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STAFF RULES OF THE GENERAL SECRETARIAT
ANNUAL, SPECIAL, ADMINISTRATIVE AND HOME LEAVE
(a) During the time in which they are receiving full salary, staff members shall be entitled to annual leave according to the following scale:
(i) Twenty-one working days a year, accruable at the rate of 1.75 days a month, for staff members with not more than three years of service.
(ii) Twenty-four working days a year, accruable at the rate of 2 days a month, for staff members with more than three but not more than five years of service.
(iii) Thirty working days a year, accruable at the rate of 2.5 days a month, for staff members with more than five years of service .
No leave shall accrue while a staff member is receiving compensation equivalent to salary and allowances under Staff Rule 107.4.
(b) Staff members may accumulate, in each calendar year, not more than half of the days indicated in paragraph (a) above; that is to say, not more than 10.5, 12, or 15 days, respectively, up to a maximum of 60 working days.
(c) Staff members under contract for a limited time of less than six months shall not be entitled to annual leave unless, as a result of extensions or new contracts, they have served continuously for more than six months, in which case annual leave shall be credited from the start of their continuous service.
(d) Annual leave may be taken in units of one hour, with a fraction thereof considered a full hour.
(e) Upon completion of service on a mission so designated for these purposes by the Secretary General, any accumulation of annual leave which would otherwise have been forfeited during the periods of service on such mission or within two months thereafter may be used to cover all or part of a later authorized period of leave. Any such leave not used within four months following the staff member's departure from the mission area shall be forfeited.
(f) A staff member may, in exceptional circumstances, be granted advance annual leave up to a maximum of 10 working days, provided his service is expected to continue for a period beyond that necessary to accrue the leave so advanced.
(g) Department and Office directors are authorized to grant annual leave. Advance annual leave shall require the approval of the Director of the Department of Human Resource Services.
(h) Staff members must obtain prior written approval of an absence on annual leave. In granting approval, as much consideration as possible will be given to the personal circumstances and preferences of the staff member. A staff member unable to return to work in accordance with his original plans must, before his leave is over, request the necessary extension and explain the reasons.
(i) Leave may be taken only when authorized. If a staff member is absent from work without authorization (including tardiness, departure before closing time, or taking a lunch period in excess of the allotted time), the payment of salary and allowances shall cease for the period of unauthorized absence; at the option of the supervisor, the unauthorized absence may be charged to the staff member's annual leave if there is accrued leave in the staff member's account sufficient to cover the absence.
(j) All decisions with respect to annual leave shall be subject to the needs of the service, as determined by the Secretary General. Those needs may require that leave be taken by a staff member during a period designated by the Secretary General.
(a) Special leave means leave granted to staff members for such periods and on such terms as the Secretary General may determine in order to enable them to fulfill their civic obligations, to pursue studies to improve their knowledge and skills or to conduct research in the interests of the Organization, or, subject to paragraph (g), to take temporary employment outside the Organization. It may also be granted in cases of prolonged illness, for child care, or for other important reasons that are in the interests of the Organization as determined by the Secretary General.
(b) Special leave shall normally be without pay, unless otherwise specified in these Rules or unless the Secretary General has determined that it is in the interests of the Organization to grant special leave with full pay or with partial pay in accordance with paragraph (a) above. The Secretary General may publish guidelines for making that determination in the administrative issuances of the General Secretariat.
(c) Special leave with full pay shall be granted:
(i) For the time a staff member must devote to jury service, when required to serve by the pertinent authorities, provided that the fee paid him by the court is turned over to the General Secretariat; or
(ii) When a staff member exercises his voting rights, provided this is on a working day and does not exceed two hours. When a staff member can demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Director of the Department of Human Resource Services that he requires more than two hours for the exercise of his right to vote, the Director may authorize additional special leave for that purpose.
(d) Special leave without pay shall be granted to a staff member who is required to enter military service, provided the staff member has completed at least one year of satisfactory service in the General Secretariat.
(e) The Secretary General may require a staff member to exhaust all his accumulated annual leave and all other accumulated leave, except for sick leave, before granting a request to take special leave.
(f) At the option of his supervisor, any staff member who fails to report to work may be placed on special leave without pay in accordance with Rule 106.1(i), without prejudice to disciplinary measures which may apply because of his absence.
(g) Special leave shall not be authorized to permit a staff member to assume a political office or a diplomatic or other representational post; nor shall it be authorized for the purpose of allowing a staff member to perform any other functions that are incompatible with the staff member's continuing status as an international civil servant. In exceptional circumstances, special leave without pay may be granted to a staff member who is requested by his or her Government to render temporary services involving functions of a technical nature.
(h) In exceptional circumstances, for purposes of infant child care or upon the adoption of a child, special leave may be granted under the conditions and for the period established by the Secretary General.
(i) Staff members shall not accrue service credits towards sick, annual, and home leave, seniority, career-service eligibility, maternity leave, annual step increases, termination indemnity or repatriation grant during periods of special leave, whether with or without pay. However, periods of less than one full month of such leave shall not affect the ordinary rates of accrual. Continuity of service shall not be considered broken by periods of special leave.
Rule 106.3 Administrative Leave
(a) Administrative leave consists in the authorization received by a staff member to absent himself from the place where he regularly works, either in order to perform duties assigned to him elsewhere, whether at his duty station or away from it, or because of illness or injury covered by workers' compensation under Rule 107.4. Administrative leave granted under this section must be authorized by the Director of the Department of Human Resource Services, as well as by the Office or Department director concerned.
(b) The Secretary General may also place on administrative leave a staff member suspended pursuant to Rule 111.4.
(a) A staff member whose duty station is outside of his home country and who meets the requirements of paragraph (b) below shall be entitled to travel to his home country at the expense of the General Secretariat once after every two years of qualifying service to spend part of his annual leave there pursuant to paragraph (r) of this Rule. The spirit and intent underlying the home leave benefit is to support and preserve the close familial or personal relationships of the staff member, or his traditional cultural values. This Rule is to be strictly construed and applied in accordance with that spirit and intent.
(b) For a staff member to be entitled to home leave, he must meet the following conditions:
(i) In the performance of his duties, he must have a continuing residence in a country other than that of which he is a national;
(ii) He must have a position in the professional category or, if in the general services category, he must have been recruited internationally;
(iii) He must have a nonimmigrant status in the country of his duty station and not be a national of that country;
(iv) The Secretary General must expect that the staff member will continue in service with the General Secretariat for at least six months after the date upon which he returns from home leave; and
(v) In the cases referred to in paragraphs (d) and (h) below, where he exercises the right to take home leave before he has accumulated the full two years of qualifying service otherwise required between home leave entitlements, it must be expected that he will continue in service for at least six months after the date on which the home leave would have been completed if he had taken it after having acquired the full amount of qualifying service.
(c) For the purpose of this Rule, the home country shall be that of which the staff member is a national, subject to the following conditions:
(i) For purposes of travel and transportation authorization, the place where the staff member must take his home leave shall be the place where he maintained his principal residence immediately prior to his appointment. Subject to the limitations set out in paragraph (m) below, and under exceptional circumstances, the Secretary General may permit a staff member to take home leave in a place in the home country other than where he maintained his previous principal residence.
(ii) With regard to a staff member who has worked in another international public organization immediately prior to his appointment, the place in the country where he must take home leave shall be the place designated when he joined that other organization.
(iii) In exceptional and compelling circumstances and subject to the conditions set out in paragraph (m) below, the Secretary General may authorize a staff member to take the home leave referred to in this Rule in a country other than that of which he is a national. To be able to benefit from this provision, the staff member must prove to the Secretary General's satisfaction that for a prolonged period before his appointment he maintained his regular residence in that other country, that he has close family or personal ties there, and that taking his home leave in that country is not inconsistent with the spirit and purposes of this benefit.
(iv) This entitlement shall not apply in a state that is not a member state of the Organization.
(d) The staff member may start his home leave during the six months before or following the date on which he completes two years of qualifying service for this purpose, with the exception of the first trip to the country of origin, which may not be advanced.
(e) In computing years of service for the purpose of this rule, all service rendered continuously shall be credited. For a staff member who changes his status from immigrant to nonimmigrant, or who moves from the general services to the professional category, the date of that change shall be the start of qualifying service.
(f) When a staff member has been on special leave whether with or without pay, his right to home leave shall be postponed for the period corresponding to that leave.
(g) A staff member:
(i) who voluntarily separates from service within six months following his return to work after home leave, or
(ii) who takes his leave in accordance with paragraph (d) or (h) of this Rule, and then voluntarily separates from service within six months after the date that the home leave would have been completed if taken after the full amount of qualifying service had been acquired, must reimburse the General Secretariat for the cost of the trip and for any other payments made to him for the purpose. Otherwise, those amounts will be deducted from the final settlement of accounts.
(h) In exceptional circumstances, a staff member may be granted home leave in advance, provided that at least 12 months of qualifying service have elapsed since the date of his return from his last home leave. The granting of advance home leave will not advance the date on which the staff member may take the next home leave.
(i) When, in the judgment of the corresponding Department or Office director, the staff member's duties require postponement of home leave beyond the six months indicated in paragraph (d) above, the postponement will not result in a delay in his next home leave. However, any such postponement shall be limited to one year.
(j) If home leave is postponed for reasons other than those specified in paragraph (i) of this Rule, the staff member will not be entitled to take the next home leave until two years after the date on which he left for the home leave postponed. This is the date that will be used in the future to compute the years of service necessary for home leave. Notwithstanding the foregoing, this Rule shall not prevent the staff member from advancing his next home leave in accordance with paragraphs (d) and (h).
(k) A staff member who has received an advance of funds for home leave must return it to the General Secretariat if it is necessary to postpone the trip for more than 30 days.
(l) Whenever it is to the benefit of the Organization and where there is no undue hardship to the staff member, the General Secretariat may avail itself of the opportunity to combine home leave with official travel. In this case, the time necessary to travel to the country of origin shall be considered administrative leave, and such travel as may be required in connection with the official trip shall be subject to the provisions of Rule 108.1.
(m) Home leave travel shall consist of round-trip economy air transportation by the most direct route from the staff member's duty station and also transportation, other than that which may be covered by the terminal expense allowance, by such additional modes as may be required to reach the staff member's place of principal residence, if necessary. The Offices of the General Secretariat will purchase the tickets and make the arrangements for the trip. Authorized home leave travel to a place other than the place of principal residence under subparagraph (c)(i), or to a country other than that of which the staff member is a national under subparagraph (c)(iii), shall not exceed the cost of travel to the place of principal residence and the country of the staff member's nationality.
(n) A staff member authorized to take home leave shall be entitled to claim for himself and his eligible dependents the expenses of the round trip between the duty station and his place of residence in his home country as provided in Rules 108.7 and 108.13, or an equivalent amount if he is authorized to travel elsewhere in accordance with paragraph (m), with the exception of the travel subsistence allowance (per diem) contemplated in Rule 108.7 (a) (iii) for the return trip.
(o) Dependents shall travel with the staff member on home leave, although exceptions may be made if the needs of the service or other special circumstances prevent the staff member and his dependents from traveling together.
(p) When both spouses are staff members and both are entitled to home leave, they may choose to take it separately in their respective home countries or together in the home country of one of them. If the spouses elect to take their home leave together, the home leave authorized for each spouse will not be greater than that to which they would be entitled if they were to take their leave separately. If they have dependent children, these may accompany either the father or the mother but may not make more than one such trip every two years.
(q) A staff member who chooses to make the trip by automobile shall receive the cash equivalent of air fare for two persons, as a maximum.
(r) A staff member who takes home leave and the eligible dependents who accompany him must remain in the home country for at least two weeks. The Secretary General may request the staff member upon his return to present satisfactory evidence of having complied with this obligation.
