United Nations staff in Geneva have called a strike for Friday after winning backing from 90 percent of more than 1,000 employees who cast ballots, the staff council said. The rare move will shut down the Human Rights Council and other meetings held at the U.N. European headquarters in the Swiss city, it said on Thursday.
Angry U.N. staff in Geneva began protesting last May against a 7.5 percent cut to their salaries, the equivalent of almost a month’s pay, which has now taken effect for professional level staff.
The salary cut was proposed by the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), a group of independent experts, which surveyed the cost of living in eight U.N. locations. It said the cut for Geneva-based staff would align them with colleagues in New York, where purchasing power has dropped.
“The first day of strike is tomorrow (Friday)...Please therefore stay at home,” read an email to staff from the staff council, seen by Reuters on Thursday after ballots were counted. No demonstration was planned and work was to resume on Monday, it added.
“The results of the vote are hugely positive and show your courage in saying a big NO to efforts by the ICSC and our employer to weaken our conditions of service, in an arbitrary manner. You also said NO to intimidatory emails from management,” the staff council said.
U.N. officials said that some events including the main news briefing were being maintained but had no other details. Ahead of Thursday's vote, the head of the UN in Geneva, Michael Moller, attempted to dissuade a new strike. He stressed that the UN "recognises and respects your freedom of association".
But he pointed out that UN staff were "international civil servants bound by the Staff Regulations and Rules." "We are all reminded that the Staff Regulations and Rules provide no basis for staff members to be absent from work because of a work stoppage or strike," he said.
Richards slammed Moller's message as an attempt at "intimidation", which he said had backfired.
"The feedback we received is that the intimidatory email from management backfired and swayed those who were sitting on the fence in favour of the strike," he said, adding there could be more strikes on the horizon.
"The first strike day is tomorrow, with plans to escalate if the meeting of the International Civil Service Commission, in New York next week, does not address the pay cut," he said, referring to a body that governs UN employees, and which has ordered deep cuts to pay and benefits for many staff around the globe.
A letter sent by the unions to UN chiefs last month charged there had been a "substantial deterioration in the employment conditions of UN staff around the world, caused by ICSC's findings, recommendations and decisions."
UN employees are considered among the highest paid civil servants in the world, but the ICSC-mandated cuts will be painful in pricy Geneva, the unions say. Staff stationed in a number of other countries will take an even heavier blow.
According to the unions, the most recent ICSC decisions include 10-percent cuts in Bangkok and 25 percent in Tokyo.
The stoppage is part of a global campaign and strikes and other actions are being voted on elsewhere too.
