US embassy cable - 03THEHAGUE1737

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 THE HAGUE 001737 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR HR/OE/CMD - SUSAN LUMSDEN 
ALSO FOR EUR/EX/PMO - JOHN HIGI 
FRANKFURT FOR RSC/HR 
 
E.O. 12958:N/A 
TAGS: AFSN, AMGT, KSEP, KICA 
SUBJECT: LES: CY 2004 COMPENSATION QUESTIONNAIRE 
 
REF: STATE 107235 
 
1. Summary. This is Post's response to compensation 
questionnaire requested in ref telegram.  The answers are 
keyed to questions from paragraph 2 until 6.  End Summary. 
 
2. Questionnaire 
A.   Desired Labor Market Position - 72nd Percentile. 
A1.Post's desired labor market position for FSN compensation 
remains at the 72nd percentile for all grades.  Post's most 
recent wage increase, implemented on May 18, 2003, including 
several different percentage increases, brings post's 
overall average market position to the 67th percentile. 
Salary adjustment of the previous year brought us to the 
62nd percentile.  Post believes that bringing salaries to a 
competitive position in the labor market will continue to 
help us in recruiting and retaining LE staff. 
 
Post does not have an existing Exception Rate range. 
 
A2.  N/A 
 
A3.  N/A 
 
A4.  N/A 
B.  Recruitment/Retention Needs. 
B1. No. Post had particular problems getting qualified 
applicants for the Voucher Examiner, Human Resources 
Assistant and Consular job vacancies. 
 
B2.  One offer for the HR Assistant position was refused for 
reason a) low salary. 
 
B3. No. It is not locally prevailing practice to list salary 
ranges in job advertisements.  Post, however, has an open 
policy to provide compensation information to any potential 
applicant.  During job interviews, we routinely discuss all 
aspects of compensation, including basic salary. 
 
B4.  14 employees separated from post employment during CY 
02. 
 
B5. 
a) better employment: 4 
b) better salary: none 
c) rif: none 
d) retirement or separation: none 
e) separated for cause or resigned in lieu of: 2 
f) personal reason: 8 
g) other: none 
h) total number of separation: 14 
 
C. Current Staffing 
C1. Total number of employees of all USG agencies paid under 
the Local Compensation Plan, listed by grade level: 
 
FSN-12:  0 
FSN-11:  6 
FSN-10:  9 
FSN-9:  10 
FSN-8:  13 
FSN-7:  14 
FSN-6:  16 
FSN-5:   4 
FSN-4:  25 
FSN-3:   1 
FSN-2:   0 
Total:  98 
 
C2. Average step rate of employees by grade: 
FSN-12:  0 
FSN-11: 10 
FSN-10: 10 
FSN-9:   9 
FSN-8:   9 
FSN-7:   9 
FSN-6:   7 
FSN-5:   4 
FSN-4:   8 
FSN-3:   4 
FSN-2:   0 
Overall average: 8 
 
C3. Total estimated annual cash compensation cost for State 
Department in US dollars projected for the FY03 full year 
publications for all LE staff positions (direct hire, PSA, 
and PSC), including DS and other State entities is 
3.9 million dollars. 
 
D. Host Country Unemployment. 
D1. a) Moderate 
Unemployment rate is still low by EU standards although the 
figure is rapidly rising.  Last year, we reported a rate of 
2 percent but the figure for CY 02 doubled to 4 percent. 
Unemployment rate from March to May of this year was 5.3 
percent. 
 
D2. Job Category where unemployment is high. 
 
a) Blue collar, although unemployment rates in the other 
areas are on the rise especially, in the technology sector. 
 
E. DOS:M.Campbell, FAS:P.Letarte, FCS:A.Maffry, DAO:J. 
Crews, ODC:M Rumohr, NASA:M.Fawcett, ABMC:R.Nybroten, 
AMCONGEN:A.Campbell 
 
3. N/A 
4. N/A. 
5. 
A.LE Staff in CSR: 
--DOS: 6 
--DOD/DAO: 1 
 
B.   Local Income Taxes: (1) LE staff is legally liable for 
   host country income taxes and are subject to the same tax 
   rates as employees of other companies. 
C. Post does not have a Separation for Age Plan for LE 
Staff. 
 
D. ERR's: None at post. 
 
6. N/A. 
 
7. Post looks forward to hearing from HR/OE on future 
compensation developments. 
 
BAILY