Staff employed by the World Trade Organisation have begun an industrial campaign against their bosses over a salary dispute. WTO staff met last week and unanimously decided that the Staff Council should formulate a strong action plan which would steadily escalate.
Workers at the WTO have now begun a work-to-rule regime based on the strictest adherence to work contracts - which includes a ban on all overtime.
The result is that there is little or no staff support for WTO Committee meetings, minimal translation and distribution of WTO documents and frequent interruptions to WTO computer and email systems because maintenance work is done during official working hours.
WTO Staff Circular
The WTO Staff Council have sent a circular to all WTO Members headlined - Crisis in the WTO - and pointing out that promises of a staff pay review have been reneged on, as well as discussing the effect of their industrial action on Committee Members.
The circular says that an independent study has found that WTO pay is 11% behind pay at similar organizations, including the UN.
There has been no real adjustment in pay for 12 years.
"The plain fact is that WTO pay is no longer competitive, No one should be surprised that staff morale is low, and that an increasing number of our staff are leaving because of uncompetitive work conditions," the WTO Staff Council circular says.
"The staff supports the Director-General's overall budget proposal. In particular, the staff supports the pay proposal for an average pay rise of 8%. The cost to the 145 WTO Members of the pay proposal would be less than $US 4.5 million" according to the circular.
"Key members of the Budget Committee reject the study and the Committee is poised to refuse the proposal" notes the Staff Council. "These Members are calculating that expanded Doha Development Agenda activities can be financed at the expense of eroding staff pay."
"If unchallenged, this approach will seriously jeopardize the operations of the WTO Secretariat, and the relationship of trust between Members and Staff," the WTO Staff Council circular concluded.
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