Rule 110.1 Resignation
(a) A staff member may resign his post in
the General Secretariat by giving to the Secretary General the following advance notice:
(i) Sixty days for members of the career
service; and
(ii) Thirty days for other staff members.
The period of notice shall appear in the
staff member's contract.
(b) The Secretary General may accept the
resignation presented by a staff member on shorter notice if he considers that there is
sufficient reason.
Rule 110.2 Expiration of Contract and Other Non-Career
Appointments
(a) All contracts for a limited time shall
expire automatically, without notice on the expiration date specified in
them, and without indemnity, except as otherwise provided under Staff Rule
110.7.
(b) The termination of a staff member's
services during the probationary period is subject to the provisions of Rule 104.10.
(c) Separation from service as a result of
the expiration of any contract or any other non-career appointment shall not be regarded
as a termination within the meaning of the General Standards and the Staff Rules.
Rule 110.3 Retirement
(a) The Director of the Department of Human
Resource Services shall give a year's notice to all staff members who are about to reach age 65
and about to complete fifteen or more years of participation in the Retirement and Pension
Plan that at that age retirement shall be compulsory. At the same time, he shall initiate
the appropriate procedures with the Retirement and Pension Committee. In the event that
the Director of the Department of Human Resource Services fails to give such notice within at
least one year of the staff member's sixty-fifth birthday, the retirement shall not be
effective until one year from the date of said notice, unless the staff member otherwise
agrees.
(b) After receiving the notice referred to
in the preceding paragraph, and sufficiently in advance of his 65th birthday, a staff
member who joined the Retirement and Pension Plan before January 1, 1982, may request the
Committee to postpone his retirement, and the Committee may extend his services for
periods not exceeding a year at a time if the extensions are deemed beneficial to the
General Secretariat pursuant to Section V.2.c of the Plan.
(c) Retirement under the terms of the OAS
Retirement and Pension Plan shall not be regarded as a termination within the meaning of
the General Standards and Staff Rules.
Rule 110.4 Termination of Services
The Secretary General may terminate the services of a staff member:
(a) For prolonged illness or injury, whatever its
origin or nature, and for prolonged inability to perform job functions
satisfactorily due to illness or injury, whatever its origin or nature.
For the purposes of this paragraph, illness, injury, or inability to
perform job functions satisfactorily because of illness or injury shall be
considered to be "prolonged" when it exceeds 18 months in a
consecutive four-year period.
(b) When it is necessary to abolish a post, as a consequence of:
(i)
A reduction in force, or
(ii) The reorganization of an office of the General Secretariat.
Before terminating the services of a staff member for either of the
reasons mentioned in this paragraph, the procedures called for in Rule 110.6
must be followed.
(c) When the services of the staff member are unsatisfactory.
A staff member's services shall be considered unsatisfactory when so
revealed by two or more consecutive work performance evaluations made
pursuant to Rule 105.9.
(d) When he does not meet the requirements for service set forth in the
General Standards. It is understood that a staff member does not meet these
requirements if, inter alia, because of conduct not in keeping with
those Standards, two or more of the disciplinary measures contemplated in
Rule 111.1(b) (iii) and (iv) have been applied to him.
(e) When he has reached 65 years of age.
(f) When, in consultation with the Assistant Secretary General, the
Executive Secretaries, the Assistant Secretaries, and the staff member's
immediate supervisor, it is considered in the best interest of the
Organization. The staff member
concerned shall have the right to be heard by the Secretary General and
shall be entitled to all the benefits and indemnities to which he would be
entitled had his services been terminated for any of the other reasons
specified in this Rule.
Every staff member whose services are
terminated under this Rule shall be entitled to prior notice of the
effective termination date as follows:
(i)
For career staff members, the notice period shall be sixty days prior
to the effective termination date.
(ii)
For all other staff members, the notice period shall be no less than
seven days and no more than
sixty days prior to the effective termination date, as determined by the
General Secretariat and stated in the staff member’s Document of
Appointment.
(iii)
The notice period shall not be considered interrupted for any reason.
(iv)
In lieu of actual days of notice, the General Secretariat may instead
pay the Staff Member the salary and benefits that correspond to the days of
notice not given.
(v)
For all staff members under long term contracts as of December 31, 1999,
the termination period will be the same as that provided to members of the
career service.
Rule 110.5 Discharge for Serious Misconduct: Summary
Dismissal
(a) The Secretary General may summarily
dismiss any staff member for serious misconduct. The following circumstances, among
others, shall be considered as serious misconduct:
(i) Abandonment of post.
(ii) Deliberate false statements of a
serious nature related to his employment.
(iii) A repetition of the commission or
omission of acts that have already given rise to disciplinary measures.
(b) Serious misconduct may also consist of
any serious disrespect for the established norms of behavior recognized in the General
Secretariat; contempt for the terms of the loyalty oath; acts of moral turpitude or
conviction of a felony in the courts of the duty station; any act of harm, calumny, or
physical aggression against the General Secretariat or its authorities, or conduct
intended to ridicule or discredit them; and any act or omission that could seriously harm
the interests or objectives of the General Secretariat, or any other similar act or
omission on the part of the staff member which makes manifest the incompatibility of his
continued service.
(c) The procedure for summary dismissal
shall consist of giving a hearing to the staff member accused of having committed the
misconduct and to the other persons connected with the case, in which the staff member
shall be given the opportunity to respond to the charges against him and asked to show
cause as to why he should not be summarily dismissed. The Director of the Department of
Human Resource Services shall initiate the process by informing the staff member of the charges
against him with at least 24 hours' prior notice. The hearing may be conducted before the
Secretary General himself or the staff member whom he designates in each case. Based on
the hearing, the Secretary General may decide to order the summary dismissal of the staff
member; refer the matter to the Joint Disciplinary Committee for recommendations regarding
the imposition of a lesser sanction; proceed to separate the staff member from service
pursuant to Rule 110.4(f); or dismiss the charges. The Director of the Department of Human
Resource Services shall attempt to communicate the corresponding decision to the staff member
within 48 hours after it has been taken.
(d) Persons separated from service under
this Rule shall not be entitled to the repatriation grant, a termination indemnity, or the
advance notice provided under Rule 110.4.
(e) A staff member who is summarily
dismissed may appeal that action by requesting Reconsideration as provided under Chapter
XII of these Rules and by subsequently filing a Complaint as contemplated by the Statute
of the Administrative Tribunal.
Rule 110.6 Reduction in Force
(a) Reduction in force is understood to
mean the termination of services of one or more staff members because the number of
authorized posts for an office of the General Secretariat has been reduced.
(b) The number of authorized posts may be
reduced only when budgetary appropriations or allocations have been reduced, when the
functions pertaining to a particular post or posts no longer exist, or when it is
necessary to reorganize an office of the General Secretariat.
(c) For the purposes of this Rule,
reorganization of an office shall be understood to mean the redistribution or elimination
of functions assigned to that office within the General Secretariat, so that certain posts
become unnecessary.
(i) The term "office" shall be
understood to mean the unit equivalent to a Department in which the staff member whose
post is eliminated is assigned; in the case of a staff member assigned to the Offices of
the General Secretariat in the Member States, it is that Office; in the case of a staff
member assigned to unit directly managed by an Executive Secretary, Assistant Secretary,
the Assistant Secretary General, or the Secretary General, it is that unit.
(ii) In a reorganization, the total number
of posts in an office may decrease, remain constant, or increase; changes in functions or
the distribution of functions may require the elimination of one or more posts and the
creation of new posts with different functions or requiring different skills or skill
levels within the affected office.
(d) The abolition of posts does not
necessarily imply a reduction in the number of staff members.
(e) When a reduction in force is necessary,
members of the career service shall be given preference over other staff members to
continue in service.
(f) An office affected by a reduction in
force shall follow this preliminary procedure:
(i) It shall determine the post or posts
that are to be abolished.
(ii) If there is a vacant post within the
same office, preference shall be given to abolishing it. If this is not possible, the
vacant post shall be offered to the staff member whose post is being abolished, provided
that the vacant post is not at a higher grade and that he meets the requirements to
perform its duties.
(iii) In the event that there is no vacant
post within the same office, or that the staff member affected does not meet the
requirements for it, the chief of that office shall so inform the Secretary General and
the staff member affected.
(g) Thereupon the Department of Human
Resource Services shall take the following steps:
(i) It shall prepare a list with the names
of all the staff members affected, indicating the grade of each.
(ii) It shall suspend all action on
appointments to vacant posts calling for minimum qualifications that might be met by staff
members affected by the reduction.
(iii) It shall prepare and publish a list
of vacant posts in the General Secretariat, with an indication of the grade of each, so
that the staff members affected may inform themselves of the job descriptions and other
data pertinent to the vacant positions.
(h) Members of the career service whose
posts are affected by the reduction in force shall be offered vacant posts of a grade
equal to the ones abolished, provided that they meet the minimum requirements for these
posts. In the offers made in accordance with this provision, priority shall be given, when
all other conditions are equal, to members of the career service in order of seniority in
that service.
(i) If a career staff member is not placed
in a vacant position in accordance with paragraph (h) above, the following procedures
shall apply:
(i) The staff member affected may displace
another who holds a post of the same grade, provided that he meets the requirements for
that post and that, other conditions being equal, he has more seniority in the career
service. The staff member displaced may, in turn, displace another holding a post of the
same grade, under the same terms, and so on successively.
(ii) If a staff member affected cannot be
transferred to another post of the same grade in accordance with the provisions of the
preceding subparagraph, he shall be offered vacant posts of a lower grade, beginning with
the immediately inferior grade, provided that he meets the minimum requirements for the
post. If there is no vacancy that can be offered him, or if he does not accept the offer,
his services shall be terminated.
(j) Staff members who are separated from
service after the provisions of paragraph (i) above have been complied with shall be
entitled to preference, within two years thereafter, and in order of seniority, to be
appointed to posts of a grade equal to or lower than those they previously held that
become vacant or are established subsequently, provided that they are qualified for the
posts involved. This provision shall not apply in cases in which the staff member has
received indemnity under a judgment handed down by the Administrative Tribunal.
(k) When a reduction in force (“RIF”) must
be made, the Secretary General, in consultation with the Staff Committee,
shall appoint a Committee (the “RIF Committee”) to advise him in the cases
referred to in paragraphs (h) and (i) of this Rule 110.6.
(i)
The RIF Committee shall contain, at a minimum, the following five members,
all of whom must be staff members of a grade no lower than P-5:
(A) A
representative from the Office of the Secretary General or a representative
from the Office of the Assistant Secretary General;
(B) A
representative from the Department of Legal Affairs and Services;
(C) A
representative from a Department or Executive Secretariat not included in
any Office or Department listed in (A) – (B), above;
(D) A
representative from a Department or Executive Secretariat not included in
any Office, Department, or Executive Secretariat listed in (A) – (C), above;
and
(E) A
representative from a Department or Executive Secretariat not included in
any Office, Department, or Executive Secretariat listed in (A) – (D), above.
(ii)
The Director of the Office of Human Resource Services shall be an ex-oficio
member of the Committee.
(iii)
The Inspector General and the President of the Staff Committee (or his/her
representative) may attend all RIF Committee meetings as observers.
(iv)
The Secretary General may appoint additional members of the RIF Committee,
all of whom must be at the P-5 grade level or higher and none of whom may be
from any of the Offices, Departments, or Executive Secretariats listed in
(A) through (E), above.
(v)
The Secretary General may appoint alternates for the Committee members;
provided, however, that all such alternates shall be at the P-5 grade level
or higher and shall be appointed in consultation with the affected Committee
member. There shall be no more than one alternate from each Office,
Department, or Executive Secretariat listed in (A) through (E) above.
(l) The advisory committee shall have at
its disposal the dossiers of the staff members that it considers pertinent and shall make
any recommendations that it deems appropriate to settle the cases presented to it as
fairly and equitably as possible.
(m) Staff members affected by the reduction
in force shall have access during the entire procedure provided for in this rule to the
job descriptions of posts of the same grade as those they hold.
Rule 110.7 Termination Indemnity
(a) Except as provided in paragraph (d) below, members of the career
service and all other staff members with more than three years of continuous
service under contracts for a limited time are entitled to a separation
indemnity upon separation from service, in accordance with the following provisions:
(i) Career
staff members shall receive an indemnity of one month of basic salary per
year of service up to a maximum of nine months.
(ii) The maximum separation indemnity payable to a staff member who is
contracted under a contract for a limited time shall be six months of basic
salary, and shall be computed as follows:
a.
When the contract expires without renewal, one week of basic salary
for each year served; and
b.
When the contract is terminated prior to its expiration date, one
month of basic salary for each year remaining until the expiration date, and one week of basic salary for each
year of service.
(iii) A Staff
member whose long term contract began before January 1st, 2000
and has since been renewed without interruption
may, upon separation from service, choose
between the separation indemnity provided under Staff Rule 110.7 and
Article 57 (d) of the General Standards effective as of December 31
1999, and the separation indemnity provided for under this Rule.
(b) The indemnity shall be calculated on the salary on the date on which
the staff member's services are terminated.
For purposes of indemnity, periods of six months or more after the
first year shall be considered a full year.
(c) The amount of accumulated service shall include the total period of
continuous service rendered by the staff member to the General Secretariat,
whatever his type of appointment. Continuity of service shall not be
considered interrupted because the staff member has had one or several
periods of special leave without pay or with partial pay.
However, when these periods have exceeded one month, the leave shall
not be credited as time of service in calculating any indemnity; on the
other hand, periods of less than one month shall not be deducted from the
time of accumulated service.
(d)
No indemnity shall be paid to a staff member when this is prohibited
by the General Standards and, specifically, in the following cases:
(i)
When his services are terminated during the probationary period, in
accordance with Rule 104.10;
(ii)
When he resigns;
(iii)
When a staff member's appointment to a position of trust is
terminated by the Secretary
General or expires, in accordance with Staff Rule 104.1 (a) (iii);
(iv) When a staff member under a contract for a limited time is separated
from service by way of termination or expiration of contract before
completing more than three years of continuous service under contracts for a
limited time;
(v) When he is dismissed for serious misconduct; or
(vi) When he is retired in accordance with the provisions
for compulsory retirement of the
Retirement and Pension Plan.
Rule 110.8 Repatriation Grant
The Secretary General shall establish the
table of payments for the repatriation grant in accordance with the scale and conditions
specified below.
(a) The repatriation grant shall be paid to
staff members whom the General Secretariat is obligated to repatriate. The repatriation
grant shall not be paid, however, to a staff member who is summarily dismissed. The amount
of the grant shall be as follows:
|
Weeks
of basic salary |
Full
years of continuous service away from home country |
Staff member
without dependent spouse or dependent child |
Staff member
with dependent spouse or dependent child |
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12 or more |
2
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14 |
4
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
26
28 |
For purposes of calculating the grant, any
period of service of six months or more after the first year shall be considered a full
year.
(b) The term "obligated to
repatriate" used in paragraph (a) shall refer to the obligation to return a staff
member and his dependents, upon separation, to a place outside the country of his duty
station at the expense of the General Secretariat.
(c) For the purposes of this Rule,
"home country" shall mean the country to which the staff member is entitled to
travel in accordance with Rule 106.4.
(d) If at any time it is determined that
the staff member has acquired permanent residence in the country of his duty station and
subsequently changed from such status, his continuous service will be deemed to have
commenced at the time he last changed his immigration status. Continuity of service shall
not be considered broken by periods of special leave without pay or with partial pay.
However, if these leave periods are for one or more full months, they shall be deducted
from the total credited service for purposes of the repatriation grant. Periods of less
than one full month shall not be deducted.
(e) The repatriation grant shall not be
payable to a staff member of the general services category, unless he was recruited
internationally; to a staff member who abandons his post; or to a staff member who at the
time of separation from service is residing in his home country while performing his
official duties. However, a staff member who after service at a duty station outside his
home country is transferred to a duty station within that country shall, upon separation,
receive all or part of the repatriation grant, as the Secretary General may establish.
(f) For the purposes of this Rule,
dependents shall be the spouse and children for whom the staff member is receiving a
dependency allowance on the date of his separation. The repatriation grant shall be paid
at the dependency rate to staff members with dependents, regardless of the dependents'
place of residence.
(g) If both husband and wife are staff
members and at the time of separation from service both are entitled to payment of a
repatriation grant, each of them shall receive the grant to which he or she is entitled
under the scale set for staff members without dependents. However, when the General
Secretariat recognizes the existence of dependent children, the parent who is first
separated from service may claim payment of the repatriation grant according to the scale
set for staff members with dependents. In this event, the second parent, on separation,
may claim payment of the repatriation grant on the scale provided for staff members
without dependents for the period of qualifying service rendered after the separation of
the spouse, or, if eligible, at the rate for staff members with dependents for the whole
period of his qualifying service, from which the amount of the repatriation grant paid to
the first parent shall be deducted.
(h) The loss of entitlement to repatriation
travel expenses in accordance with Rule 108.4 shall not affect the right to the
repatriation grant.
(i) In the case of the death of a staff
member entitled to repatriation grant, this grant shall be paid only to the surviving
spouse and/or to the dependent children, in equal parts. If only one of these survives,
payment shall be made in accordance with the scale for staff members without dependents.
If two or more survive, payment shall be made in accordance with the scale for staff
members with dependents.
(j) In the case of staff members who joined
the General Secretariat on or after July 1, 1983, the repatriation grant shall be paid
only upon substantiation that the staff member or his/her surviving spouse and/or dependent
children, in accordance with the previous paragraph, actually returned to the country to
which he/she is entitled to be repatriated during the six months following his/her separation from
service.
A former staff member shall substantiate his/her return to the
country to which he/she is entitled to be repatriated by presenting documentary
evidence of having established residence in that country. That evidence
shall include an affidavit by the immigration, police, tax, or other
appropriate authorities of the country, by the Director
of the Office of the General Secretariat in that
country (or in his/her absence, such other official
designated by the Director of the Department of Human Resources), or by the former staff member’s new employer. Other evidence, in
conjunction with an affidavit from an appropriate authority mentioned above,
may be required, including, but not limited to, copies of leases and/or
ownership of real estate in the home country and the sale of real estate in
the former duty station. The fact that the former staff member has
exercised the entitlement to repatriation travel and
the entitlement to the
removal of household goods or to the transportation of personal effects, as
appropriate, can constitute supporting evidence of relocation, but it is not
sufficient to itself. Such documentary evidence should be submitted to the
Director of the Department of Human Resources.
Rule 110.9 Restitution of Advance Annual and Sick Leave
Upon separation, a staff member who has
taken advance annual and sick leave beyond that which he has subsequently accrued shall
make restitution for the excess by means of a cash refund or an offset against monies due
to him from the General Secretariat. This reimbursement or offset shall be equivalent to
the remuneration received, including allowances and other payments, for the period of
excess leave. The Secretary General may waive this requirement if, in his opinion, there
are exceptional or compelling reasons for so doing.
Rule 110.10 Last Day for Pay Purposes
(a) At the time of his separation from
service, a staff member shall receive the salary, allowances, and benefits to which he is
entitled in accordance with the following provisions:
(i) Upon resignation, the date shall be
either the date of expiration of the notice period or such other date as the Secretary
General accepts. Staff members shall continue to perform their duties during the notice
period, except when the resignation takes effect upon the completion of maternity leave or
following sick or special leave. During the notice period, annual leave will be granted
only for brief periods.
(ii) In the case of a contract, the last
day of service shall be the expiration or termination date specified in it.
(iii) In the case of termination of
services, the date shall be that indicated in Rule 110.4.
(iv) In the case of retirement, the date
shall be that decided upon by the Retirement and Pension Committee.
(v) In the case of summary dismissal, the
date shall be that established by the Secretary General.
(vi) In the case of death, the staff
member's salary, allowances, and other benefits to which he would have been entitled shall
be paid up to the date of death, unless there is one or more surviving dependents. In that
event the education grant shall be extended in accordance with Rule 103.18(b) and the
other benefits shall be maintained until the date determined in accordance with the
following table:
Full years of
service |
Months of
extension beyond
date of death |
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9 or more |
1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9 |
For the purposes of this subparagraph any
period of service of six months or more after the first year shall be considered a full
year.
Payments for the period of extension beyond
the date of death may be made in a lump sum as soon after death as pay accounts and
related matters can be closed. Such payments shall be exclusive of any allowances or
cost-of-living or post adjustment and shall be calculated according to the salary scales
in effect at the date of death. All other entitlements and accrual of benefits shall cease
on the date of death.
(b) When an internationally recruited staff
member is entitled to repatriation travel, the last day for pay purposes shall be the date
established in subparagraphs (i), (ii), (iii), or (iv) of paragraph (a) above, but he
shall be paid one day more for the return trip.
Rule 110.11 Certification of Service
Any staff member who so requests shall, on
leaving the service of the General Secretariat, be given a certificate stating the nature
of his duties and the length of his service. On written request, the certificate shall
also refer to the quality of his work and to his official conduct.
