Article II. NGOs will enact employee compensation practices that strengthen the public sector.
NGOs recognize their collective history in creating inequitable pay structures that favor expatriates at the expense of national employees. The signatories to this code pledge that they will attempt to create pay structures that acknowledge differences in expertise and training, irrespective of the employee’s nationality.
- NGOs commit to advocate for fair monetary compensation for work done by all employees, across the health care system, including salaries for community health workers.
- NGOs that hire health workers, managers and other skilled personnel in the countries where they work will offer salaries that are “locally competitive,” striving for salaries that are not substantially more generous than the public sector while providing a fair and living wage to their employees.
- NGOs sometimes pay “top-ups” (compensation payments that supplement public salaries) to public sector staff to secure their services for contract work. In general, NGOs will avoid this practice, as it creates inequities, increases burdens on existing staff and fails to add new workforce to the health sector.
- NGOs commit to limiting pay and benefits inequity between expatriate and national, rural and urban, and ministry and NGO workers. Compensation structures that provide incentives for rural service are encouraged and gender-related disparities are disallowed.
- NGOs will establish benefit structures that are based on the needs of employees and, at a minimum, match public sector practices, including retirement plans. Where public sector benefits or pay structures are inadequate, NGOs will collaborate with the public sector to improve them.
- Any privileges granted to expatriate employees will also be granted to national employees of similar qualification and responsibility, such as the opportunity to work from home or access to personal transportation.
I have read through the “compensation practices” page, and wish to indicate a reason for not adding my organisations signature to the COC - namely, the sentence stating “NGOs recognize their collective history in creating inequitable pay structures that favor expatriates at the expense of national employees.” suggests that all signatories to this COC were responsible for the inequitable pay structures!! Our organisation has not been party to this practice, and I woudl therefor suggest that the sentence is changed to be less specific - something like” while we recognise that in the past NGO’s have contributed to the creation of inequitable pay structures that favor expatriates at the expense of national employees, it is our intention through adherence to the following principles to…..”. I hope that this suggestion would be viewed as a positive suggestion of what appears to be a step in the right direction..
May 6th, 2008 at 8:05 pmregards
Vincent Shaw
My impression of the statement is not about any specific NGO but the history of NGO’s as a whole and the social, political, and economic context in which they came into being, proliferated, and in many cases still work today. I understand the statement to mean that all NGOs are responsible for understanding their place in this history as a step in taking action to ensure just practices today. I am glad to hear that your organization is employing equitable strategies now, however, to cite your progress as a reason not to sign seems a pejorative act of self-distancing from an uncomfortable reality more than a statement of principle. As a white man living in a racialized society, I cannot simply claim that I am not a racist person and therefore no longer part of the larger problems of white privilege and the oppression of people of colour. Removing myself from the problem in this does not allow me to work as a part of the solution. Instead, I must own the historical context which has formed my worldview and informs my position in society as a white person. It becomes the responsibility of those working to end unjust practices and policies to ADMIT that such problems exist today and that we are all a part of that problem before we can be leaders in creating change. So, I would call upon you, Mr. Shaw, to embrace a commitment to continue your progressive work AS A SIGNER of the COC and become a leader of change from inside the position of privilege that an NGO assumes. This is the principled statement that those served by your organization deserve.
October 19th, 2011 at 10:28 pm