LES: CY 2004 COMPENSATION QUESTIONNAIRE

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