Annex IV: When Actually Employed (excl. Temporary Language Staff)

Use of WAE contracts, allows the organization to retain the services of individuals for work of an irregular or discontinuous nature, for assignments with uncertain duration or no clearly predefined schedule, and to ensure the availability at short notice of persons with special skills. ST/SGB/283 (Use of When Actually Employed contracts for special representatives, envoys and other special high-level positions) applies in most cases. Temporary Language Staff are covered in Annex II. Recruitment of staff members on WAE appointments gives rise to very specific restrictions that must be observed when processing the onboarding of a successful candidate for initial appointment with the organization.

• WAE contracts should normally be issued for a period of six months at a time; and should specify that the maximum number of days that may be worked in a given six-month period should not exceed four- and one-half months. Subsequent WAE contracts may be issued, subject to an overall limit of nine months actually employed in any 12-month period. Exceptions must be specially authorized by the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Resources.
• The holder of a WAE contract must be notified in writing of the days during which his or her services will be required, and his or her acceptance must be in writing. In cases of extreme urgency, this may be done on a post facto basis.
• The letter of appointment shall specify the level of the appointment. Salaries must be stated in both net and gross terms, using the salary scales appropriate to the level of the appointment and shall be stated as daily rates representing 1/365th of the annual scale.
• WAE appointments give rise to DSA, where appropriate, in respect of days actually worked.
• Staff members on WAE appointments are excluded from participation in the UNJSPF. This information must be included in the offer of appointment.
• WAE appointments do not attract annual, special or sick leave and carry no entitlement to dependency or other benefits or allowances, except as provided in ST/SGB/283.
• Refer to ST/AI/2010/4/Rev.1 for information on entitlements.
• The earnings threshold for retired staff is $22,000.
  • For professional staff, the $22,000 cap calculation includes net salary, and annual leave and excludes post adjustment.
  • For FS, the $22,000 cap calculation includes net salary, and annual leave and excludes post adjustment. FS staff up to FS-5 the cap also includes comp time.
  • For GS, the $22,000 cap calculations include net salary, annual leave, salary differential, night differential, over-time and comp-time.
  • For both Professionals and General Service, the dependency allowance is not taken into consideration when calculating the cap of $22,000.

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