The concept of "decent work" was created by Juan Somavia, in his first report as General Director of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 1999, and was introduced in response to the deterioration of workers' rights that occurred worldwide during the 90s.
.
The Thesaurus of the International Labour Organization (ILO) defines work as the set of human activities, paid or unpaid, that produce goods or services in an economy, or that meet the needs of a community or provide the necessary means of livelihood for individuals. Employment is defined as "work done in return for payment (salaries, wages, commissions, tips, piece-rate payments or payments in kind)" regardless of the dependency relation (if dependent-wage employment, or self-employment).
.
The employment contracts are the rules governing a labor relationship. The work contract has a mandatory minimum content established in which labor laws are highlighted.
Managers and staff from several country offices and Pan-American centers have been facing a very complex and difficult situation. Most of PAHO’s technical cooperation is conducted through the recruitment of professionals working under contracts known as National Professionals (NAP)/ Special Services Agreement for PAHO national professionals (SSA). When the different entities organize their work plans they also establish the human resources plan, (i.e., the organization of the workforce by entities.) Part of the resources used to fund the biennial work plan includes the hiring of people and includes these types of contracts (NAP/SSA
[1]).
Human Resources Management has requested the country offices managers to begin a process to change to these types of contracts and offered 3 options. Each option has different costs. One option is to create United Nations positions locally recruited (NO), another is to offer a UN temporary contract (STP), and the third is the Contract for Local Consultants (CCL). Obviously, the current budgetary and financial conditions do not allow much room to maneuver and offer the best type of contract to these people who have important responsibilities for delivery of technical cooperation for the Organization. In other words, a contract that provides minimum benefits and that aligns with the concept of “decent work."
We consider that managers are in an awkward situation because the transition to any of these 3 options offered, does not necessarily depend on the relationship of the individuals with the Office, or with the management, but mainly it is related to political, financial and legal reasons. We understand that the motivation to change is to avoid any appearance of a permanent labor relation, and raise expectations; even though the Organization enjoys immunity, national tribunals recognize that such privileges and immunities do not apply to labor relations.
As Staff Association we are concerned about:
- The manner and timing in which this measure has been introduced to country offices and Pan-American Centers. It would have been advisable to give these instructions when the entities were developing their biennial work plans;
- The lack of a systematic, planned and transparent process. A different approach would have given the opportunity to analyze specific situation I a country office and to better understand the national complexities for professional recruitment; and
- The option given to change from NAP/SSA to CCL, does not meet the standards described in the concept of decent work.
We must remember that significant progress has been made in providing benefits and improving working conditions for NAP/SSA, which are not applicable to this CCL contracts.
It is important that PAHO as a multilateral international organization specialized in health complies with the concept of decent work.
We voice the concerns expressed by our colleagues, managers and national professionals who are facing this situation and we call for the revision of this contractual option. We voice the concerns of those who were not consulted about this change and now they are in a difficult position to re-negotiate with the NAP/SSA a different type of contract; we convey the concern that HR did not open this subject to discussion to allow for contributions to identify new modalities of technical cooperation.
