GB.268/PFA/8 - Governing Body

ILO is a specialized agency of the United Nations

GB.268/PFA/8
268th Session
Geneva, March 1997

Programme, Financial and Administrative Committee

PFA

EIGHTH ITEM ON THE AGENDA

Amendments to the Staff Regulations

Selection procedures and the Selection Board

Introduction

1. As part of an overall effort to reform personnel policies and procedures and align them with the Organization's objectives and activities, the Director-General has called for changes in the recruitment and selection rules and procedures. While recognizing that personnel questions encompass a broad range of interrelated issues and that reforms of recruitment and selection procedures involve action on many fronts, including organizational policy objectives, human resource planning, prospection and assessment of competence, the Director-General considers that changes in the existing recruitment and selection procedures are critically important and urgent for the Office at this time. He proposes to modify the existing procedures by way of circulars, which would suspend certain articles of the Staff Regulations, as set out in Appendix I. The new procedures would be in force for a trial period of two years, after which the Director-General would report to the Governing Body through the Programme, Financial and Administrative Committee on the need to confirm or modify the changes. Definitive amendments to the Staff Regulations are consequently not being proposed at this stage, but since the proposed changes would imply the suspension of the relevant current provisions of the Staff Regulations, the matter is being submitted to the Committee and to the Governing Body for approval.

2. The present system was established in 1981.⁽¹⁾ Its purpose was to introduce uniform and more equitable methods of recruiting and selecting staff through the establishment of a central body, the Selection Board. The Board, composed of four titular and a number of substitute members, was to fulfil a dual function: first, to propose the method for filling a vacancy (transfer, internal competition, internal/external competition, or limited cases of appointment without competition) and second, to process candidatures and recommend specific candidates to the Director-General. The four titular members were composed of one from the Personnel Department, one nominated by the Staff Union Committee and two independent members nominated jointly by the Personnel Department and the Staff Union Committee. Individual panels for individual competitions were to be set, drawing on titular members and substitute members in the same balance as above.

3. The initial establishment of the Selection Board was approved for a two-year trial period. It was reviewed in 1983, 1984, and again in 1986, when the amendments to the Staff Regulations establishing the new system were confirmed.⁽²⁾ The main issues discussed over this period were the role of the programme manager in the Selection Board, the balance of career prospects for serving staff and external recruitment and whether the new system helped the Office to attain its overall recruitment objectives.

4. The Director-General recognizes that the Selection Board has served a very useful purpose since its inception in 1981 by streamlining certain procedures and by ensuring equity and transparency and allowing for staff participation in a crucial area of personnel policy. He also recognizes the hard work and time that members of the Board devote to its activities. He has no intention of dismantling the Board and believes that its functions should continue and that there is a place for staff participation on the Board.

5. After carefully reviewing the Board's operations over the past three years, however, the Director-General has concluded that several critical issues need to be addressed. His overriding concern is to ensure that whatever process is in place provides for the timely selection of high quality staff that meet the needs of the Office. The main issues relate to the role of programme managers in the selection process, the ability to recruit top quality staff within a reasonable time-frame, the continued adequacy of the rules and regulations to deal with new forms of programme delivery (special projects and teams, action programmes, mobility and Active Partnership Policy, etc.) and the adaptability required of any recruitment system to meet special needs and to take account of Office-wide matters such as age and grade structures, sex and nationality distribution.

6. The Director-General considers that over the past few years the Board has not functioned at an optimal level, and both structural and procedural changes are required. The interpretation of the rules and regulations has become more rigid rather than more flexible as the Office has moved through various reforms and adjustments. Full consultation of programme managers has not been achieved, and the Director-General is concerned that this is compromising efforts to upgrade the quality of ILO services. Managers who are responsible for the execution of a programme and who understand the requirements and competences of a job have a limited role in assessing all candidates and are only able to engage in a dialogue on the candidates with the panel once it has reached its conclusions. In addition to the limited role of programme managers, provisions in the Staff Regulations that were developed at the outset to provide some latitude to the Director-General for direct selection in cases of urgency, of highly specialized jobs or for temporary positions, or to meet certain recruitment criteria, have been called into question with increasing frequency, affecting staff-management relations in the Office. The understanding that existed on the part of staff representatives in the early years of the Board's operations for the use of direct selection -- for example, to help meet policy objectives⁽³⁾ -- has not withstood the test of time. Moreover, an earlier agreement on the direct recruitment of young professionals, mainly from under-represented and unrepresented States, with a preference for women, is also being rejected.

7. Other aspects of the current system have become outmoded as regards new developments in programme delivery. If the Active Partnership Policy is to succeed, transfers at the same grade, without competition, although possible under the present rules, will have to be a normal method to ensure the mobility of staff. Work on special projects, programmes or teams has increased and there is a widespread view among programme managers, based on experience, that the existing time-limit for temporary fixed-term staff for two years is too restrictive. In addition, the Director-General is concerned at the amount of time needed in the current system. The competition procedure consists in opening individual competitions for each vacancy. Whereas strictly internal moves can take two to four months, internal/external competitions can last more than 12 months, sometimes longer, depending on the availability of candidates. While he has accepted some recommendations for accelerating the processes which have been put forward jointly by the Personnel Department and the staff representatives, the Director-General believes that a more far-reaching change in the selection process is required as regards external recruitment.

Proposed changes

8. The reforms of the recruitment and selection procedures have been based on a number of underlying principles. First, the Director-General recognizes that the ILO is a career service and there should be promotion from within. For the General Service staff, external recruitment should to the extent possible be limited to entry-level positions. As regards the Professional staff, the Director-General believes that there needs to be a reasonable balance between internal selection and external recruitment. Training programmes are important for career development for serving staff, but these cannot alone suffice to justify every vacancy to be filled internally. A second major principle concerns the role of management in the evaluation of staffing needs and competences. The Director-General believes that programme managers are the most qualified to judge the technical competence of candidates, and whether they meet the needs of the programme over time. The Personnel Department should also be involved to ensure compatibility with Office-wide personnel policy objectives. The Director-General, however, recognizes that programme managers should not have the only and final word on external recruitment. Safeguards, compatible with civil service systems worldwide, will therefore be put in place. These would include internal rules and guidelines and interview panels incorporating specialists in a given field and the Personnel Department, as well as the oversight function of the Selection Board. A third set of principles relates to the questions of equity, equal treatment and transparency in the recruitment and selection process. The Director-General firmly believes in these and intends to maintain them. For this reason the proposals below give an oversight responsibility to the Selection Board for external recruitment and leave intact the current system for internal movements. Moreover, he envisages fixing a set of guidelines for written exams and interview panels for external candidates. The Personnel Department will be fully involved in these processes. Full reports with detailed justifications will be submitted to the Board.

9. The specific changes proposed are summarized below in the order in which they appear in the Staff Regulations (see Appendix I for the specific changes and Appendix II for the existing text of the Staff Regulations):

(a) extend the limit of temporary and highly-qualified fixed-term contracts from two years to four years (article 4.2(e)), with a provision that would genuinely limit further extensions as a safeguard to prevent bypassing recruitment procedures foreseen for staff with career potential;

(b) extend the possibilities of using direct selection, notably for transfers in the same grade and the appointment of young officials (article 4.2(f));

(c) enlarge the role of the programme manager in the selection process and provide him/her full access to all information in internal competitions and an opportunity to dialogue with the Selection Board at each step of the selection process (Annex I, paragraph 12 of the Staff Regulations);

(d) establish new procedures for external recruitment so that the evaluation and selection of external candidates will be the joint responsibility of the technical department concerned and the Personnel Department, assisted where necessary by other experts in the discipline, rather than the responsibility of the Selection Board (paragraph 14 of Annex I of the Staff Regulations). The Selection Board will maintain an oversight function to ensure transparency and fairness; a complete report by the technical department and the Personnel Department on the procedures followed and recommendations will be submitted to the Director-General through the Selection Board.

10. The above proposed changes are being and will continue to be accompanied by a series of internal measures. Certain measures concern enhanced prospection activities, which are being put in place with the new prospection and recruitment specialist in the Personnel Department, strengthened staff planning activities, and assistance in job design, evaluation and interview techniques. Broader human resource development issues will continue to be the subject of consultations between the Personnel Department and the Staff Union Committee, as proposed on a number of occasions by the Director-General and as recently requested by the staff representatives.

Consultations with staff representatives

11. The Director-General is aware of the importance that the staff attach to the procedures for recruitment and selection, and he therefore wanted the Staff Union Committee to be fully associated with the reforms. The Director-General first consulted the Staff Union Committee in May 1995 to review a broad range of personnel issues and invited them to work with the Personnel Department to submit proposals by the end of that year on recruitment and selection issues. A series of informal meetings were held in the second half of 1995 between the Personnel Department and the staff representatives. While some progress was achieved, the formal meetings in the Administrative Committee came to a deadlock in early 1996 as the staff representatives informed the Administration that the new Staff Union Committee could not continue along the lines of the discussions in the informal meetings that took place in 1995. Instead, they requested a comprehensive review of the functioning of the Board to be carried out by a working party and stated that any changes would have to be carried out within the existing Staff Regulations.

12. The Director-General requested that the consultations continue and set a new deadline for proposals for October 1996. The Personnel Department and the staff representatives held numerous meetings, both informal and formal, but agreement could not be reached on the substantive issues, although there was some agreement on certain procedural issues to accelerate certain aspects of the process. After securing a further extension of the deadline the Administrative Committee submitted its report, with split recommendations, to the Director-General at the end of November 1996. The Director-General approved the changes set out in this paper and requested that amendments be made to the Staff Regulations, where necessary, for consideration by the Governing Body at its current session.

13. The Staff Union Committee has objected strongly to the proposed changes. It has stated that the main problem with the Selection Board was not the rules and procedures themselves, but the failure to respect them on the part of the Administration. For the staff representatives, the essential issue was to view selection and recruitment as part of a comprehensive human resource development policy and to ensure that staff planning systems were in place. Moreover, they opposed external recruitment unless absolutely necessary in order to protect career prospects for serving staff; they felt that current competition procedures were necessary for transfers, for the hiring of young professionals and for all external recruitment. They have contended that the Selection Board should be maintained as it is in order to safeguard independence, fairness and transparency, and that programme managers should not have a larger role as they will unduly influence the outcome of the selection procedures.

14. At the most recent meeting of the Administrative Committee on 12 February 1997, the staff representatives requested that consultations take place immediately on comprehensive human resources planning and development, which would include issues of recruitment and selection, with a view to submitting proposals to the Governing Body. In the meantime, they requested the Director-General not to amend the Staff Regulations, but rather to introduce the changes, after taking into account their concerns, by way of circulars for a trial period of one year.

15. Although at the time of writing the Director-General had not received the report of the Administrative Committee, he has considered the underlying ideas behind the proposals of the staff representatives. The Director-General agrees, as he himself has proposed on earlier occasions, that discussions go forward on comprehensive personnel policy issues, including staff planning and career development. Also, in the light of the recent consultations, he is confident that measures can be taken to enhance the career prospects of serving officials -- both the training programme and the mobility policy already exist in this direction -- which need not be incompatible with the need for external recruitment. Also in the light of recent consultations, the Director-General has decided to propose introducing the changes in the recruitment and selection procedures, on an interim basis, through the issue of circulars. The new measures would be in force for a period of two years. Given the time needed to put new measures into place and to assess them, the Director-General believes two years is the minimum time for a trial period. After that period the Director-General would return to the Committee to propose changes to the Staff Regulations as necessary.

16. The Director-General, considering that the Organization is confronted with a series of challenges at this particular time, is of the view that personnel policies and practices are required that respond adequately to the Organization's needs. The challenges, which are well known to the Committee and to the Governing Body, include new thrusts in the standard-setting activities, in particular on subjects of fundamental importance to the ILO; the delivery of quality services to the ILO's tripartite constituents; and enhancing global recognition, including by the international financial institutions, of the relevance and usefulness of ILO activities, based on tripartism, in the implementation of structural adjustment policies. In these circumstances, the Office must devote all its efforts to achieving its goals of playing a triple role: a champion of human rights at work; a centre of excellence; and a provider of services to its constituents. The credibility of the Organization will depend on its capacity to furnish rapidly high-quality technical services in response to these challenges. It is therefore essential that selection and recruitment procedures be less rigid; that the process of evaluating skills and qualifications be strengthened, which means a greater role for responsible chiefs; that personnel procedures be responsive to new methods of work and new forms of programme delivery; that the Office has means at its disposal to achieve a better distribution of its staff by nationality, age and sex, and that mobility between headquarters and the field be facilitated.

17. The Committee may wish to recommend that the Governing Body approve the changes set out in Appendix I to be implemented as soon as possible, for a trial period of two years, and authorize the Director-General to promulgate these changes by the issue of circulars.

Geneva, 7 March 1997.

Point for decision: Paragraph 17.

1. GB.215/PFA/10/9, GB.216/PFA/7/1 and GB.216/11/26.

2. GB.224/10/28, GB.225/PFA/17/12, GB.225/10/30, GB.232/PFA/7/2 and GB.232/7/29.

3. GB.232/PFA/7/2.

Appendix I

Proposed amendments to the Staff Regulations

[Proposed deletions crossed out; proposed additions underlined]

Article 4.2

[...]

Method of filling vacant posts

(e) Transfer in the same grade, promotion or appointment by direct selection by the Director-General shall be the normal method of filling vacancies:

of Chiefs of Branch and Directors of Offices in the field;
in technical cooperation projects;
in the Office of the Director-General;
of principal secretary to a Deputy Director-General;
of a purely temporary nature, up to ~~two~~ four years, of a specialist nature, not expected to lead to a career in the ILO. ~~any extension beyond two years being subject to article 4.2 (f)~~ Persons so recruited shall not have their contract extended beyond four years, nor shall they be allowed to take part in competitions during a period of twelve months following the end of their appointment under this provision.
in the General Service category in External Offices.

The Director-General may in such cases, at his discretion and after consulting the Selection Board, decide on the use of one or other of the methods of filling vacancies referred to in article 4.2(f).

Young Professionals Programme Transfers

[...]

(f) The method of filling any other vacancy below the grade of D.1 shall be decided by the Director-General after consulting the Selection Board. The methods to be employed shall comprise transfer in the same grade, promotion or appointment, ~~normally~~ by competition or by direct selection. However direct selection shall normally be limited to the following cases: ~~Promotion or appointment without competition may be employed only in~~

transfer in the same grade;
promotion to fill vacancies caused by upgrading of a job by one grade or in the case of a job upgraded from the General Service to the Professional category by one grade or more;
appointment of young officials in the Professional category at the start of their career, in conditions to be determined by the Director-General after consulting the Administrative Committee;
appointment for filling vacancies requiring specialized qualifications, or vacancies in urgency or other vacancies where it is otherwise impossible to satisfy the provisions of article 4.2(a) above. ~~by the employment of any other method~~.

In case of urgency the Selection Board may be required to make a recommendation on the method of filling a vacancy not later than ten working days after being apprised of the vacancy. If the Selection Board is unable to make a recommendation within this period, the Director-General may decide, at his own discretion, the method of filling the vacancy.

[...]

Annex I

Recruitment procedure

[...]

Competition procedure

Procedure for the Selection Board in Internal Competitions

12. The Selection Board shall examine applications submitted in a competition. The Board in conducting an examination shall proceed as follows:

(a) elimination of candidates who do not qualify for reasons of age or nationality, or who lack the linguistic and other qualifications specified;

(b) elimination of candidates who do not possess the required educational qualifications, or equivalent experience;

(c) elimination of candidates whose other qualifications are below those required, such qualifications to be determined by reports on the candidates' work or equivalent evidence of their experience and by academic attainments;

(d) classification of the remaining candidates on the basis of their qualifications, determined in the manner prescribed by (c) above, account being taken of any other relevant considerations, and of length of service in the Office;

(e) the selection will be made after the remaining candidates have been interviewed or tested or both, where desirable, ~~and after the chief concerned has been consulted~~.

(f) Prior to reaching its conclusions on the elimination of candidates under (a), (b) and (c) above, and also on the classification and selection under (d) and (e), the Selection Board shall consult the Department Director concerned, or the responsible chief designated by the Director, making available to him or her all the information considered by it.

The report of the Board shall state the reasons for: (i) the elimination of any candidate, and (ii) the classification of the candidates retained.

[...]

External recruitment

External ~~competition~~ recruitment procedure

14. The Director-General may decide, after consulting the Selection Board, to fill vacancies ~~other than of a temporary nature~~ by external ~~competition~~ recruitment regardless of the source of financing.

The procedure referred to in paragraphs 7 to 9 of this Annex shall apply to such recruitment, as shall that described in paragraph 12 except that the functions of the Selection Board in that paragraph shall be performed by the Personnel Department in consultation with the Director of the Department in which the vacancy arises or the responsible chief designated by the Director.

The duly substantiated report and the recommendations of the Personnel Department shall be submitted to the Director-General through the Selection Board. The titular members of the Board shall review the report and recommendations for conformity with the principle of equal treatment of candidates and with the relevant provisions of this Annex, and to ensure that the selection procedures have been correctly followed. Any observations they may make in this regard shall be appended to the report.

~~The procedure described in paragraphs 12 and 13 of this Annex shall apply also to any external competition~~.

Appendix II

CHAPTER 4

RECRUITMENT AND APPOINTMENT1

ARTICLE 4.1

Selection by Director-General

The officials of the International Labour Office shall be selected and appointed by the Director-General in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and of these Regulations.

ARTICLE 4.2

Filling of Vacancies

(a) The paramount consideration in the filling of any vacancy shall be the necessity to obtain a staff of the highest standards of competence, efficiency and integrity. Due regard shall be paid to the importance of maintaining a staff selected on a wide geographical basis. Officials shall be selected without distinction as to race, creed or sex, nor shall there by any discrimination on account of a disability of a candidate who meets the qualifications required. Every official shall be required to possess a fully satisfactory knowledge of one of the working languages of the Organization.

(b) Appointments to vacancies of Deputy Director-General, Assistant Director-General and Treasurer and Financial Comptroller shall be made by the Director-General after consultation with the Officers of the Governing Body.

(c) The Director-General may designate a Principal Deputy Director-General, in which event such designation shall be made after consultation with the Officers of the Governing Body and with the agreement of the Governing Body.

(d) Vacancies in the Director and Principal Officer category shall be filled by the Director-General by transfer in the same grade, promotion or appointment. Such promotions or appointments, other than to vacancies in technical cooperation projects, shall be reported to the Governing Body with a short statement of the qualifications of the persons so promoted or appointed. The position of Chief Internal Auditor shall be filled by the Director-General after consulting the Officers of the Governing Body.

(e) Transfer in the same grade, promotion or appointment by direct selection by the Director-General shall be the normal method of filling vacancies:

of Chiefs of Branch and Directors of Offices in the field;
in technical cooperation projects;
in the Office of the Director-General;
of principal secretary to a Deputy Director-General;
of a purely temporary nature, up to two years, of a specialist nature, not expected to lead to a career in the ILO, any extension beyond two years being subject to article 4.2(f);
in the General Service category in External Offices.

(f) The method of filling any other vacancy below the grade of D.1 shall be decided by the Director-General after consulting the Selection Board. The methods to be employed shall comprise transfer in the same grade, promotion or appointment, normally by competition. Promotion or appointment without competition may be employed only in:

filling vacancies requiring specialized qualifications;
filling vacancies caused by upgrading of a job by one grade or in the case of a job upgraded from the General Service to the Professional category by one grade or more;
filling vacancies in urgency;
filling other vacancies where it is impossible to satisfy the provisions of article 4.2(a) above by the employment of any other method.

(g) In filling any vacancy account shall be taken, in the following order, of -

(1) applications from former officials whose appointments were terminated in accordance with the provisions of article 11.5 (Termination on Reduction of Staff);

(2) applications for transfer;

(3) claims to promotion;

(4) if the Selection Board agrees, applications from former officials other than those who have been discharged or summarily dismissed;

(5) on a reciprocal basis, applications from officials of the United Nations, specialized agencies, or the Registry of the International Court of Justice.

(h) When a job has been upgraded it shall be regarded, for the purpose of this article, as a vacancy.

(i) This article shall be applied in accordance with the provisions of Annex I.

ARTICLE 4.3

General Service Category

(a) The maintenance of the staff on a wide geographical basis shall not be a consideration in the appointment of officials to the General Service category. Jobs in this category shall, as far as possible, be filled by locally recruited officials. At the time of appointment officials of the General Service category shall be classified as locally or non-locally recruited.

(b) Officials of the General Service category shall be assigned to a particular duty station and shall not normally be transferred to other duty stations. No such transfer shall take place without the official's consent.

(c) In Geneva an official shall be classified as locally recruited if at the time of appointment he fulfils any of the following conditions:

(i) he is a Swiss national;

(ii) he is a French national living within a radius of 25 km from Geneva;

(iii) irrespective of nationality, he has been continually living for one year within a radius of 25 km from Geneva.

(d) For the purposes of paragraph (c)(ii) and (iii) above

(i) periods of employment as a non-locally recruited official in an intergovernmental organization in Geneva shall not be taken into account;

(ii) the radius of 25 km is measured from the Pont du Mont-Blanc, Geneva.

(e) In other duty stations provisions defining the area of recruitment of locally recruited officials shall be laid down as required by the Director-General after consulting the Administrative Committee.

(f) A non-locally recruited official of the General Service category who acquires voluntarily, other than by marriage, the nationality of the country of the duty station shall be reclassified as locally recruited, and his entitlement to any of the following allowances and benefits shall thereupon cease:

non-resident allowance and rental subsidy, education grant, home leave travel expenses, repatriation grant, travel expenses upon termination (including removal of household goods and personal effects).

ARTICLE 4.4

Definition of Home

(a) An official's home, for the purposes of these Regulations, shall be determined at the time of his appointment. In the case of a fixed-term official, the home shall be determined by the Director-General; in the case of an established official the home shall be determined by the Director-General after consulting the Administrative Committee. Unless there are compelling reasons to make an exception an official's home shall be deemed to be in the country of which he is a national at the time of his appointment. An official's home shall remain unchanged for the duration of his service unless the Director-General, after consulting the Administrative Committee, decides that there are compelling reasons for permitting a change.

(b) Notwithstanding (a) above, the home of an official of the General Service category who has been locally recruited as defined in article 4.3 (General Service Category) shall be deemed to be at the duty station.

ARTICLE 4.5

Age on Appointment

(Deleted)

ARTICLE 4.6

Period of Appointment

(a) The Director-General shall be appointed for a period of five years. The appointment may be renewed for such further period or periods as the Governing Body may decide. No single extension shall exceed five years.

(b) The Deputy Directors-General, Assistant Directors-General and the Treasurer and Financial Comptroller shall be appointed for periods not exceeding five years. The appointments may be renewed indefinitely. No single extension shall exceed five years.

(c) Appointments without limit of time to established posts and to posts created by the Governing Body under special funds shall be subject to good conduct, satisfactory performance as consistently reflected in several performance appraisal reports, seniority, as well as the official's capacity to pursue a career having regard to his field of competence and the prospective needs of the Organization. Such appointments shall be made in accordance with the procedure established by the Director-General, after consulting the Administrative Committee.

(d) Appointments for a fixed term shall be of not less than one year and of not more than five years. While a fixed-term appointment may be renewed, it shall carry no expectation of renewal or of conversion to another type of appointment, and shall terminate without prior notice on the termination date fixed in the contract of employment.

ARTICLE 4.7

Contract of Employment

(a) The terms of employment of an official shall be governed by a contract which shall consist of an offer of appointment, signed by the Director-General or a representative of the Director-General authorized for the purpose, and a declaration of acceptance signed by the official.

(b) The offer of appointment shall state -

(1) that the appointment is subject to the provisions of these Regulations;

(2) the type and duration of the appointment;

(3) the category, grade and salary pertaining to the appointment and, where appropriate, the incremental rate and the maximum salary attaching to the grade;

(4) the date upon which it is proposed that the appointment become effective; and

(5) any special conditions.

(c) The offer of appointment shall call attention to the provisions of article 4.10 (Medical Examination Prior to Appointment).

(d) A copy of the Staff Regulations and a declaration of acceptance to be signed by the official shall be transmitted together with the offer of appointment.

(e) The date upon which the appointment is effective shall be confirmed by a notification when the official enters upon his duties.

ARTICLE 4.8

Amendment of Contract of Employment

The terms of any contract of employment may be modified, without prejudice to the acquired rights of officials, by the Director-General in order to bring them into conformity with any measure relating to the conditions of employment of officials which the General Conference or the Governing Body may decide to apply to serving officials.

ARTICLE 4.9

Effective Date of Appointment

The appointment of a non-locally recruited official shall date from the day on which the official leaves his place of residence to take up his assignment by a route and means of transport approved by the Director-General, account being taken of any time spent en route by the official in excess of the normal time for the journey. The appointment of a locally recruited official shall date from the day on which he actually enters upon his duties.

ARTICLE 4.10

Medical Examination Prior to Appointment

No appointment shall be made under these Regulations before the Medical Adviser has certified whether the person concerned is in good health and free from any defect likely to interfere with the discharge of his duties.

ARTICLE 4.11

Reappointed Officials

A former official, on reappointment, shall be regarded, for the purpose of these Regulations, as becoming an official for the first time, provided that the Director-General may make exceptions to this rule in the case of former officials who are reappointed under article 11.5(a) and (b) (Termination on Reduction of Staff).

ARTICLE 4.12

Personal Files

A personal file shall be established and maintained for each official. This file shall include (1) documents relating to the official's appointment, (2) documents relating to his transfer or promotion, (3) documents of an official character and official reports relating to his competence, efficiency or official conduct, provided that such documents shall be included in the file only after they have been initialled by the official, (4) any observations which the official may have made on the official reports on his work, unless the Director-General decides that such observations shall not be so filed, (5) any other documents relating to measures officially taken or considered in connection with the official. Personal files shall be confidential. An official may consult his personal file in the office where it is kept.

Updated by VC. Approved by NdW. Last update: 4 February 2000.