RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/BFA/W/88
7 February 2003
(03-0822)
Committee on Budget, Finance and Administration
CONSOLIDATION OF TEMPORARY ASSISTANCE POSITIONS
IN THE REGULAR BUDGET
1. The constraints placed on the growth of the Organization’s budget combined with the
increasing demands for human resources to carry out the Organization’s programmes have resulted in
recent years in a significant growth in the use of temporary assistance funds to meet ongoing staff
costs, particularly in the support area.  The Committee on Budget, Finance and Administration wasalready apprised in the Budget Proposals fo r 2002 (WT/BFA/SPEC/63), Vol. 1, paragraph 10,
footnote 4) of the financial consequences relating to “the improvement of conditions of service for
temporary staff with more than four years of continuous service”.  This improvement in conditions of
service consists of offering such staff fixed-term contract conditions dependent upon fully satisfactory
service on short-term contracts.   There are currently 16 staff holding fixed-term contracts onpositions funded by the temporary assistance budget and a further 8 short-term staff are expected to
qualify for fixed-term status in the course of 2003.
2. Since the above staff hold fixed-term contracts, they enjoy exactly the same conditions of
service as fixed-term staff funded from the regu lar budget, except that they are not eligible for
consideration for regular contracts owing to the nature of their funding.  Their cost to the Organizationis thus exactly the same as it would be if they were funded from the regular budget.
3. Under the jurisprudence of the ILO Administrative Tribunal, temporary staff engaged on a
continuing basis to meet the ongoing needs of the Organization enjoy the right to continued
employment, provided that their performance remains satisfactory.  The Organization has decided to
grant fixed-term contracts to such staff, but the fact  that they are not eligible for a regular contract in
the same way as staff funded from the regular budget may leave the Organization open to legal
challenge.
4. It is, therefore, proposed that positions which have been funded from the temporary assistance
budget and which have been continuously occupied for a period of four years should be converted
into regular budget posts.  As is explained in paragraph 2, above, the cost of employing fixed-term
“temporary” staff is the same as the cost of employing fixed-term staff funded from the regular
budget.  The consolidation of these posts into the regular budget would therefore be cost-neutral, with
the amount involved simply being transferred from one budget heading to another.  If this proposal is
implemented, 16 posts would be consolidated into the regular staffing of the Organization
immediately and a further 8 by the end of 2003.
5. In this context, the Committee might consider the following draft recommendation to the
General Council:
The Committee recommends that the General Council approve the transfer of 24 posts subject
to fixed term contracts from the temporary assistance line to the regular staff cost line of the
WTO budget.  Bearing in mind that this reallocation of resources is cost-neutral, the
corresponding resources will be transferred between the appropriate budgetary sections.
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