1. Staff Union Assistance Fund
(SUAF)

2. Topics How the Fund operates Requests for assistance
Present financial situation of the Fund
The Staff Union policy

3. How the Fund operates
SUAF is a statutory Staff Union body which exists for the benefit of all ILO officials (including retirees).
The Board of the Fund is composed of five members who are appointed by the Staff Union Committee.
- The Fund depends to a very great extent on regular voluntary contributions from serving officials.
Although the Fund exists for the benefit of all ILO officials, past or present, who are in financial difficulties regardless or not of whether they are, or were, contributing Staff Union members, the Fund is a statutory Staff Union Body. In accordance with the Statutes, the members of the Fund’s Board are appointed by the Staff Union Committee. The Board is composed of five members one of whom acts as treasurer. The Fund receives an allocation each year from the Staff Union and from the Organization via the Staff Welfare Committee. However, the Fund largely depends on voluntary contributions from serving as well as some retired ILO officials. Apart from the regular monthly contributions the Fund also receives one-off donations from individual staff members, often these are fees received for a lecture that they have given, or the proceeds of a farewell collection made for them by their colleagues.

4. Requests for assistance
The essential criterion for judging whether assistance should be granted is NEED.
Every case is examined carefully by the Board.
The majority of requests for assistance come from officials serving in field offices or on projects.
Assistance to serving officials is normally in the form of a loan reimbursable over a maximum of 3 years whilst
assistance to retired officials is invariably in the form of a one-off gift.
All requests for assistance are considered very carefully by the Board. For a request to be accepted and assistance granted it has to be approved by the majority of the Board. The essential criterion for judging whether or not assistance should be granted to somebody is NEED. As the concept of need may be somewhat subjective the Board examines each case in detail; supporting documents certifying monthly take-home pay and, where relevant, proof of outstanding debts, medical expenses, builders’ estimates, etc. are requested. There are many different circumstances which push colleagues to seek help from our Fund, sometimes arising from local climatic conditions which have caused severe damage to their homes necessitating costly repairs. Colleagues may also find themselves in severe financial difficulty due to the death, accident or illness of a close family member, etc. In general loans are repaid by direct monthly deductions from salary. Assistance is not normally granted for the purchase of a vehicle; nor is assistance granted for the purchase of property, for children’s private education or for travel. In case of serving officials assistance is generally given in the form of a loan to be repaid by direct monthly deductions from their salary. All loans have to be repaid within a maximum of three years, and in the case of officials with short-term or fixed-term contracts, by the end of their contract. The Board will always make sure not to exceed 20% of take home pay.

5. Present financial situation of the Fund
  In order for the Fund to extend or even maintain its effectiveness more contributors are needed, as requests for assistance are increasing each year – this upward tendency has been particularly noticeable over the past two years.
The Board always takes great care to make sure that the best possible use is made of the funds available, a large part of which have been donated by our fellow colleagues, by ensuring that assistance is granted only to cases where it is clearly warranted – and that in no circumstances is the Fund ever used as a bank which gives interest-free loans! Quite often requests for assistance come to us via the Staff Welfare Office, Ms. Renata Navarro, with whom we collaborate quite closely. In a few cases, particularly for one-off gifts, a sum of money has been donated partly from the Fund that she has at her disposal, the Norma Wagstaffe Fund, and partly from the Staff Union Assistance Fund.

6. The Accounting Side - Too few contributors
(117 only – to be compared with SU members)
Income 2004: CHF – contributions 34,556; gifts ; interests 3,977
- Loans: CHF 381,000 on-going
including 31 new loans in 2004
(plus 5 donations over the period).
The present financial situation of the Staff Union Assistance Fund is not as “rosy” as the Board would wish. The Fund virtually reached a crisis situation in 2002 arising essentially from a dramatic drop in the number of regular contributors coupled with an ever-increasing number of requests for assistance. The Board members were forced to use the Fund’s savings account, thus reducing our assets and also future interest. To give you some idea of the decrease in regular contributions: In 1994 the Fund had 137 regular contributors, which dropped to 128 a year later and continued falling until we reached an all-time low with 64 contributor only in May 2002!

7. The Staff Union policy
To mobilize membership at regular intervals to attract more voluntary contributors
To earmark apportion of own income out of contributions for more stability in SUAF budget
target 3 % of membership contributions
In order to encourage, in particular, younger staff members to start contributing to the Fund we held a Membership Drive at the end of May A stand in front of the Restaurant at R.2 sold T-shirts, baseball caps, pens and key-rings inscribed with the Fund’s initials “S.U.A.F.” Officials who so desired were able to fill in on the spot or take away with them for subsequent completion, a Contribution Form. Several field offices followed our example and also held a Membership Drive on the same day. This initiative proved very successful and we doubled the number of our contributors which has resulted in an increase in contributions of some Swiss Francs 8,000,- per year. We are extremely grateful to all the colleagues who answered our cry for help two years ago, we still need more contributors to enable us to increase or even maintain our effectiveness, as requests for assistance are continuing their upward trend: for example, in 2001 we granted 20 loans; in 2002 we granted 27; in 2003 we granted 37; and by mid-February this year we had already granted 8 loans and had several requests in the pipe-line. It should perhaps be mentioned that a few of the loans granted in 2003 were to officials in the Abidjan Office who were incurring extra expenses due to the national crisis situation there, but even leaving these aside the upward trend confirmed itself very definitely again last year. In addition, the Fund provides assistance in the form of loans and also makes gifts in certain circumstances, which of course are not reimbursable; in 2003 we granted 13 gifts in all.
To promote creation of local Assistance funds,
seek alternative possibilities of accessing credit under favourable conditions for local staff,
raise funds through ad hoc campaigns for specific solidarity actions (pensions ex-USSR; Abidjan …)

8. Employer should be present !
To press upon Administration to ensure significant contribution of ILO to assistance to colleagues and former colleagues under difficult circumstances (including through innovative use of existing mechanisms: SHIF, Thrift Fund, Special Payments Fund).
So, as you can see, the ILO Staff Union Assistance Fund is playing an increasingly important role in helping colleagues, past and present, at Headquarters and in the field, through the difficult situations which may arise in their lives, and which could arise in any of our lives!

9. SUAF:
ONE FOR ALL, ALL FOR ONE !