. Most do not recognize an independent administrative tribunal

“International civil servants do not benefit from the protections offered by national trade unions, nor can they influence an organization’s policies and practices through their right to vote. 

“Mr. Somavia, you have said that living up to the terms of the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work “should become a common objective of the multilateral system as a whole.”

“It is therefore time to recognize fundamental labour rights for all international civil servants. The Declaration says: 

“The principles and rights set out in the ILO Constitution and in the Declaration of Philadelphia […] have been expressed and developed in the form of specific rights and obligations in Conventions recognized as fundamental both inside and outside the Organization.” 

“FICSA therefore lends its full support to the efforts of the ILO Staff to press their demands that management comply with freedom of association and collective bargaining rights, and ensure fair hiring processes and job security for employees, and calls upon ILO Management to recognize fundamental labour rights for all international civil servants.”