United Nations Common System Resolutions

A/RES/77/256A-BView PDF

Who created this mandate?

A document of the General Assembly, under agenda item 145United Nations common system, published in 2023.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

2 entities

Extracted automatically from each entity’s budget submission.

What subjects does this mandate have?

8 topics

Coordination Within UN System International Civil Service Mobility and Hardship Allowance Parental Leave Personnel Management Post Adjustment Salaries and Allowances Working Conditions

What does this mandate say?

34 operative paragraphs

A

Recalls its resolutions 44/198 of 21 December 1989 and 45/259 of 3 May 1991, and for clarification purposes and without altering the Commission’s authority or affecting the current operational reality, decides to amend articles 10 and 11 of the statute of the International Civil Service Commission to read as follows:

Article 10

The Commission shall make recommendations to the General Assembly on:

The broad principles for the determination of the conditions of service of the staff;

The salary scale and the value of the post adjustment multiplier for staff in the Professional and higher categories;

Allowances and benefits of staff which are determined by the General Assembly;*

Staff assessment.

Article 11

The Commission shall establish:

The methods by which the principles for determining conditions of service should be applied;

Rates of allowances and benefits, other than pensions and those referred to in article 10 (c), the conditions of entitlement thereto and standards of travel;

The post adjustment applicable to each duty station.

* Dependency allowances and language incentives for staff in the Professional and higher categories, education grant, home leave, repatriation grant and termination indemnity.

Reaffirms the authority and competence of the International Civil Service Commission to establish post adjustment multipliers for duty stations in the United Nations common system, under article 11 (c) of the statute of the Commission;

Urges the organizations of the common system to reaffirm their commitment to a single, unified United Nations common system as the cornerstone for the regulation and coordination of the conditions of service of the United Nations common system, and to that end invites them to complete, as quickly as practicable, formal acceptance of the amended statute;

Calls upon all organizations that have not done so to implement the post adjustment multipliers established by the Commission, based on the results of the 2021 baseline cost-of-living surveys, and calls upon all organizations to implement all future post adjustment multipliers established by the Commission, in compliance with their responsibilities as part of the common system arising from their acceptance of the statute of the Commission;

Requests the Commission to continue to monitor the implementation of its post adjustment decisions by organizations of the common system and to report thereon at the seventy-eighth session of the General Assembly.

56th (resumed) plenary meeting

30 December 2022

B

Takes note with appreciation of the work of the International Civil Service Commission;

Takes note of the report of the Commission for 2022;

Reaffirms the role of the General Assembly in approving conditions of service and entitlements for all staff serving in the organizations of the United Nations common system, bearing in mind articles 10 and 11 of the statute of the Commission;

Recalls articles 10 and 11 of the statute of the Commission, reaffirms the central role of the Commission in regulating and coordinating conditions of service and entitlements for all staff serving in the organizations of the United Nations common system, and also recalls that members of the Commission shall perform their functions in full independence and with impartiality;

Requests the Commission, in consultation with the Secretary-General, to analyse any existing measures to ensure adherence to the common system salaries, allowances and benefits and to make proposals to reinforce implementation of common system decisions, as appropriate, in conjunction with governing bodies;

Recalls paragraphs 12 and 13 of its resolution 76/240, and requests the Commission to provide for the consideration of the General Assembly at its seventy-eighth session a detailed outline of its approach for the next comprehensive review of the compensation package, including the structure, parameters and timelines;

Also recalls paragraph 14 of its resolution 76/240, reiterates the importance of providing Member States with comprehensive data on system-wide compensation costs for all staff categories, and expects the provision of such data without delay;

Further recalls paragraph 14 of its resolution 76/240, and stresses the importance of timely submission by the United Nations common system organizations to the Commission of necessary information in order to ensure that the decisions and recommendations of the Commission are based on updated and reliable data;

Highlights the importance of effective and timely communication of the decisions of the Commission and the General Assembly to organizations of the common system and other stakeholders in accordance with the statute of the Commission, and of advice on complex legal matters related to the common system;

I.Conditions of service applicable to both categories of staff

Requests the Commission to conduct a system-wide survey to assess factors affecting workforce retention and to submit the results and analysis of the survey to the General Assembly at its seventy-ninth session;

Welcomes the establishment of the new parental leave framework, requests the Secretary-General to implement the framework in the Secretariat of the United Nations within existing resources, on an exceptional basis, for the year 2023, and encourages executive heads of other organizations of the common system to follow such practice;

Requests the Commission to submit to the General Assembly at its eightieth session an assessment and review of the implementation of the parental leave framework, with a detailed analysis of utilization data, staff satisfaction, expenditures, the incentive function of the new framework and its impact on the workforce in the common system, in particular in terms of job attractiveness and workforce retention;

Recalls its resolution 73/273, recognizes that multilingualism strengthens the workforce diversity, welcomes the inclusion of multilingualism of the workforce in the programme of work of the Commission, and notes that the language incentive will be considered within the next comprehensive review as a measure to promote multilingualism in the common system;

Reaffirms that the Commission shall establish, inter alia, standards of travel under article 11 (b) of the statute of the Commission, and requests the Commission to reconsider the pilot study on standards of accommodation for air travel, taking into account the provisions of resolutions of the General Assembly on standards of accommodation for air travel, and to report thereon in the context of the next report;

II.Conditions of service of staff in the Professional and higher categories

A.Base/floor salary scale

Recalling its resolution 44/198, by which it established a floor net salary level for staff in the Professional and higher categories by reference to the corresponding base net salary levels of officials in comparable positions serving at the base city of the comparator civil service (the United States federal civil service),

Approves, with effect from 1 January 2023, as recommended by the Commission in paragraph 148 of its report, the revised unified base/floor salary scale and updated pay protection points for staff in the Professional and higher categories, as contained in annex IX to the report,

B.Evolution of the margin and margin management around the desirable midpoint

Recalling section I.B of its resolution 51/216 and the standing mandate from the General Assembly, in which the Commission is requested to continue its review of the relationship between the net remuneration of the United Nations staff in the Professional and higher categories in New York and that of the comparator civil service (the United States federal civil service) employees in comparable positions in Washington, D.C. (referred to as “the margin”),

Reaffirms that the range of 110 to 120 for the margin between the net remuneration of officials in the Professional and higher categories of the United Nations in New York and officials in comparable positions in the comparator civil service should continue to apply, on the understanding that the margin would be maintained at a level around the desirable midpoint of 115 over a period of time;

Notes that the margin between net remuneration of the United Nations staff in grades P-1 to D-2 in New York and that of officials in comparable positions in the United States federal civil service in Washington, D.C., for the period from 1 January to 31 December 2022 is 113.9;

Recalls its decision contained in resolution 70/244 that, if the margin trigger levels of 113 or 117 are breached, the Commission should take appropriate action through the operation of the post adjustment system;

Notes the decision of the Commission to continue monitoring the level of the margin and to take the necessary corrective action under the operation of the post adjustment system should the trigger levels of 113 or 117 be breached;

C.Children’s and secondary dependants’ allowances

Invites the Commission to further refine the structure of the children’s and secondary dependants’ allowances and to review the feasibility of applying a means-tested methodology, and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its seventy-eighth session;

Approves, as a compensation measure, the allowance for children with disabilities in the amount of 6,645 dollars per annum until the children’s and secondary dependants’ allowances are further adjusted;

D.Hardship allowance and mobility incentive

Invites the Commission to reconsider its decisions on the levels of the hardship allowance and the mobility incentive and to assess the calculating methodologies based on the outcome of the next comprehensive compensation review;

Recalls section E, paragraph 3, of its resolution 74/255 B, and reiterates its encouragement to the organizations of the United Nations common system to consider the application of alternative administrative measures, including non-financial incentives, to promote staff mobility, and the linking of mobility to staff development and career progression, to the extent possible.