NEW YORK - Ban Ki-moon has obtained the approval of the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC) to pay more to senior staff, financed by cuts to junior and mid-level staff, union officials said Wednesday.

 Under the revised salary scale, top bosses at the Under-Secretary-General grade get 10 percent more pay (so up to dlrs 25,000 a year more) while new graduate entry staff at P-1 grade will be 6 percent poorer, according to information posted on the UN staff union in New York face book.

The union commented that  “This (comes) at a time when the Secretary-General claims to be campaigning against inequality and all the time cutting frontline jobs,Please share with your colleagues and tell us what you think.”

A union source told Italian Insider, that the decision not officially announced to union members “will not just affect the UN Secretariat but all the UN agencies, and that obviously includes all of those in Rome as well. “

 The ruling comes as unions at the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation are battling to counter a scheme by management to throw short-term staff on the street once they have worked for the agency for five years.

  Management at the troubled UN agency docked the pay of staff who struck briefly last week to protest the scheme while union leaders have been harassed with draconian threats of written reprimands being posted permanently on their personnel files.