UN Staffers, Threatened with Lay-Offs, are Offered Early Retirement

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 12 2025 (IPS)

The United Nations, facing a liquidity crisis, has been threatening to lay-off about 20 percent of its estimated 37,000 employees world-wide: a proposed move that has triggered widespread protests from staff unions both in New York and Geneva.

But in a new development last week, the Office of Human Resources (OHR) in the Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance (DMSPC), has introduced “an early separation programme in the interest of the good administration of the Organization aimed at mitigating the negative impact resulting from the potential need for future termination of appointments”.

The programme will facilitate the voluntary separation of staff members, including early retirement. The programme is open until 12 September 2025.

The General Assembly in 2017 decided to fix the retirement age at 65 years, effective 1 January 2018, from 62 in earlier years.

Ian Richards, President, Staff Union, UN Office at Geneva (UNOG), told IPS: “It’s by mutual agreement so let’s see how many take it up”.

He pointed out “it will certainly clear space before Guy Ryder (the Under-Secretary-General (USG) who heads the UN reform restructuring process called UN80) implements his across-the-board cuts, but this brings us to the bigger question: what is the strategy behind UN80?”

These cuts, warned Richards, will be painful on beneficiaries and the organisation. There will be no appetite to do another round of cuts next year.

“So, by cutting across the board instead of determining what we’re good at, and then shifting resources there, we are effectively freezing the status quo for the time being”.

At the same time, he pointed out, junior posts are being cut while USG positions are preserved, and HQ is being fragmented across multiple European duty stations.

Will all this make us stronger and our work more effective? asked Richards.

And it is notable that, according to a recent survey, staff do not have confidence in Ryder’s management of UN80 and only 18 percent have confidence in the SG’s leadership overall. That’s not great, he declared.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said last month that UN departments and UN’s headquarters in New York and Geneva have been asked to review whether some teams can be relocated to lower-cost duty stations, reduced or abolished.

Guy Candusso, a former First Vice-President of the UN Staff Union in New York, told IPS the UN has offered buyout packages at various times and it was a popular option especially if you were close to retirement.

Sometimes they offered enhanced packages. At one time they came up with means to bridge your healthcare to your early retirement age. (medical coverage was always an important consideration), he said.

“There was a big downsizing exercise during USG Connors’ time (Joseph Connor, UN Under-Secretary-General for Administration and Management) and in the end. no one lost their job. Many staff left the organization, found other jobs or moved to other locations, said Candusso.

Stephanie Hodge, an international evaluator and a former UN advisor who has worked across 140 countries, dismissed “early retirement” as “disguised abolishment”. She told IPS the UN’s downsizing crisis has a human cost.

The United Nations is in crisis, she said.

With a projected 20% cut in staffing and a growing cash crunch, the Organization is rolling out an “early separation programme” under the UN80 Initiative. On paper, it’s voluntary: staff may step away early, with benefits, “in the interest of good administration.” The stated goal is to soften the impact of future layoffs.

The language sounds fair — even generous — until you look at what’s really happening, said Hodge, a former staffer at UNDP (1994-1996 & 1999- 2004) and at UNICEF (2008-2014).

Early retirement in the UN system is a voluntary act. You weigh your options, decide to leave before mandatory retirement age, and receive a package that reflects both your years of service and your choice to go early. It is usually framed as a dignified conclusion to a career, said Hodge.

Abolishment of post is the opposite. It is an involuntary separation — your position is eliminated, often with minimal chance of redeployment. You get a termination indemnity, not a retirement package. Your pension stops growing on the day you leave.

Your access to after-service health insurance is only guaranteed if you meet rigid thresholds. You have legal appeal rights, but the process is complex, resource-intensive, and stacked against those already reeling from job loss, she argued.

“I didn’t get early retirement. I got abolishment”.

“There was no choice, no negotiation, no meaningful chance to transfer into a comparable post. When the door closed, I was offered work — but only on a gig basis. No benefits. No job security. No downtime. The workload was relentless, the protections of the international civil service stripped away. In exchange for decades of service, I was pushed into precarious contract labor, with none of the safeguards that define the UN’s employment model.”

For those inside the system, she said, the difference between voluntary and involuntary separation isn’t just semantic — it’s the difference between leaving with stability and being pushed out into uncertainty.

For those outside, it’s easy to miss how the UN’s framing conceals a harder truth: downsizing can be weaponized. Abolishment can target individuals, bypass procedural fairness, and erode protections without openly admitting to wrongful dismissal.

“This matters beyond my own case. If the UN replaces long-term, secure posts with short-term, benefit-free contracts, it undermines the very concept of the international civil service — the independence, loyalty, and stability that allow staff to serve the world without fear of political or financial retaliation. What we risk is a hollowed-out institution, staffed by overworked contractors with no voice, no recourse, and no institutional memory”, said Hodge.

If the UN truly wants to “mitigate harm,” it must start by acknowledging the sharp divide between voluntary early retirement and forced abolishment. And it must stop treating seasoned staff as disposable assets in a budget spreadsheet, she said.

“I’ve lived the consequences — and I can tell you, the gap between what’s promised and what’s delivered isn’t just a policy flaw. It’s a human cost,” she declared.

Naïma Abdellaoui, a member of the Executive Bureau of UNOG Staff Union, told IPS this programme is presented as voluntary.

“However, I heard from fellow staff reps, namely the officeholders of UNOG SU, that staff are encouraged to apply because those who do not apply early enough may not get a separation package! This is psychological coercion”.

The only criterion is age. Is this not discriminatory against older staff members?, she asked.

This move, she pointed out, may also be aimed at depriving the UN of its institutional memory, a concept that used to be cherished in our Organization.

Meanwhile, the UN message to staffers also said the early separation programme is open to staff members who meet all of the following criteria:

• • are in the Professional and higher categories, Field Service category, and General Service and related categories, including but not limited to National Professional Officers, Trades and Crafts and Security Service categories;
• • hold a career appointment (i.e., permanent, continuing or indefinite) or a fixed-term appointment (without any limitation);
• • have completed at least five years of continuous service with the Organization as of 31 December 2025;
• • will be 55 years of age or above on 31 December 2025; and
• • will not have reached the mandatory age of separation of 65 on or before 30 June 2026.

Terms and conditions
The terms and conditions of the early separation programme are in accordance with the UN Staff Regulations and Rules and other conditions reflected in OHR PG/2025/5 on Early separation programme, including an ineligibility period for re-employment.

Staff members who are separated under this programme will be precluded from employment as a staff member, consultant or individual contractor, or in any other capacity, with the UN Secretariat or any of the UN common system organizations, for a period corresponding to the months of the termination indemnity paid to the staff member.

The separation of staff members under this programme will be a termination with the consent of the staff member, i.e., a separation from service mutually agreed upon by the staff member and the Organization.

Staff members should consider any potential impact of the programme on their visa status.

There will be no additional termination indemnity payment beyond the amounts provided in Annex III to the Staff Regulations and no payment of compensation in lieu of notice. Staff members must serve their applicable notice period prior to the mutually agreed effective date of separation.

Final approval of the mutually agreed separation will be subject to the availability of budget and liquidity, consistent with the interest of the good administration of the Organization as determined by the Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance (DMSPC).

The Organization reserves the right to decline or defer a staff member’s application for mutually agreed early separation. In case of deferral, the period of time during which the notice will be served by the staff member will accordingly be aligned to the mutually agreed early separation date.

IPS UN Bureau Report