Radio Australia
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
There's been a breakthrough in a salary dispute that threatened to disrupt the trial of former Khmer Rouge leaders. Some tribunal staff were worried by potential plans to cut staff salaries, to ensure a 56 million US dollar budget would last three years the process is expected to take.
Presenter/Interviewer: Rob Sharp
Speakers: Dr Helen Jarvis, Chief of Public Affairs with the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia
JARVIS: We are just in the process actually of releasing a statement by four parties that have been involved, that is of course the Extraordinary Chambers ourselves. The United Nations Development Program, UNDP, the United Nations headquarters which is involved through the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and the fourth organisation is the European Community. And this has been an explanation of a project forward meeting held last Friday.
SHARP: There was concern last Friday of the 56 million dollar budget for the three year process, has that issue been resolved?
JARVIS: The problem of the overall budget has been one that we've been aware of for some time. Of course we're aware that there is a shortfall of approximately four million on each side, both the Cambodian side and the UN side, and that has been the case since the pledging in March of 2005. However we are relatively optimistic that that will be met. We haven't engaged in a second appeal because we are waiting to get the process really underway, and we didn't think it was appropriate to be asking for more funds when we're still in the early stages. We've now gone through to have the internal rules approved and the investigating process is getting underway. So it'll be within a few months that we will do a consolidated revaluation of what we are likely to need and make a second appeal.
SHARP: In the meantime will staff face pay cuts at all?
JARVIS: I don't believe so, I think that actually two issues have been contemplated here. There's been an ongoing issue about the shortfall in the overall budget, and in fact some revisions of expectations that will mean that we are lucky to actually ask for more funds beyond the original 56 that was requested. However that has been as I say an ongoing situation, and at the same time there has been some comment about reviewing or examining relativities of staff salaries between the UN side and the Cambodian side and looking actually at the absolute salaries being paid. But I don't see those two really as linked, they just happen to be going on at the same time.
SHARP: There was a comment last Friday from one judge who said the impending salary crisis could cause a walkout by local staff. Do you believe that's been averted now?
JARVIS: Well I think in any institution if you did suggest to people that they cut, their salary was going to be cut by 45, 50 per cent you would expect to have a reaction, and I don't think that our institution is different in that regard. The Cambodian government agreed with the United Nations in 2004 that the salary scale for the Cambodian professional staff, the national professional staff, which actually amount to about 48 people, would be set at 50 per cent of the UN rate. There has been some discussion about precisely what the 50 per cent was 50 per cent of; i.e. is it a net rate, a gross rate, does it include allowances etc. And so there's been some discussion about it. But the principle of the 50 per cent was a well established one and has been our operating procedure for the last year since we setup the court. If I can just expand on that a little bit, at the time of the negotiations there were different points of view put forward. Some people argued that the national and international staff should get the same salary, that after all they had the same responsibilities, they had the same tasks and the same obligations and they should receive the same remuneration, as is the case in for instance Sierra Leone where national and international are getting the same rate at hybrid court. Other people argued that since the Cambodian government had wanted the Extraordinary Chambers to be in the courts of Cambodia that the Cambodian staff should be paid as normal national government officials, and the internationals would come in on the UN rate. I think there are different considerations being looked at about possibilities of adjustment, but I don't see it as an impending crisis. I think that it can be worked through.
SHARP: So is it fair to say Helen Jarvis that all agencies and bodies concerned in this salary dispute have agreed to work towards a resolution?
JARVIS: Yes I think that's indeed a good way of putting it.
Presenter/Interviewer: Rob Sharp
Speakers: Dr Helen Jarvis, Chief of Public Affairs with the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia
JARVIS: We are just in the process actually of releasing a statement by four parties that have been involved, that is of course the Extraordinary Chambers ourselves. The United Nations Development Program, UNDP, the United Nations headquarters which is involved through the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and the fourth organisation is the European Community. And this has been an explanation of a project forward meeting held last Friday.
SHARP: There was concern last Friday of the 56 million dollar budget for the three year process, has that issue been resolved?
JARVIS: The problem of the overall budget has been one that we've been aware of for some time. Of course we're aware that there is a shortfall of approximately four million on each side, both the Cambodian side and the UN side, and that has been the case since the pledging in March of 2005. However we are relatively optimistic that that will be met. We haven't engaged in a second appeal because we are waiting to get the process really underway, and we didn't think it was appropriate to be asking for more funds when we're still in the early stages. We've now gone through to have the internal rules approved and the investigating process is getting underway. So it'll be within a few months that we will do a consolidated revaluation of what we are likely to need and make a second appeal.
SHARP: In the meantime will staff face pay cuts at all?
JARVIS: I don't believe so, I think that actually two issues have been contemplated here. There's been an ongoing issue about the shortfall in the overall budget, and in fact some revisions of expectations that will mean that we are lucky to actually ask for more funds beyond the original 56 that was requested. However that has been as I say an ongoing situation, and at the same time there has been some comment about reviewing or examining relativities of staff salaries between the UN side and the Cambodian side and looking actually at the absolute salaries being paid. But I don't see those two really as linked, they just happen to be going on at the same time.
SHARP: There was a comment last Friday from one judge who said the impending salary crisis could cause a walkout by local staff. Do you believe that's been averted now?
JARVIS: Well I think in any institution if you did suggest to people that they cut, their salary was going to be cut by 45, 50 per cent you would expect to have a reaction, and I don't think that our institution is different in that regard. The Cambodian government agreed with the United Nations in 2004 that the salary scale for the Cambodian professional staff, the national professional staff, which actually amount to about 48 people, would be set at 50 per cent of the UN rate. There has been some discussion about precisely what the 50 per cent was 50 per cent of; i.e. is it a net rate, a gross rate, does it include allowances etc. And so there's been some discussion about it. But the principle of the 50 per cent was a well established one and has been our operating procedure for the last year since we setup the court. If I can just expand on that a little bit, at the time of the negotiations there were different points of view put forward. Some people argued that the national and international staff should get the same salary, that after all they had the same responsibilities, they had the same tasks and the same obligations and they should receive the same remuneration, as is the case in for instance Sierra Leone where national and international are getting the same rate at hybrid court. Other people argued that since the Cambodian government had wanted the Extraordinary Chambers to be in the courts of Cambodia that the Cambodian staff should be paid as normal national government officials, and the internationals would come in on the UN rate. I think there are different considerations being looked at about possibilities of adjustment, but I don't see it as an impending crisis. I think that it can be worked through.
SHARP: So is it fair to say Helen Jarvis that all agencies and bodies concerned in this salary dispute have agreed to work towards a resolution?
JARVIS: Yes I think that's indeed a good way of putting it.
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