In early August, the International Civil Service Commission convened in Vienna to determine a “simplified, modernized, fit-for-purpose” compensation package for the United Nations system. Instead, the independent expert body, established by the U.N. General Assembly, presented a “complicated, pieced-together package,” according to one source close to the matter who wished not to be named.
A review meant to modernize the compensation system has “bowed to political pressure from certain member states bent on cutting costs,” U.N. Staff Union President Barbara Tavora-Jainchill told Devex.
While the proposal is sprinkled with a few positive aspects — mostly the unchanged parts, she said — if approved it would hit single parents hard, as well as geographically mobile staff, staff in the field and those with working spouses who currently receive supplemental income by virtue of their children.