The Uneven Legal Protection of UN Staff

Abstract

UN organizations, in spite of their lofty social objectives, are no more immune to internal disputes between employees and employers than national bureaucracies or private enterprises. Like many firms in the national context, they have set up formal grievance procedures to deal with disputes, in order to prevent individual problems from growing into collective claims. For the employee, a grievance process is a guarantee that he has a recourse against arbitrary treatment, injustice or administrative error, and that his complaint will be reviewed, and if found justified, he will receive satisfaction.