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N°
1251
30 October 2000
New Collective Agreement on Grievance
Procedures
Preparations towards a collective agreement
setting down procedures to resolve individual grievances
commenced in February this year. Formal negotiations
between the Staff Union and the Human Resources Development
Department (HRDD) started in the Joint Negotiating Committee
(JNC) in April. The negotiations were protracted.
But the good news is that on 13 September, the Office
and the Staff Union signed the Collective Agreement
on a Procedure for the Resolution of Grievances.
In summary, the new procedure is designed
to resolve problems quickly and informally where possible,
and where grievances need to be discussed more formally,
to provide a process that combines legal rigour with
fairness and practicality. The Agreement establishes
new roles and institutions including internal facilitators,
an ILO Ombudsperson and, at the final stage of the internal
procedure, a Joint Panel.
More specifically, the Agreement includes
an explicit commitment to develop and implement strategies
aimed at preventing grievances; but when grievances
occur, the parties directly involved are encouraged
to attempt resolution first at the level closest to
where they arose and as quickly as possible. In practical
terms this means that line managers will henceforth
have a responsibility to deal with problems in the first
instance. In searching for a solution, the parties may
choose to be assisted by staff members trained
as "facilitators" as well as by an Ombudsperson
who will be jointly appointed by the Staff Union and
the Office. It is hoped that most problems will be resolved
through this "resolution by dialogue process".
Where this is not possible, staff members
can bring a grievance to the newly constituted Joint
Panel, a quasi-judicial body whose role will be to conduct
a full examination of the facts and arguments in dispute.
The Staff Union and the Office ("the Parties")
shall nominate representation on the Joint Panel. This
will comprise a legally-qualified Chairperson
jointly appointed from outside the Office and other
members appointed by each of the Parties. The
Joint Panel will establish its rules of procedure, which,
under the Agreement, will have to respect the principles
of fair procedures and "natural justice" (i.e. ensuring
that the parties have the right to be heard and that
nobody adjudicates his/her own case).
The Agreement will apply to all ILO
staff worldwide, including holders of Without Limit
of Time, Fixed-Term, Short-Term, Special Short-Term
or External Collaboration (ExCol) contracts (with the
exception of bona fide ExCol and daily contract
workers). Grievances relating to a staff member’s conditions
of work or employment may be submitted; the procedure
will also enable complaints to the Ombudsperson concerning
the legality of workplace practices relating to conditions
of work or employment ("Whistleblowing").
The Agreement refers both to individual grievances and
to action initiated by two or more staff members concerning
the same or a very similar issue ("Class action").
The Parties will continue negotiations
on specific procedures dealing with harassment (including
sexual harassment), as well as discussions on
proposed amendments to the Statute of the ILO Administrative
Tribunal. The parties also agreed that the Staff Regulations
would be amended shortly to reflect the terms of the
Agreement.
Preparations for full implementation
of the Agreement will take time, so it has
been agreed that the Agreement would be operational
as of 1 January 2001. Until then, the current provisions
of Chapter 13 of the Staff Regulations (Review, Complaints
and Appeals) shall continue to apply. An easy-to-understand
explanatory guide to the new procedure is currently
being prepared.
David Dror Alan Wild
Chairperson Director
ILO Staff Union Human Resources Development Department
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