UN - frequently asked questions about the UN sector agreement

1. Which Organisations are bound by the Agreement between AIIC and the Organisations of the United Nations Common System of Salaries, Allowances and other Benefits?
a. The following member Organisations of the UN Common System
b. The following other Organisations
2. Are interpreters who are not AIIC members bound by the Agreement when working for member Organisations?
3. What rules apply for the professional domicile?
4. When recruiting for a meeting, can Organisations that are party to the Agreement ask for bids?
5. What are the applicable Agreement rates?
5a. World rate or Headquarter rate?
6. Manning strength

1. Which Organisations are bound by the Agreement between AIIC and the Organisations of the United Nations Common System of Salaries, Allowances and other Benefits?

a. The following member Organisations of the UN Common System:

The United Nations (including its departments, Offices and Regional Commissions as well as Funds and Programmes and other entities administered by the United Nations Secretariat)

UNNY	UN Headquarters New York
UNOG	UN Office Geneva
UNOV [1]	UN Office Vienna
UNON	UN Office Nairobi

 

ECA	Economic Commission for Asia
ECE	Economic Commission for Europe
ECLAC	Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
ESCAP	Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific
ESCWA	Economic and Social Commission for West Asia

 

OHCHR	Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
UN-HABITAT	UN Human Settlements Programme
UNAIDS	Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
UNCC	United Nations Compensation Commission
UNCTAD	UN Conference on Trade and Development
UNDP	UN Development Programme
UNEP	UN Environment Programme
UNHCR	Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
UNICEF	UN Children's Fund
UNIDO	UN Industrial Development Organisation
UNOPS	United Nations Office for Project Services
UNU	UN University
UNFPA	UN Populations Fund
UNODC	UN Office on Drugs and Crime
UNWRA	UN Relief and Works Agency

 

ICTR	International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
ICTY	International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

 

ILO	International Labour Organisation
including its regional offices for	Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Arab States, Asia and Pacific, Europe and Central Asia

 

WHO	World Health Organisation
including its regional offices for	Africa (AFRO), Americas (AMRO) , Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO), Europe (EURO), South-East Asia (SEARO), Western Pacific (WPRO)
CIARC	International Center for Cancer Research, Lyon
OCP	Onchocerciasis Programme
PAHO	Pan American Health Organisation

 

CTBTO	Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organisation
FAO	Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations
IAEA	International Atomic Energy Agency
ICAO	International Civil Aviation Organisation
IFAD	International Fund for Agricultural Development
ITC	International Trade Centre
IMO	International Maritime Organisation
ITU	International Telecommunication Union
UNESCO	United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
UPOV	International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants
UPU	Universal Postal Union
WFP	World Food Programme
WIPO [2]	World Intellectual Property Organisation
WMO	World Meteorological Organisation

b. The following other Organisations:

COE	Ecumenical Council of Churches
EFTA	European Free Trade Association
ICDO	International Civil Defence Organisation
IOM	International Migration Organisation
NAM	Non-Aligned Movement
OSCE	Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe
WTO	World Trade Organisation

NB: Neither the Parliamentary Assembly of OSCE nor the International Criminal Court (ICC) have ratified or adhered to the Agreement.

2. Are interpreters who are not AIIC members bound by the Agreement when working for member Organisations?

All short term conference interpreters are bound by the agreement, AIIC members and non-members.

3. What rules apply for the professional domicile?

Any AIIC member's professional domicile is published in the AIIC Yearbook (also on-line, "members"). Non-members have to specify their professional domicile when accepting a contract from an Organisation which is party to the Agreement.

AIIC members and non-members must keep their chosen professional domicile for at least six months. (Art.8) AIIC professional standards ("Professional standards") further require any change of domicile to be notified three months ahead of time.

The professional domicile does not have to correspond to the interpreter's place of residence or his/her mailing address; however, an interpreter cannot claim more than one professional domicile at the time. The professional domicile must be a locality, not a country or a region.

4. When recruiting for a meeting, can Organisations that are party to the Agreement ask for bids?

The present Agreement is a collective agreement concluded by the Organisations of the UN Common System (employers) and AIIC (workers' organisation). Within the framework of a collective agreement, there can be no bidding for recruitment.

Working conditions and remuneration are set and the terms of the Agreement provide a legally binding framework for both parties (Organisations and interpreters).

5. What are the applicable Agreement rates?

Current agreement rates are posted on the AIIC website, « Agreement Rates ». These rates are periodically adjusted for cost of living increases. The World Rate is adjusted quarterly (January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1).

The agreement rates are net of income tax and staff assessment. If taxes were to be levied on income from work for one of the Organisations that are party to the agreement, the Organisation would endeavour to reimburse these taxes. However, FAO, UPU and IFAD have entered a reservation concerning the possible reimbursement of taxes due to specific regulations in their staff rules.

Organisations are committed to help interpreters avoid this type of problem by delivering written declarations confirming that short term interpreters are officials of the employing Organisations for the duration of their employment and thus entitled to the privileges and immunities pertaining to that status.

5a. World rate or Headquarter rate?

1. Interpreters domiciled in the following regions, when working in their home region, are entitled to the relevant Headquarter rate:

• Austria
• France
• Italy
• North America
• Switzerland
• UK

e.g.: interpreters domiciled anywhere in North America (US or Canada), working in New York

2. Interpreters domiciled in any of these regions working outside their home region are paid the World Rate, e.g. interpreters domiciled in Paris, working in Geneva or colleagues domiciled in Mexico working in New York

3. Interpreters domiciled in any region other than the ones above are always paid the World rate, e.g. interpreters domiciled in Germany, Africa, Asia-Pacific, Central and South America etc.

6. Manning strength

For multilingual meetings: as many booths as there are conference languages. every booth manned by at least two interpreters; two-way booths (e.g. Arabic, Japanese, Chinese) manned by at least three interpreters, two out of which must be able to work from their mother tongue into another language.

For bilingual meetings, same basic rule: two booths, two interpreters per booth, or one two-way booth, manned by three interpreters, provided all of them can work into both conference languages.

If warranted by circumstances [3], a single two-way booth can be manned by two interpreters, provided both of them can work into both working languages, and they are paid 160% of the rate which is due to them.

The increased rate to be paid is justified by the extra workload resulting from this arrangement for the interpreters.

[1] UNOV's interpretation section recruits for all Vienna-based organisations who are party to the agreement: IAEA, CTBTO. UNIDO and UNODC
[2] WIPO interpretation service recruits for UPOV
[3] e.g. scarcity of local interpreters, short meetings, lack of space in conference hall