| There is an ancient joke at the UN that goes : Question - How many people work in the UN | ||
| Secretariat? Answer - About half. In reality , high UN officials say, the number is much less. One | ||
| senior official told a reporter recently that about a quarter of the headquarters staff of 5,000 | ||
| performs conscientiously; the rest are 'passively resistant'. For that reason UN delegates, as well | ||
| 5 | as administration officials, find it hard to sympathize with a series of demonstrations that are now | |
| being staged by the union that represents the Secretariat staff. Few delegates paid attention when | ||
| 1,000 staff members marched around the building carrying placards demanding changes in the | ||
| UN's recruitment, promotion, and compensation policies. | ||
| Nonetheless, the men and women who work in the sleek, glass skyscraper on the East River | ||
| 10 | have many legitimate grievances. Their jobs are frustrating and their prospects depressing. | |
| Although the UN is dedicated to promoting justice, human rights, and social progress, it treats its | ||
| own employees with little regard for those principles. | ||
| UN regulations which are decreed by the General Assembly, require the Secretary-General to | ||
| recruit the staff on the basis of 'equitable geographical distribution.' To that end, each of the 7 | ||
| 15 | member nations has been allocated a quota of staff positions. In practice, that means UN jobs go | |
| not to the best qualified applicants but to those who come from countries with unfilled quotas. | ||
| And a number of those countries use the UN as a dumping ground for officials they don't want | ||
| at home. 'So much for the concept of an international civil service based on merit,' a staff | ||
| member said bitterly. | ||
| 20 | Competence and hard work do not ensure promotion because many of the better jobs are | |
| regarded as the exclusive preserve of certain countries. Mr Andreas Kahnert, a union official, | ||
| told reporters last week about a high-ranking statistician in the energy department of the | ||
| Secretariat who had to ask his colleagues what solid fuel was. 'It's no joke,' Mr Kahnert said. 'He | ||
| was hired because he comes from country X and that country's nationals have always held that | ||
| 25 | job.' In theory, the UN could fire incompetent employees, but that might offend governments. | |
| Apart from not being qualified, many employees who were hired because of political | ||
| considerations do not share the idealism that used to be the hall mark of UN civil servants. 'We | ||
| came here because we believed in internationalism,' said one of the more dedicated staff | ||
| members. 'Now more and more people are coming because they want a few years of the good | ||
| 30 | life in New York. It's terribly frustrating to work with these people.' | |
| The UN, for all its talk of equality among nations, has instituted a rigid caste system for its | ||
| own employees. Secretaries, clerks and manual workers come under the category of 'general | ||
| services' and their salaries range from $12,000 to $30,000 a year. Translators, editors, economists, | ||
| and so forth fall into the 'professional' category. Their salaries range from $75,000 and they get | ||
| 35 | many benefits not available to general service employees. | |
| Moreover, general service jobs are dead ends. Regardless of their qualifications, secretaries | ||
| and clerks are seldom promoted to the professional level, again because most of the professional | ||
| jobs are handed out according to 'equitable geographical distribution'. For years the staff uni on | ||
| has been pressing the UN to institute a career development system, but the administration has | ||
| 40 | dragged its feet, obviously for fear of antagonizing member nations. | |
| Vet it is the clerical and secretarial employees who keep the UN going, according to Mr | ||
| Lowell Flanders, former president of the staff union. 'They often carry the ball for some of these | ||
| dunderhead political appointees who don't know which end is up, and they realize they're | ||
| carrying the ball and not getting any credit, so it makes morale pretty low.' | ||
| The Guardian, November 28, 1982 |