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The contractual arrangements of the United Nations comprise three types of appointments: temporary, fixed-term and continuing. A continuing appointment is an open-ended appointment granted through established procedures in accordance with the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations.
Continuing appointments may be granted to eligible staff members on the basis of the continuing needs of the Organization and in accordance with the provisions of section VI of General Assembly resolution 65/247.
All staff in the Professional and higher categories, the Field Service category and the General Service and other related categories who meet the criteria below are eligible to be considered for a continuing appointment, except a) staff in any category currently serving in the ICTY and ICTR; and b) locally recruited staff members in the General Service or related categories (including National Professional Officers) currently serving in peacekeeping and special political missions.
In order to be eligible for consideration for a continuing appointment, a staff member must have met the following criteria, as at the eligibility date of a particular exercise:
· Appointed through a competitive process, including review by a UN Secretariat central review body;
· Completed five years of continuous service under a fixed-term appointment in the UN Secretariat and/ or in another organization of the UN common system governed by the UN Staff Regulations and Rules;
· A performance rating of “meets expectations” or equivalent in the most recent performance appraisal reports covering at least four years;
· No disciplinary measures in the last five years;
· At least seven years of service remaining before reaching the mandatory age of retirement.
No. There is no automatic right to a continuing appointment. Staff members must be reviewed in a continuing appointment review exercise. If there are a limited number of continuing appointments available for a given exercise year, the eligible staff members will be ranked and only the staff members ranked within the number of available appointments will be awarded a continuing
appointment. The remaining staff members may be considered for the following exercise year if they continue to meet the eligibility criteria.
The review of eligibility is Phase I of the exercise. If the number of continuing appointments to be awarded under a given post envelope is larger than the number of eligible staff members then those staff members recommended to be granted continuing appointments will be assessed by OHR to ensure that they continue to meet the eligibility criteria during the entire review period.
In the event the number of continuing appointments to be awarded under a given post envelope is smaller than the number of eligible staff members, then Phase II, the Point Allocation, will commence.
A continuing appointment is an open-ended appointment. Staff members remain, subject to satisfactory performance, for continued employment.
A continuing appointment can be terminated for unsatisfactory performance as well as for other reasons including abolition of a post, reduction in force, health reasons, and disciplinary reasons. The Secretary-General may terminate the appointment without the consent of the staff member if, in the opinion of the Secretary-General, such action would be in the interest of the good administration of the Organization.
As the continuing appointment review is a Secretariat-wide exercise, individual departments, office, missions, etc., are not allotted a given number of continuing appointments. The number of continuing appointments granted each year, if any, will depend on the calculation of the relevant post envelope in accordance with General Assembly in resolution 65/247 on Human Resources Management. There are two global post envelopes; one for the Professional and higher categories and Field Service category; and one for the General Service and related categories, including but not limited to Trades and Crafts, Language Teachers and Security Service category.
To find the continuing appointment menu, log on to inspira using your staff ID, navigate to Main Menu, select Self Service> Continuing Appointments> Continuing Appointments dashboard. Here you will be able to opt-in for consideration during the relevant dates and/or review and provide comments on your data.
You will not be able to access the continuing appointments menu if you do not have a staff account (i.e. you do not log in with your UN index number). If, after logging in as a staff member you are still having technical problems, send an e-mail through the ‘Contact us’ link on inspira.un.org outlining the issue.
In order to be eligible for consideration for the granting of a continuing appointment, staff members must have five years of continuous service on fixed-term appointment(s) under the United Nations Staff Rules and Regulations.
Periods of service on fixed-term appointments in another entity governed by the United Nations Staff Regulations and Rules prior to joining the United Nations Secretariat will be counted towards the qualifying service provided the service has been continuous.
Service in organizations that are not governed by the United Nations Staff Regulations and Rules will not count towards the eligibility criteria.
No. Time spent working under a temporary appointment does not count towards the five years of continuous service given that temporary appointments cannot be converted to fixed-term appointments. Staff members must separate from the Organization upon expiration of the temporary appointment and prior to re-appointment on a fixed-term contract. In this case, the count of qualifying years of service would begin on the start date of the fixed-term appointment.
Assignment of a staff member who holds a fixed-term appointment to a temporary job is a different situation and does not affect his/her continuity of service. Service is considered continuous until the expiration of their fixed-term
appointment. The period of the temporary assignment for any staff member must not exceed the expiry date of their fixed-term appointment.
Staff members who avail of special leave without pay (SLWOP) during the review process will not be disqualified on the basis of the SLWOP if they meet all the eligibility criteria. However, during the final review, if the staff member continues to meet the criteria listed under section 2.1(b), (e) and (f) of ST/SGB/2011/9 and a decision is made to grant a continuing appointment to a staff member who is on SLWOP, the continuing appointment will be granted only upon return to active service.
Disciplinary measures can take one or more of the following forms:
(a) Written censure; (b) Loss of one or more steps in grade; (c) Deferment, for a specified period, of eligibility for salary increment; (d) Suspension without pay for a specified period; (e) Fine; (f) Deferment, for a specified period, of eligibility for consideration for promotion; (g) Demotion, with deferment, for a specified period, of eligibility for consideration for promotion; (h) Separation from service, with notice or compensation in lieu of notice, and with or without termination indemnity; (i) Dismissal.
Any one of these constitute a disciplinary measure and means that the staff member does not meet the base eligibility criteria for a continuing appointment.
For staff members in the Professional and higher or in the Field Service category, the points will be allocated based on the following criteria, the details of which are stipulated in the Annex of ST/SGB/2011/9:
a) Each additional year of service beyond five years (prior to the eligibility date).
b) Performance rating.
c) Functional mobility for at least one year.
d) Proficiency in an official language of the UN other than one’s mother tongue.
e) Service in a hardship duty station for at least one year (continuous).
f) Service in a non-family duty station for at least one year (continuous).
g) Geographic mobility.
For staff members in the General Service and related categories, the points will be allocated based on the following criteria, the details of which are stipulated in the Annex of ST/SGB/2011/9:
a) Each additional year of service beyond five years (prior to the eligibility date).
b) Performance rating.
c) Functional mobility for at least one year.
d) Proficiency in an official language of the UN other than one’s mother tongue.
Inspira displays 2099 for the review year. As this is a combined exercise for 2016-2021, the year listed in inspira is a technical solution and will not impact the process of review.
If the staff member’s level appears to be different, this is likely due to the combined nature of the exercise. For example, if the staff member appeared to be potentially eligible in 2016 (i.e., had 5 years continuous service prior to 1 July 2016), then they were included on the list based on their 2016 information. It is possible that the staff member subsequently received a promotion. The staff member’s level does not factor into eligibility for a continuing appointment.
Yes. If a staff member comments on an eligibility requirement, inspira requires them to include an attachment. If the staff member does not wish to comment, they do not need to do so. We will still do a thorough HR review. Examples of documents staff members can attach to satisfy the technical requirement include: Copy of a PA, Screenshot from Umoja, Job Opening, or even a Word Document with their comments.
Due to the transfer of data from Umoja to inspira, the calculation of years of service is not correct in inspira. This is a known issue. The reviewing HR officer will confirm the EOD of the staff member and enter the correct Years of Service.
If a staff member would like to comment on this, they can again attach a screenshot of Umoja or include a Word document with their EOD.
If the Initial Criterion Satisfied already says “Yes”, the staff member does not comment. For this exercise, performance documents and the ratings are automatically included when available. Thus, some staff members will not need to comment on this criterion because their performance documentation in inspira already shows the necessary ratings.
Due to the transfer of data from Umoja to inspira, information in inspira may be incomplete. This is a known issue and an HR reviewer will ensure that each eligibility criteria is confirmed prior to decision. Staff members should attach supporting documents such as a screenshot of roster membership.
Due to the transfer of data from Umoja to inspira, information in inspira may be incomplete. This is a known issue and an HR reviewer will ensure that each eligibility criteria is confirmed prior to decision.
Due to the combined nature of the exercise, it is only possible to calculate the available continuing appointments for 2016. We will not know the number of appointments available for each subsequent year until we know how many staff members would be awarded a continuing appointment for the previous year. Thus, we will not have the ‘total’ number of available appointments. We are conducting a full eligibility review first, and then we will begin point allocation by year. Please refer to the Current Exercise page for details. All continuing appointments for 2016-2021 will be awarded in the fall of 2023.
We encourage you to review all of the FAQs and information available on the continuing appointments HR Portal page.
Should you continue to have questions, please email OHR-ContinuingAppointments@un.org
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