Sometimes, those national staff who are asked to do more or higher-level work during an emergency will ask for more salary. Note that this could include those staff who remain in their place of residence (not in the emergency area) but are asked to cover additional or higher levels of responsibility for those who have left the office to go on TDY for the emergency.
As in all topics in this manual, the CP HR department must take the lead in determining what to do about this. But here is some information that might help them:
There is an international staff policy to follow as precedent in these situations. CRS standard operating procedure for international staff says that those who are asked to “act” in the place of a higher level authority who is absent (e.g. asked to be the Acting Head of Logistics) will be eligible for 10% additional pay after the person has been carrying out the additional responsibilties for three months.
That is, at the beginning of the staff person’s fourth month “acting” in a higher level position, management can decide to pay the employee an additional 10% of the person’s current salary from that point onwards (but not retroactively for the three months which have already passed.)
For those who remain in their normal office and normal job but are working longer hours, the “acting” policy does not apply. However, you can consider extending the same Hardship Pay to them that people working in the emergency zone might be receiving.
If you decide to make either of these adjustments for people, be very careful in doing so. Make sure that from the outset:
- The staff persons concerned know that this is a temporary adjustment, lasting only as long as the person is taking on more work or is in that higher-level position.
- The reasons for each temporary salary increase are properly documented and authorized and the paperwork is with HR. (example: a comparison of responsibilities between normal responsibilities and temporary responsibilities). This will help you explain your decision to do this for some but not for others.
- You have put a reminder on your calendar to review the matter in the future and the staff people concerned know when that review will be (and thus when the situation may come to an end).
- You plan to send reminders to staff a few weeks before the temporary situation ends, reminding them of the upcoming date when the arrangement will end.
If you come to a point where you would like to make a temporary “acting” arrangement into a permanent change for the staff person concerned, make sure to follow established CP HR policy for making that change.