Staff Rules v2

Secretary-General’s bulletin

ST/SGB/2023/1

1 January 2023

Under Article 101 of the Charter of the United Nations, the General Assembly establishes staff regulations which set out the broad principles of human resources policy for the staffing and administration of the Secretariat and the separately administered funds and programmes. The Secretary-General is required by the staff regulations to provide and enforce such staff rules, consistent with these principles, as the Secretary-General considers necessary

The Secretary-General, pursuant to staff regulations 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 12.4 and 12.5, promulgates the following with respect to the Staff Regulations and Rules^[1] of the United Nations effective as from 1 January 2023, and hereby promulgates the following with respect to the provisional Staff Rules, provisionally effective as from 1 January 2023..

Articles 8, 97, 100, 101 and 105 of the Charter of the United Nations, which relate to the service of the staff, are included in the introductory part of the present edition of the Staff Regulations and Rules, including provisional Staff Rules, on page 6.

Section 1

Provisional Staff Rules

1.1 The provisional Staff Rules introduce gender-inclusive language in accordance with resolution 72/147of 19 December 2017, in which the General Assembly reaffirmed the important role of UN-Women in leading, coordinating and promoting accountability of the United Nations system in its work on gender equality and the empowerment of women. Additional editorial changes were made to simplify and streamline the provisional Staff Rules, to improve the user-friendliness and clarity of the text, and to eliminate duplication.

1.2In provisional staff rule 1.2 (Basic rights and obligations of staff), paragraph (e),on specific instances of prohibited conduct, the reference to the marriage of a staff member with a person who is under the age of 18 but over the age of majority or consent in his or her country of citizenship was removed in line with General Assembly resolution 73/153 on child, early and forced marriage, in which the Assembly called upon States to develop and implement measures at all levels to end child, early and forced marriage.

1.3 New provisional rule 1.3 (Employment and accessibility for staff members with disabilities) was added. The provisional rule is in accordance with General Assembly resolution 73/273 and is based on the elements currently included in the Secretary-General’s bulletin on employment and accessibility for staff members with disabilities in the United Nations Secretariat (ST/SGB/2014/3).

1.4 Provisional rule 3.3 (Salary policy) was modified to ensure that salary steps in grade are determined in a consistent manner regardless of whether the staff member changes category, is appointed or is selected for a new position at a higher level within the same category.

1.5 New provisional rule 3.7 (Rental subsidy) was added for the purposes of additional consistency and clarity in the Staff Rules.

1.6 New provisional rule 3.16 (Deductions and contributions), paragraph (c), was added to provide a clearer basis on which the Organization may make voluntary deductions in accordance with the amounts reflected in family support court orders in cases in which staff members have failed to meet those obligations.

1.7 Provisional rule 4.4 (Staff in posts subject to local recruitment), paragraph (b), on the recruitment of National Professional Officers, reflects the increased flexibility in the use of National Professional Officers in accordance with the guidelines approved by the General Assembly in its resolution 72/255.

1.8 Provisional rule 6.3 (Parental leave) reflects a change in the parental leave entitlement pursuant to General Assembly resolution 77/256 to replace the current maternity, paternity and adoption leave provisions with a parental leave provision of 16 weeks for all parents; and to provide an additional period of 10 weeks for the parent who gives birth.

1.9 Provisional rule 7.2 (Official travel of staff members and their eligible family members), paragraph (c), allows staff members and their eligible family members to repatriate to either the place of recruitment or the recognized place of home leave, provided that the staff members hold an appointment other than a temporary one and regardless of the duration of their appointment of service with the Organization.

1.10 Provisional rule 7.3 (Dates, mode, route and standard of travel), paragraph (f), reflects that, for all official travel by air, the Deputy Secretary-General, the Under-Secretaries-General and the Assistant Secretaries-General and their eligible family members shall be provided with a standard of travel immediately below first class in accordance with General Assembly resolution 72/262B, unless economy class transportation is otherwise provided for under conditions established by the Secretary-General.

1.11 Under provisional rule 9.8 (Termination indemnity), paragraph (c), a termination indemnity is payable to staff members whose normal age of retirement is 60 or 62 and whose appointments are terminated as a result of abolition of posts or reduction of staff prior to their mandatory age of separation of 65 years. This is a direct consequence of implementing the new mandatory age of separation of 65 years effective 1 January 2018 as decided by the General Assembly in its resolution 70/244.

1.12 By its resolution 77/256, the General Assembly approved an update of the salary scale and pay protection points for staff in the Professional and higher categories, as set out in annex I to the Staff Regulations.

1.13 The salary scale and pay protection measures for staff in the Field Service category as set out in appendix A to the Staff Rules, were updated pursuant to General Assembly resolution 77/256.

Section 2

Final provisions

2.1 The provisional Rules shall remain provisional until the requirements of staff regulations 12.3 and 12.4 have been met.

2.2 The present bulletin supersedes Secretary-General’s bulletin ST/SGB/2018/1/Rev.2.