It is possible that a family duty stations could be designated for rest and recuperation purposes. However, only the staff member would be entitled to rest and recuperation travel. There is no entitlement for R&R travel for family members.
While travel will be provided to the R & R destination, staff members may choose to travel to any other location, however any additional costs of the deviation would be at the staff member’s expense. Where UN transportation is provided to the designated R & R location, any travel to another location would be entirely at the staff member’s own expense.
The harmonized rest and recuperation scheme for international staff as well as international UN Volunteers includes:
Paid travel by the least expensive and most direct route to a designated R & R location. Where UN transportation is available, it will be provided to staff free of charge and no payment for travel costs will apply.
Five consecutive calendar days not charged to annual leave and an appropriate number of calendar days for travel time to the designated R & R location.
R & R cycles and designations are harmonized within the UN common system.
As provided in section 5 of the Administrative Instruction on the Mobility and hardship scheme (ST/AI/2011/6), the additional non-family hardship allowance shall be payable to eligible staff members who are assigned to duty stations designated as non-family from the beginning of their assignment and for the duration of their assignment to those locations.
Yes, staff on Temporary Appointments are eligible for the non-family hardship allowance.
No. Only eligible staff assigned to duty stations with non-family designation receive the new hardship allowance. When a staff member is assigned to a family duty station, the organization has not restricted travel of family and thus this is the personal choice of the staff member. In cases where the family does not join, the staff member may avail of Family Visit travel.
This is in recognition of the fact that a single staff member has less liabilities in maintaining a second household.
The non-family hardship allowance is equivalent to the applicable dependency rate of hardship allowance in a category “E” duty station for staff with dependents, and half of the applicable single rate of the hardship allowance in a category “E” duty station for staff paid at the single rate. As is the case with the mobility and hardship allowances, the amount of the non-family hardship allowance will vary depending on dependency status and grade level.
The non-family hardship allowance is to compensate for the added financial burden and psychological hardship of keeping a second household and being away from family.
The Secretary-General’s bulletin ST/SGB/2003/14 details the Secretariat-wide policy, it applies to all nursing mothers of infants under one year of age and is not linked to national staff status. It is one of the rather straightforward policies, though local conditions in terms of facilities (“pump-room”, cold storage, etc.) may vary outside HQ and Offices away from HQ (UNON, UNOV, UNOG) and Regional Commissions).
