Special post allowance (acting salary)

Introductory note. The staff regulations or rules of most if not all organizations provide that a staff member may be required to carry out temporarily, without extra remuneration, the duties of posts of a higher grade than his own. If, however, he carries out such duties for a specified time (or in some cases if the higher level duties are performed in field areas) additional pay is granted. This is generally known as special post allowance, or sometimes as acting pay. CCAQ has discussed this allowance as follows:

(1) At its 24th session (March l963: CO-ORDINATION/R.430, para. 95) CCAQ examined a study of organization practices with respect to special post allowance (COORD/CC/SO/54 and Add.l). It noted that there were many differences of detail, but none appeared to be so great that urgent action to eliminate them was necessary.

(2) At its 26th session (March l965: CO-ORDINATION/R.488, paras. 26-27) CCAQ re-examined the matter (see COORD/CC/SP/115) and concluded that there was as yet no basis for a common policy on such matters as criteria for determining when the allowance should be payable; the relation of special post allowance to promotion; length of the waiting period, if any; maximum duration of the allowance; practice to be followed where higher level duties were repeatedly performed for short periods. It was agreed, however, that "when a higher level of performance was recognized financially it should be done by giving all the financial entitlements of the higher grade rather than a flat-rate allowance". The additional payments would not be pensionable.

(3) In the context of a report to ICSC at its 21st (March 1984) session on promotion policy, CCAQ provided details on the number of staff in receipt of special post allowance (ACC/1984/PER/R.7)