ROME – FAO chief "hatchet man" Denis Aitken, stepping up his attack on union rights, ordered Friday systematic monitoring of staff taking part in demonstrations and strikes “so that the appropriate payroll deduction can be made,” FAO sources said.

 Amid deteriorating relations at the Rome-based UN agency over new prospective job cuts and wrangling ahead of an FAO Conference meeting next week, Aitken, the ‘ad interim’ assistant director general of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, said in an email to other ADGs: “I would kindly ask you to establish a system that allows monitoring and reporting of any staff absences in your department during working hours to participate in future staff demonstrations/work stoppage.”

 In the email made available to Italian Insider, Aitken continued that “Normal working hours are 8:30 to 17:00hrs, with an hour break for lunch. Absences during the lunch hour of course need not be monitored.”

 Aitken concluded that “Following the conclusion of the demonstration/work stoppage, OHR should be advised (sarah.castree@fao.org) of the name of individual staff members who were absent from their normal duties, and the duration of their absence, so that the appropriate payroll deduction can be made.”

 Aitken caused a furore by announcing the docking of pay over a strike last week at FAO following management’s decision to limit short term contracts to a maximum of 55 months in a decision that evidently means many employees may be thrown on the street, FAO sources say.

 In a typical response to a weasel-worded interview Aitken gave to the internal 'internal propaganda' infranet, one FAO staffer said “very easy for Mr Aitken to explain that this new policy ‘is in the interests of both the staff and the organisation’. Maybe he can explain this to the bank that holds my mortgage, or to the other ‘short term’ employee that is the only bread winner in their family? I might have a hard time explaining it …”