• Provide support to staff whose employment was affected by COVID-19.

• Advocate for E-VOTING to reduce risk of disease and empower staff.

• Take up the plight of "contract" workers in the UN.

• Fight against position abuse ("mission" tourism) and wasteful spending.

• Returned annual Children's Xmas Party to December 2019.

• Developed a proposal to reform a UN promotion system that would use "seniority" as the basis for promotion and "leave no one behind".

• Stopped wasteful proposal to purchase a ski "chalet" for high-ranking staff representatives.

• Provide ongoing counseling to staff on their contracts, work visas, debt management, promotion and other issues.

• Consulted Geneva staff on Council’s plans to purchase a vacation property in France or Switzerland. Implemented an online survey and reported results: 128 NO and 19 YES votes to the Council plenary. As a result, there is now more scrutiny with managing staff money.

• Obtained an agreement in principle from the UN administration to include a contractual clause for "UN Staff Fidelity Discount" in the call for bids for the new 2018 Palais des Nations catering contract. Finally, the UN staff who regularly dine in the cafeteria will be able to get a discount on their food and beverages purchases. 

• Took the lead to organize and participate in the meetings of the joint staff-management working group on Strategic Heritage Plan (SHP). It is only through constructive engagement with the Administration that our staff will benefit from a modern and healthy SHP workspace for many years ahead. We championed the "idea" that staff should have adequate sports facilities, including a fitness club and multi-purpose exercise space for yoga and table-tennis which now has become a reality in the architectural plans for SHP building "F". 

• Convinced a 25 member Staff Coordinating Council to -- for the FIRST TIME EVER -- engage an external auditor to review its financial accounts. As a result, a Geneva based accounting firm will conduct the first ever external audit of Council financial accounts for the period 2017-2018.

• Became members (or alternate members) of the Staff Benevolent Fund, SAFI and Joint Committee on Catering Services - to better serve the staff.

• Reached out to "forgotten" UN staff in "satellite" UN agencies in Geneva such as UNEP, UNITAR and UNDP. In many cases, these staff are being forced to join staff representative bodies they do not want to belong to. However, we should have FREEDOM OF CHOICE for all UN staff! As a result of our lobbying with the Polling Officers, we helped UNITAR staff become eligible to join the Staff Coordinating Council as well as to stand for elections for Council offices.

• Published and revealed for the first time to many that Staff Coordinating Council has more than CHF 2.4 million in the bank, while staff are continually being asked to pay for food and drink at various events organized "for them".

• Spearheaded effort to recoup US$22,700 from CCISUA owed to the Council for more than two years!

• Informed 4,000 UN staff in Geneva about the imminent deadline for UN "carte de légitimation" holders to apply for Swiss naturalization. Offered personalized help to numerous staff.

• Improved voting security for Coordinating Council elections (held every February) by requesting and obtaining from the Polling Officers that ballot boxes "overnight" in a secure Security room, and not in the "ordinary" UNOG office.

• For the first time ever requested 4-year "term limits" for top Coordinating Council positions as stipulated in the General Assembly resolution A/RES/51/226 II.12. of 25 April 1997.

 

MORE ACCOMPLISHMENTS COMING SOON…