Other conditions

(1)     At the 20th session (1959: CO-ORDINATION/R.295, paras. 28-46) as a step towards the unification of conditions of service for short-term staff in Europe (i.e. staff engaged for less than one year) the Committee, with UNESCO reserving its position, adopted policies intended to cover conference and language staff recruited for service in Europe. The organizations were free to apply these policies also to other short-term staff.

Provision was made for two sets of conditions of service: employment for more than six weeks, and employment for six weeks or less. Conditions of service applicable to all short-term engagements were compiled. They deal with such matters as salaries, annual and sick leave, medical care, compensation in case of service-incurred illness, injury or death, exclusion from allowances and grants etc.

(2)     At its 23rd session (1962: CO-ORDINATION/R.391, paras. 89-100), CCAQ decided that pending the meeting of a working group which was to prepare standard conditions of contract the following provisions should be applied to temporary conference staff:

     (a)     salary during travel time: 50 per cent of the daily salary would be paid for the day preceding and for the day following the meeting, provided that the employee necessarily travelled on those days; that he travelled by the fastest means of transport; and received no salary for the same day from a third party;

     (b)     daily subsistence would be paid and travel standards allowed in accordance with the travel rules of the organizations concerned;

     (c)     termination clauses would be based on the principle that where the organizations terminated the employment prematurely (through no fault of the employee) and where no equivalent employment was offered by the organization or a third party, the following indemnities would be payable:

•      if termination took place more than thirty days before the beginning of contract: 50 per cent of the base salary set out in the contract;
•      if termination took place within thirty days of, or during, the period of the contract: 100 per cent of the base salary for the period not worked;

     (d)     organizations would apply their own practices as regards the maximum period of employment on daily rates. Certain organizations contemplated extension from one month to six weeks.

(3)     It was agreed at the same session (CO-ORDINATION/R.391, para. 113) that where regular staff were borrowed for short periods, such as for a conference, the lending organization would normally claim reimbursement at fixed rates (preferably the hiring rate for local short-term staff) and not at the actual pay and allowances of the loaned official.

(4)     See section 8.2, para. (9) regarding CCAQ discussion of health insurance for short-term staff.

(5)     At its 29th session (March 1968: CO-ORDINATION/R.669, paras. 75-76) CCAQ noted that discussions between a group of UN organizations in Europe (associated when necessary with some of the European inter-governmental organizations) and representatives of free-lance language staff had culminated in a decision by the executive committee of the International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC) to put certain proposals before its annual assembly on 12 March 1968. In the absence of any communication from AIIC regarding the outcome, CCAQ felt unable to reach any firm conclusions on the subject. It agreed that the group of organizations referred to above should continue the discussions when the position was clearer.

(6)     At its 29th session (March 1968: CO-ORDINATION/R.669, paras. 77-78) CCAQ agreed that there must be co-ordinated action to ensure that so far as possible the needs of all organizations for conference reinforcements were met by the optimum use of staff interpreters through inter-organization loans and by inter-organization pool arrangements for supplementary needs. Staff Office should carry out a study of the week-by-week requirements of organizations for conference interpreters in the various languages, and on the basis of that study organizations should work out details for a joint pool of additional permanent interpreters. The Geneva trainee-interpreter scheme should be encouraged and developed, and provided they reached a satisfactory standard the trainees should be retained in employment in an inter-agency pool if no vacancies existed for them in any one organization. These measures would not eliminate the need for substantial use of free-lance staff and the organizations should examine among other possibilities how far this could be met by contrat-cadre arrangements under which a selected group of free-lance staff would be guaranteed a certain number of days employment each year, if necessary with some kind of retaining fee. In connection with the problem of conference language staff, CCAQ recalled that in Part IX of its second report the ad hoc Committee of Experts drew attention to the need for rationalization of the programme of conferences.

(7)     The discussions between the organizations and AIIC referred to in para. (5) above resulted in a five-year agreement, effective 1 January 1969, covering conditions of service of conference interpreters in Europe (see CCAQ/SEC/21 and Circular Memorandum 43). At its 30th session (March 1969: CO-ORDINATION/R.733, para. 68 and Annex F) CCAQ agreed on a number of points of detail concerning application of this agreement. It also agreed upon conditions for interpreters in North America (see also CCAQ/SEC/37).

(8)     At the 37th session (March 1973: CO-ORDINATION/R.984, paras. 76-80) CCAQ discussed the provision of Chinese language staff.

(9)     In early 1974 CCAQ concluded new agreements with AIIC concerning short-term conference interpreters and the International Association of Conférence Translators (AITC) concerning short-term translators, précis-writers, editors and similar conference staff, the former for a 5-year period ending 31 December 1978 and the latter for a 3-year period ending 31 March 1976. The agreement concerning interpreters is reproduced in document CCAQ/SEC/326(PER).

(10)     Consultations were held between the CCAQ secretariat and representatives of AITC in 1985, 1986 and 1987 to discuss various aspects of conditions of service (see ACC/1985/PER/CM/2 and ACC/1986/PER/CM/7 and Rev.1 for details).