ROME - The FAO Association of Professionals (AP in FAO) has urged Director General José Graziano da Silva to rescind the 'punitive' posting of a former general secretary of the staff association to the remote Pacific island of Samoa in an apparent vendetta for her activities defending employees at the UN agency, union sources said Tuesday.

  In a letter to members entitled "Abuse of geographical reassignments," the AP strongly denounced "cases where staff members had received letters of reassignment asking them to transfer to another duty station and to accept the proposed transfer within a few working days, generally with no prior communication or consultation with the staff member ... these reassignments appeared to be completely detached from the ongoing mobility planning process ... the policy and the rationale underlying them were not at all clear."

  "The fear that these reassignments - that did not obviously respond to the effective needs of the Organization - were being used as a punitive measure or as a tool to remove and relocate undesirable staff members, was one of the examples of questionable human resources management that led the Executive Secretariat of AP in FAO to call an extraordinary assembly," the statement said.

 The staff association of the Rome-based agency went on to say that "Unfortunately, we now feel obliged to provide you with more information on one of the cases (with the full consent of the affected staff member – who happens to be a former General Secretary of the Association of Professionals in FAO). In early December last year, this AP in FAO officer (currently serving as a staff representative) was approached informally by management about the possibility of taking up positions in the field for which she did not believe she had the required expertise. Upon her return from home leave in February this year, she received an official memorandum advising her that she was being transferred, with her post, to the Sub-Regional office in Apia, Samoa. This time she was not being asked – she was being told."

 The concern over the punitive posting of the respected staffer, an American, comes after the Rome-based Un agency was rocked by strike action in April in response to management efforts to prevent general service employees being given consecutive short-term contracts for more than five years. The stoppages followed protracted industrial relations problems after hundreds of jobs were slashed in a budget crackdown as Dr Graziano sought to make cuts to meet requirements by donor countries while at the same time appointing numerous alleged cronies from latin American and Hispanic countries to high-paid consultancies.

  Dr Graziano visited Samoa in 2013 and was made a warrior in a ceremony that FAO watchers said underlined the need to cultivate small isdland nations ahead of the June 2015 election for his second term as Director General, though in the event no other candidates presented themselves for the job and so the vote will be a shoe-in. The union statement noted that the former general secretary already had undergone suspected victimisation for her activities on behalf of her colleagues in the past after she was moved out of a senior high-profile job.  "Incidentally, in June 2013, the same officer had already been transferred – against her own wishes – from her previous post, on which she had several years of experience, to another unrelated post. At the time, management went to great lengths to justify the importance of the transfer. We can add for completeness that the staff member appealed this decision and that the recommendations of the Appeals Committee in October 2014 were turned down by management."

  "Management has been extremely persistent in its aim to send the former General Secretary of our Association to this very remote location in spite of chronic medical conditions, documented by the staff member and verified by the Medical Unit of FAO. The staff member has been on certified sick leave for the past several weeks due to an aggravation of her condition. The Medical Unit of FAO has nevertheless cleared the move, indicating that there are adequate medical resources in Apia and in Auckland (a four-hour flight away from Apia, Samoa) to deal with any issues."

 The staff association statement went on to say that "there are several things we fail to comprehend about this action:

  -- Why is this reassignment now indispensable if it was so important to transfer the affected staff member to her current post against her wishes less than two years ago?

 -- If the task to be performed in Samoa is so important, is there no other way than to reassign (once again against her will) a staff member with two years to retirement and chronic medical conditions to a duty station with limited medical facilities?

  -- Could the need for covering the tasks not have been handled in a more transparent way through the mobility planning process? Who knows, perhaps somebody more appropriately qualified and in good health might actually be interested in the position.

 -- With so many vacant posts in the Organization, would it not have been possible to issue a regular vacancy announcement against a post in Samoa?"

  "Whatever the real reason is for this reassignment, we find it hard to believe that it is motivated by the technical exigencies of the Organization. This suspicion is strengthened by our knowledge of at least two other comparable cases of forced transfer of staff members where the needs of the Organization being served were difficult to see and unclear also to the involved offices."

  "... the suspicion arises that transfers of staff members are being used as a punitive measure or as a tool to remove and relocate undesirable staff members ... the treatment being meted out to our former General Secretary is disrespectful of her professional stature, personal conditions and dignity."

 "Strong suspicion also exists that this reassignment has to do with her former role as General Secretary of Association of Professionals in FAO and the positions she has taken in speaking up for the rights of staff working for this Organization. In this respect, we have to recall Article 32 of the Standards of Conduct for International Civil Servants, according to which, 'Staff representatives must be protected against discriminatory or prejudicial treatment based on their status or activities as staff representatives, both during their term of office and after it has ended.'"

  "We strongly urge management to reconsider this ill-advised decision affecting the former General Secretary of the Association of Professionals in FAO with a view to promoting trust and confidence between management and staff working in the Organization as well as their representative bodies."

 "The AP-in-FAO is extremely alarmed both at this apparent retribution against a former leading officer of our Association and the misuse of reassignments and transfers. The AP in FAO will provide its full support to the affected colleagues and others who may not yet have come forward to share their situations and who wish to appeal against suspicious or controversial reassignment and transfer decisions – outside or within the mobility policy framework – and attacks to their dignity."

  "We will continue to follow this issue and will keep our members and all staff informed of the latest developments," the AP in FAO statement said.