GS-5 Secretary

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR OFFICE
JOB DESCRIPTION
Vacancy Notice No.:
Organisational Unit/Department:
Position (Title)
Grade:
Duty Station:
Type of contract:
Source of funding :
Duration:
TC/111/Dec.14
ILO Country Office for Bangladesh
Senior Secretary
GS-5
Dhaka, Bangladesh
FT
TC
One year (with the possibility of extension )
Introduction
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is devoted to promoting social justice and internationally
recognized human and labour rights, pursuing its founding mission that labour peace is essential to
prosperity. Today, the ILO helps advance the creation of decent work and the economic and working
conditions that give working people and business people a stake in lasting peace, prosperity and progress.
Its tripartite structure provides a unique platform for promoting decent work for all women and men. Its
main aims are to promote rights at work, encourage decent employment opportunities, enhance social
protection and strengthen dialogue on work-related issues.
The Ready-Made Garment (RMG) sector in Bangladesh has experienced rapid growth over the past 20
years and has reached a point where it is now the country’s largest export earner and employs over 3.5
million workers - of which 80% are women - in approximately 3,500 active factories. It is currently also
the 2nd largest exporter of ready-made garments in the world. However, rapid and unregulated growth can
create serious problems. There exist significant problems in many factories around occupational safety
and health (OSH), working conditions, wage payments, freedom of association, and the lack of effective
human resource management. In addition, weaknesses in national labour administration, industrial
relations and social dialogue systems exacerbate and prolong non-compliance with national laws and
regulations. These problems and weaknesses lie at the heart of the series of industrial tragedies the RMG
sector witnessed over the past 7 months. Two factory fires and a building collapse which housed five
RMG factories took the lives of over 1,200 people and injured many more.
The ILO has been actively engaged with its constituents in Bangladesh to further Decent Work. The ILO
support to date has allowed it to play a central role in assisting the constituents in developing a response
to these tragedies and towards upgrading of the RMG industry as a whole. This has resulted in 1) the
National Tripartite Plan of Action on building and fire safety in garment industry and major commitments
by the Government of Bangladesh Compact. Global brands and buyers (Accord and Alliance) have also
announced a number of commitments in support of improving safety and working conditions in garment
industry in Bangladesh. The ILO is being asked to provide comprehensive technical assistance to
government and to provide coordination for a series of related initiatives.
The ILO is also launching a new programme, “Improving Working Conditions in the Ready-Made
Garment Industry”, as part of its response to the recent tragedies, which is designed to support the
National Tripartite Plan of Action.
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Guidance and Supervision:
The Senior Secretary will work under the overall guidance and supervision of the Director, ILO
Country Office for Bangladesh.
Duties
1. Arrange appointments and maintain the supervisor’s calendar. Receive visitors, place
and screen telephone calls, and answer queries with discretion.
2. Search for and prepare briefing materials for the supervisor for use on official trips,
Special meetings and for action. Collect, solicit and coordinate briefing materials for
the supervisor’s missions and meetings, ensuring that submission timetables are
adhered to. Select and make pertinent abstracts and undertake searches for
information.
3. Arrange meetings with high-ranking officials and arrange official receptions.
4. Participate in the organization and preparation of staff or special meetings, and take
minutes and/or notes. Make all important arrangements and facilities for conducting
workshops and seminars.
5. Prepare informal translations, and may act as interpreter.
6. Receive, screen, log and route correspondence, attach necessary background
information, maintain follow-up system, and draw the attention of the supervisor to
matters requiring immediate and/or personal attention. Open, record and re-direct
confidential mail.
7. Coordinate the secretarial services of the office, distribute special assignments to
other secretaries, and check and correct correspondence prepared by other staff for the
supervisor’s signature. Brief and train new secretaries and give guidance to other
secretaries on office procedures.
8. Provide office management and administrative support services to other professional
staff, when necessary.
9. Draft non-substantive correspondence and ensure follow-up.
10. Take and transcribe dictation on a variety of subject matters, ensuring that spelling,
punctuation and format are correct. Type correspondence, documents, reports, etc. some
of which are highly confidential.
11. Maintain policy, confidential, leave records, personnel and general management files.
12. Maintain contacts with officials in government offices, ministries, workers’ and
employers’ organizations and UN agencies, and update relevant lists.
13. Make travel arrangements for the supervisor and perform liaison duties with other
units.
14. Perform other duties as assigned by the supervisor or the officer-in-charge including
ensuring that required faxes, email, pouch and express mail are sent and that
INTERNATIONAL LABOUR OFFICE
JOB DESCRIPTION
information on web sites is updated.
Education – Completion of secondary school education and secretarial training.
Successful completion of the typing and standard office computer applications test is
compulsory. Some Offices may require successful completion of the shorthand test.
Experience – Six to seven years of secretarial experience, and formal secretarial training.
Languages – Excellent knowledge of the working language of the duty station and of
another working language. Good knowledge of the local language may be required.
Competencies – Proven ability to use word processing software and email. Ability to use
other software packages required by the work unit. Proven shorthand and typing abilities.
Thorough knowledge of secretarial practices and procedures, and good knowledge of
administrative procedures and practices. Thorough knowledge of modern office
procedures, and computer software packages required for work. Knowledge of in-house
procedures for the preparation of documents and administrative forms, and for the
creation and maintenance of filing systems. Knowledge of protocol. Knowledge of
procedures governing missions and other official travel. Good knowledge of the work of
the office, and the work carried out in other work units. Proven ability to draft nonroutine correspondence and to ensure correct spelling, grammar and punctuation. Proven
ability to take minutes of meetings. Ability to reply in an appropriate manner to telephone
and in-person inquiries. Ability to work well with colleagues. Good organizational skills.
Ability to evaluate correspondence and inquiries for best course of action. Ability to
obtain services from other work units inside or outside the office for completion of tasks.
Ability to search and retrieve information from databases and compile reports. Ability to
respond to requests from high-ranking officials, and to deal with high-level visitors with
tact and diplomacy. Ability to determine relevant background and reference materials for
others, to screen requests for urgency and priority, and to respond to requests requiring
input from various sources. Ability to deal with confidential matters with discretion.
Supervisory skills. Discernment. Excellent time management skills.
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