FSA MEDIA RELEASE

MFAT partners letter to CEO on proposed restructuring

Partners of staff affected by proposed changes at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have sent a letter to the CEO highlighting the likely impacts on both careers and the effectiveness of NZ’s diplomacy.

12 March, 2012
John Allen
CEO
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Dear John

MFAT spouses and partners have a unique perspective on the likely impacts of the Ministry’s proposed restructuring on the careers of our partners and the effectiveness of New Zealand’s diplomacy.

MFAT partners have been explicitly excluded from the consultation process but we are determined to be heard on issues that will directly influence our willingness to continue to make the sacrifices and contributions that being the partner of an MFAT officer demands. More than 180 partners have come together using social media to share our grave concerns about the proposed restructuring.

Given the lack of any formal avenue to convey our views, we have chosen to present them in this open letter. Consistent with the past practice of constructive dialogue and consultation with partners, we ask that MFAT:

Reconsider the path on which it is setting the organisation with this proposed dismantling of the professional foreign service,

Recognise MFAT partners as key stakeholders in the future of MFAT,

Initiate a consultation process with MFAT partners on the impacts and implications of the proposed restructuring,

Allow the Family Liaison Coordinator to communicate and liaise with MFAT partners freely throughout the consultation on the restructuring.

What value can partners add to this consultation?

As MFAT partners we have a thorough understanding of the demands of a diplomatic career, and a legitimate voice in commenting on the likelihood that the restructuring will succeed in its aim of retaining good staff.

All MFAT partners and families have felt and absorbed the consequences of accompanying MFAT staff overseas We have:
• travelled and served in inhospitable and insecure environments;
• accepted disruption to careers and schooling;
• absorbed loss of income and pension; and
• suffered the impacts of long absences from family and friends.

In doing so we have committed ourselves to supporting the career of our MFAT partner and sharing in their responsibility to represent New Zealand in the manner that Government Ministers, government agencies, businesses and citizens in trouble expect. We have done this with pride, buoyed by the knowledge that we were contributing to the Ministry’s work to help New Zealand get ahead and to secure New Zealand’s future in a rapidly changing worked. We have done this confident that the Ministry acknowledged and valued our contributions.
But a tipping point has now been reached.

How Do MFAT Diplomatic Careers and Postings Affect Us As Partners?
72% of MFAT staff currently posted offshore have partners. The reason that the restructuring proposals to change the MFAT career structure and remuneration packages are so relevant to partners is made clear by the results of a survey of partners:
- 100% of responding partners (83) were or had been in full time employment in NZ or their country of origin.
- Of these, only 1 had not had to resign from their employment to join their partner on posting.
- Only 14 partners had been able to find comparable employment – either on posting or return to NZ (i.e. 83% had not).
- While in Wellington, 92% of respondents confirmed their incomes make a necessary contribution to their family budget.
- 55% of partners had been in a NZ superannuation scheme, of which 61% had had to leave or suspend the scheme to accompany their MFAT partner on posting.
- 83% of partners felt they were in a worse position in terms of their current employment status compared to what they could have expected had they not been an MFAT partner.
Further to the above, partners’ experience highlights how:
- A lack of ‘New Zealand work experience’ works against reemployment of partners upon return from posting (even for those who have successfully worked offshore).
- Even in countries where there are specific agreements which permit partners of New Zealand diplomats to work, language barriers, local job markets, bureaucratic red tape and economic realities make the prospect of finding comparable employment (to NZ) limited.

- In addition to lost professional progression and opportunities in New Zealand, in most instances, partner and family allowances on posting represent only a portion of the partner income an MFAT couple gives up to go on posting.

The partners’ stories attached to this letter cast a spotlight on the contributions that partners are making to the achievement of MFAT business objectives around the world. Beyond these stories are many more of partners supporting MFAT officers when they host official visitors, network with local contacts, and profile and promote New Zealand.

Until now, we have been proud to be MFAT partners, and proud of our contributions in the service of the Ministry. Historically, MFAT has acknowledged the sacrifices partners make to support the delivery of MFAT outcomes overseas, and the Family Liaison Officer has played an important role in maintaining an open and constructive relationship between partners and the Ministry.

The new proposals seem to work from a false premise that life on posting can somehow be made exactly the same as life in Wellington; or worse: that by seeking rigid fiscal neutrality between Wellington and postings, “fairness” can be achieved. The suggestion that MFAT partners are simply making a lifestyle choice when they accompany partners overseas or support representation activities is a denial of fact and an insult to experience.

While partners and families have long respected and honoured the protocols, confidences and security constraints that come with sharing life with an MFAT officer, it would appear from the restructuring proposals that our respect is no longer reciprocated by the organisation.

Our Views on the Restructuring – a Tipping Point for the Ministry

All of the above highlights the extent to which MFAT couples sacrifice the professional opportunities and prospects of the partner in order to support the career of an MFAT officer.

Up to now, MFAT’s rotational career structure (and security of tenure after posting), the remuneration packages on posting, and the recognition given for the various roles MFAT partners take on at post, have helped justify our sacrifices.

But we consider that the proposed changes, if implemented, will bring the Ministry to a point where partners will no longer be able to support our spouses continuing their careers with MFAT.

MFAT partners take a number of bottom line messages from the restructuring proposals:
- MFAT is no longer a good, stable career option for our partners, and you do not value partnered staff sufficiently to seek to retain them.
- MFAT no longer attributes any value to the contribution of partners to the presentation and representation of New Zealand Inc offshore.
- MFAT is not prepared to recognise the disruption a posting imposes on the lives, income and expectations of MFAT families.

- MFAT no longer recognizes the support that MFAT partners provide staff, operations and actions offshore

The proposed changes to career and remuneration disadvantage MFAT staff with partners and families. As such they provide no incentive in support of MFAT partners and families continuing to make the personal, financial and professional contributions and sacrifices that MFAT and New Zealand’s international reputation rely on to secure foreign policy wins around the world. To that end we have no choice but to encourage our MFAT partners to pursue a career beyond MFAT.

MFAT spouses and partners are in no doubt that the restructuring proposals will seriously threaten the Ministry’s ability to attract and retain the high performing and experienced staff who are our spouses and partners. And the proposals dictate, through changes to career structure and remuneration, that our MFAT partners – your skilled staff - will be significantly less willing to carry out the overseas work which is so essential to the Ministry’s success.

In Conclusion

Through the restructuring proposals you are putting at issue the question of how New Zealand can best achieve its foreign policy objectives and provides services to New Zealanders abroad. This includes securing vital objectives such as obtaining a seat on the Security Council and the securing of trade and economic agreements on which the country critically depends. We do not for a moment question that there are aspects of MFAT that are in need of change. However our only possible conclusion, from the changes you have proposed, is that you have not understood the impact your proposals will have on the Ministry’s ability to attract and retain partnered staff. Refusal to properly consider and understand the impact of your proposals on the commitment of staff and their partners and families to the Ministry would be deeply irresponsible.
Yours sincerely

Bronwen Golder
On behalf of MFAT Partners

Our Questions
Partners’ consideration of the restructuring proposals – both with our MFAT partners and as an independent cohort – has generated the following questions. We look forward to a timely response to the following:

1. Currently there are 360 partners registered on the Family Liaison Coordinator’s Partner database. Of the 251 staff currently offshore, 181 have partners (72% - in line with the national average). Under the proposed changes, what demographic profile do you expect MFAT to have on and offshore in 18 months time?

2. For MFAT staff with partners and family the “employee value proposition” of an MFAT career inherently includes both the direct professional and financial value for the staff member, plus the impact –financial, professional, and personal – on the partner and family. In the past those sacrifices were recignised through both the explicit allowances structure, and through the way MFAT acknowledged partners’ role and consulted them on changes. In light of the proposed axing of allowances, explicit rejection of a partners’ role, and exclusion from consultation, what elements of the MBM and REM are intended to convince MFAT staff and their partners that making professional, income and personal sacrifices is worth it?

3. Why should the one allowance model for all - regardless of family composition - not be interpreted as indirect discrimination on the grounds of marital status and/or family status (proposals that show an MFAT officer overseas will achieve more take home pay if they are single that if they are accompanied by a family can hardly be defended as equitable)?

4. MFAT calls itself a family friendly organisation. Are there any elements of the REM proposal that are specifically intended to be “family friendly” [(other than a proposal to pay for partner continuing education)] that go beyond the required statutory minimum and government “good employer” obligations?

5. Families currently on postings have entered an agreement to move overseas based on the current allowance package. The disestablishment of roles and the significantly changed package for those whose jobs remain will in many instances mean an early return home or add a significant cost for families who stay. How responsible an employer does MFAT consider it has been in sending employees and their families out to posts over recent months without making them aware of the likely disappearance of their job or the proposed changes in income? What support or compensation does MFAT intend to provide staff and families who are now at post and face a starkly changed future and/or economic reality?

6. What consideration has been given to the security implications for MFAT partners and families of the contracting out of residence, representational, event and support services to external agencies?
Stories from partners of contributions made to advance NZ’s interests overseas, helping New Zealanders in difficulty and sacrifices made
Advancing NZ’s interests overseas
As a native speaker in our current host country, and on top of usual responsibilities as partner of Ambassador (oversight of Residence staff & activities including organising representation functions, hosting senior government figures etc), I am the unofficial translator, speech editor (where there are language components), protocol officer, and sometimes arbiter in local staff matters. I am also a member of various boards and advisory councils for local charitable organisations including the local Red Cross Society, and National Planning Committee for the International Women's Day. I also have an excellent network from having grown up here, which has helped my partner (the Ambassador) gain better access to top politicians and heads of government departments, including the Prime Minister. Both John Allen and Murray McCully have expressed gratitude in the not-so-distant past for the part that I play in assisting my partner achieve good results for New Zealand in this country.

During our four and a half years overseas, my husband (as Ambassador) and I hosted over 3,300 official guests at the New Zealand Residence (which also served as our home). In addition, I hosted working lunches for Cabinet Ministers and politicians from our host country, in honour of the New Zealand Prime Minister and Governor General. All of this contributed to the profile and effectiveness of New Zealand diplomacy and economic advocacy in this country.

At short notice - and despite having been provided limited language training by MFAT - I was asked by the Ambassador to act as interpreter and guide for the spouse of a visiting New Zealand Minister. This enabled the Embassy staff to focus their limited resources entirely on the Minister’s schedule.

Helping New Zealanders in difficulty
During Cyclone Heta in Niue, I accommodated, and looked after group of approx 15 tourists, including NZers – sharing all our facilities, including our personal food and water supplies, while also caring for our toddler. This enabled my husband to continue performing his other tasks in responding to the Cyclone.

Fiji, May 2000: George Speight and his mob had taken the Fijian Parliament hostage. The central city had been looted, ransacked and burned. Our house was now inside the cordoned off zone around Parliament. We were told to pack and leave Suva in one hour – we had to leave most things behind – including family heirlooms, personal art work, our cat (and her unconditional love…). Working with an MFAT staff member I then set up a temporary office in a hotel in Nadi, using the equipment from my job working for a local IT company. I helped to track down, call and record every New Zealander in the country, informing them of what was happening, helping those with families to leave and/or advising on the risks of staying. I stayed in the hotel for more than one month, separated from my husband, working tirelessly without compensation in support of MFAT and all New Zealanders in Fiji. My personal resources, contacts, knowledge of Fiji and speed of action, were key contributions to MFAT’s emergency response at the time.

Following the Boxing Day Tsunami in 2004, a significant number of partners helped out in Wellington - especially between Christmas and New Year - answering the hundreds of phone calls and entering data from enquiries about NZers who might be missing/reports that people were ok.

Sacrifices made and hardships faced

For my husband, who does not drink alcohol, MFAT is definitely not about cocktail parties. For myself, having been told that my daughters (one who was a baby and the other a toddler!) and I could not join my husband and our son in a restaurant because we were women and for our children having suffered from amoebic dysentery, pollution induced asthma, and a host of parasitic skin and intestinal conditions I can say that we did not “live it up large” for four years whilst overseas.

• I was present and stayed the whole time during Egypt's revolution. My husband was out of the country at the time on official business when the whole thing blew up I had to pack one big hand bag with minimal provisions and walk through the streets avoiding groups of demonstrators to get myself to our consul’s house. You can only imagine what it was like especially with your eyes and nose stinging from the tear gas. Partners helped out advising New Zealanders. At night - while the Embassy staff worked - we had to barricade the door with chairs and tables to keep looters out as it was just the two of us women. My husband was still out of the country and he was trying very hard to get back into Cairo and the consul was at the airport helping Kiwis leave the country.

• For many of us, it is not only our own lives and careers that are repeatedly disrupted, it is that of our children. These children grow up as "third culture kids" having to forever adapt to different cultures, schools, and environments. They spend much of their childhood away from their whanau and from the values and norms of the New Zealand education system. While many thrive, others struggle. When it is our child that is struggling, we carry on with the burden of guilt and worry. We do it, because we are supported by the broader MFAT family and because we believe in the contribution our partner is making to promoting New Zealand's interests.

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