• NEWS

  • ABOUT US

  • OUR WORK

  • COMMUNITY

  • ARCHIVES

  • Blog

  • More

    Contact Us

    FAQs

    Become a Member

    TribUnion

    SU Elections

    SU Financial Rules

    Mission Reports

    SU meetings

    Events

    Joint Negotiating Committee

    Completion Strategy

    Permanent Contracts

    Staff Management Committee

    CCISUA

    UN ICTY Gift Shop

    Staff Interviews

    NEWS

    ABOUT US

    OUR WORK

    COMMUNITY

    ARCHIVES

    Who's Who

    Discounts

    SU Constitution

    What We Do

    Staff Union

    GA puts stop to removal of pension fund from UN

    January 13, 2017

     

    We are pleased to inform you that the General Assembly has listened to your concerns and is taking formal action to address the problems at the UN pension fund.

    In its draft resolution, to be formally adopted this week, the General Assembly:

    • Rejects new financial rules proposed by the fund’s board. We had argued that the rules would pave the way for the removal of the fund from the UN, allow the fund to choose an alternative auditor to OIOS, and circumvent UN rules on procurement.

    • Rejects the CEO’s proposals for two P-5 posts, one for communications and one for office administration. We had argued they were a waste of your money.

    • Heavily criticizes the late payment of newly retiring staff. We had pointed to the extreme hardship of those forced to wait six to eight months to receive their first payment.

    • Dismisses the board’s positive evaluation of the CEO. We had argued that to accept the evaluation at a time when retirees weren’t being paid would be absurd.

    • Expresses concern at the financial underperformance of the fund and criticizes the number of vacant posts in the investment management division. We had argued that keeping key posts vacant would no doubt contribute to financial underperformance.

    • Requests a performance evaluation of the head of investments (known as the Representative of the Secretary-General). We had argued that this was timely.

    • Requests a full audit of the fund’s internal policies and processes. We had argued that there was much to be clarified in the fund’s operations.

    • Endorses further study of our proposal to pay an advance to new retirees who don’t receive a pension in time.

    • Calls time on the fund’s excessive use of expensive consultancy firms, such as PWC. We argued the fees came at the cost of your pension.

    The General Assembly’s actions are good for staff but a setback for the fund’s board and its CEO, Sergio Arvizu. They follow a staff union campaign, extensive meetings with member states and a petition signed by 14,000 of you.

    In reaching its conclusions, the General Assembly also took into account a leaked OIOS draft report alleging the pension fund did not treat the issue of late payments to retirees with sufficient urgency and posted fake news on the UN intranet about the size of the late payment backlog.

    Our campaign to protect our pension fund received press coverage in:

    • Bloomberg: UN’s $54 billion pension fund in power struggle over new rules;

    • Tribune de Genève: Inquiétudes autour du fonds de pension de l’ONU;

    • Interpress Service: UN staffers protest plan to privatise $53 billion pension fund;

    • 24 heures: Des retraités de l’ONU se retrouvent sans le sou;

    • as well as ongoing coverage in the UN pension blog.

    It also involved a formal intervention by staff unions at the General Assembly in late October.

    The campaign was conducted by the Coordinating Committee of International Staff Unions and Associations (CCISUA), of which your union is a member, and its sister federation, the Federation of International Civil Servants Associations (FICSA) and the UNISERV federation. The Federation of Associations of Former International Civil Servants (FAFICS), representing retirees, did not support the campaign.

    While we are very pleased with the General Assembly resolution, we will continue to focus our efforts on:

    • improving the timeliness of payments to new retirees, which while down to 8 weeks thanks to the pressure we have exerted, is still 6 weeks over target;

    • instituting a system of payment advances;

    • addressing underperformance of investments;

    • reviewing unnecessary and potentially damaging human resources practices at the fund; and

    • refreshing the fund’s leadership team, for which we look to the next Secretary-General for his support.

    We thank you for your support throughout this campaign, a campaign that has been the target of threats, personal attacks and the harassment of journalists by the fund’s leadership.

    We also take this opportunity to thank the staff of the fund for their seriously hard work despite the challenges they have faced from their management.

    We will continue to keep you updated on developments.

    Please reload

    Featured Posts

    The UN at 70!

    October 13, 2015

    The latest version of the Staff Union's TribUnion is out! !

    February 27, 2015

    Sign the Petition! Call for Pension Fund CEO and UN Secretary-General to Recognize the Votes of Staf...

    May 30, 2017

    1/9
    Please reload

    Recent Posts

    New CTSU President

    January 15, 2020

    Farewell...

    January 9, 2020

    New Committee elected

    June 20, 2019

    Out of office: Examining the relationship between stress and remote work

    October 1, 2018

    Recruiters in The Hague

    May 14, 2018

    Conspiracy of silence

    April 18, 2018

    MICT Staff Union addresses budget crisis with the Secretary-General

    January 30, 2018

    Pension Fund presentation available

    December 6, 2017

    Pictures of the final ICTY Staff Party

    December 5, 2017

    ICTY/MICT Staff Union participates in CCISUA mid-term meeting and lobbying in New York

    November 29, 2017

    Please reload

    Archive

    January 2020 (2)

    June 2019 (1)

    October 2018 (1)

    May 2018 (1)

    April 2018 (1)

    January 2018 (1)

    December 2017 (2)

    November 2017 (1)

    October 2017 (1)

    September 2017 (1)

    June 2017 (2)

    May 2017 (2)

    January 2017 (3)

    October 2016 (1)

    September 2016 (2)

    June 2016 (4)

    May 2016 (1)

    April 2016 (4)

    March 2016 (3)

    February 2016 (4)

    January 2016 (4)

    December 2015 (3)

    November 2015 (5)

    October 2015 (4)

    September 2015 (4)

    July 2015 (2)

    June 2015 (1)

    April 2015 (1)

    March 2015 (5)

    February 2015 (2)

    December 2014 (1)

    November 2014 (3)

    September 2014 (2)

    July 2014 (4)

    June 2014 (3)

    April 2014 (1)

    March 2014 (4)

    February 2014 (1)

    January 2014 (3)

    Please reload

    Home  >  News