The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2005

“human resources officer single-hand- edly decided that my previous work experience did not matter and that I would start at the lowest grade for which the position was announced.” EFM salaries can also be affected by the relatively new CAJE system, the Computer Aided Job Evaluation, which is being used to reclassify FSN positions around the world. EFM Joyce Otero, in Prague, explains that she was hired for an embassy job in the security office with a salary based on her highest previous rate. “But after one year, this all changed when the position was CAJE-ed at a lower grade.” Her salary will be reduced because her pay level was higher than the highest rate available under the newly classified position. Post budgets can be affected by the needs of other posts. An EFM at a Latin American post pointed out that the Iraq War has affected employ- ment: “Cost-cutting measures are under way here, supposedly due to the cost of Iraq. … I’ve been told that upper managers try to save money to ‘look good,’ letting support staff be overworked even when there are back-up workers available to help them, at a much lower rate.” The Family Liaison Office has argued that EFM positions should be centrally funded. However, because most positions fall under ICASS (the International Cooperative Administra- tive Support Services, which mandates the sharing of administrative costs among agencies), this idea has not gone anywhere. However, State Department local-hire positions not covered by ICASS — generally those outside the management section — could be centrally funded, and the FLO believes this could help stan- dardize the salaries and practices for FMA hiring. Local Economies Many family members complain that in competition for embassy jobs with locals, they usually lose. This is the case despite the statutory prefer- ence for AEFMs in hiring for embassy jobs. There seem to be plenty of ways around hiring an EFM, if the post prefers a Foreign Service National. Often it comes down to money, because in most of the world, it’s cheaper to hire a local than an EFM. In many cases, however, there are other reasons for a post to prefer to hire a local over an EFM: Foreign Service assignment cycles dictate that EFMs will not stay on the job nearly as long as most FSNs; FSNs are usually native speakers of the host-country language; FSNs tend to know the local environment best and have vital con- tacts and access to the local communi- ty and/or government officials that an EFM usually would not have. The issue of which positions should remain Foreign Service National slots and which should be filled by family members is a contentious one. The department is working to open more FSN positions to family members to increase EFM employment opportu- nities. According to current depart- ment policy, all non-sensitive positions should be open to qualified EFM applicants. A pilot program being test- ed by the Western Hemisphere Bureau aims to bring more EFMs into FSN positions. Many family members note that post management often uses language requirements to ensure that FSN positions are filled by local applicants rather than American EFMs. In most regions of the world out- side of Europe, FSNs earn substan- tially lower salaries than Americans, because FSN salaries are based on (the high end of) local-salary norms. When an EFM is hired into a position previously encumbered by an FSN, the cost to the post, in most parts of the world, is higher because the EFM is paid on the American compensation plan. So, while the salary may be low compared to FS colleagues in the embassy, it is high compared to most FSN salaries. Because locally-hired staff get paid out of post funds, there is an obvious preference for hiring at the more affordable local rate. The opposite is true in Europe, where the local com- pensation plan, and the euro and British-pound exchange rate, translate into higher costs than in most of the rest of the world. One EFM in London noted that “the hourly pay levels for most EFM positions in London were more than 20 percent less than for the FSNs in the same positions, and less than what is paid to a good cleaner.” The Hiring Process The hiring process varies from post to post. Some posts hire EFMs sight unseen, some without an inter- view. Others do not. The attitudes held by management at individual posts seem to play a strong role in determining how the selection process for EFM jobs works. A Post Employment Committee can help manage the process. But not all posts have a PEC, even though they are all, according to Foreign Affairs Manual regulations, supposed to have one. Each post is also sup- posed to have a written “post 70 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 0 5 USAID is implementing a policy to make a significant number of additional positions available to EFMs.