WIPO Publishes Report On Its Workforce

The United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization has released statistics on its workforce showing that 118 countries are represented in WIPO staff, some 50 percent of which benefit from permanent contracts, while the organisation has become a strong magnet for job applicants, over 12,000 in 2017.

The publication [pdf] titled, Shaping WIPO’s Future Workforce 2018, breaks down workforce numbers into several categories, including type of staff appointment and geographical repartition.

WIPO currently has 1,162 staff members of which 73 are at the director level and higher (51 men and 22 women); 510 are at the professional level (262 men and 248 women); and 495 work for general services (187 men and 308 women). The report also says that 44 people are on temporary contracts for general service, and three people are United Nations staff on loan.

Over half of the staff is permanent (635 – 54,6 percent), while 369 people are on fixed-term contracts (31,8 percent), and 60 of them are on temporary contract (5.2 percent).

According to the publication, 73 WIPO member states are not represented in WIPO staff. Examples include: Angola, Botswana, Dominican Republic, Estonia, Gambia, Kuwait, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Panama, Paraguay, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

The ten most represented countries in WIPO staff are neighbouring France (310), the United Kingdom (71), Switzerland (52), United States (47), China (41), Japan (39), Italy (38), Germany (37), Spain (35), and Canada (25).

Some 44 percent of staff in the professional and higher categories, regular and temporary staff come from European countries (286), while 122 come from countries from the Asia and the Pacific region, 60 from North America, 65 from African countries, 47 from Latin America, 50 from Eastern and Central Europe and Central Asia, and 11 from the Middle East.

The report also contains data on staff areas of focus, showing that more than 32 percent work on patents, and on productivity, showing that while the number of staff – and staff costs – have risen in the organisation, so has worker productivity.

Appointments, Retirements

Some 12,500 job applications were received by the WIPO secretariat in 2017. Among them, 2,140 came from Western Europe with 15 appointments; 1,210 came from Asia and the Pacific, with 14 appointments; 1,181 came from Africa with 2 appointments; 1,025 from Eastern and Central Europe and Central Asia, with 2 appointments, and 476 from North America with 11 appointments.

Over the next 5 years, some 193 staff are expected to retire, mainly in professional and general service categories, followed by director and executive positions.

From 2014 to 2018, the publication shows, 98 people retired, 51 appointments were terminated, 30 people resigned, 25 appointments expired, 8 people were disabled, 7 people were transferred (inter-agency), and 2 people died.

According to the publication, WIPO provided close to 6,000 training days for staff, most of it for languages, then communication, management, IT and registration systems. With 3,953 participants.

Conflicts

Between July 2014 and June 2018, 83 requests were received by staff for review of administrative decisions, with an upturn over the past year. Of those filed: 8 were for rebuttals of performance appraisals; 15 for harassment; 78 for internal appeals at the WIPO Appeal Board; and 33 complaints were filed to the UN International Labour Organization Administrative Tribunal, according to the publication.

 

Image Credits: WIPO