Recruitment and Employment Policy (staff and consultants)

1. Purpose and scope

This policy explains how the Tunisian Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies (TIPCS) recruits and engages employees and consultants so that every decision is fair, transparent, documented and protected from favouritism. It applies to the Board, the executive administration, every reviewer and panel member, and every candidate for a post or an assignment.

Fellowships, internships and volunteering are not employment and follow their own policies. Procurement of goods and services follows the procurement policy.

2. Definitions

• Candidate: an adult (18 or over) who applies for a post or assignment.
• Staff: a person engaged under an employment contract.
• Consultant: an individual or small firm engaged for a defined deliverable, without an employment relationship.
• Call: the public notice of a post or assignment, with its reference, tasks, requirements, scoring grid and closing date.
• Panel: the people who interview and score shortlisted candidates.

3. Principles

• Open calls first: a post or assignment is published before anyone is selected, except in a documented emergency approved by the Board.
• Merit and transparency: the scoring grid and weights are published in the call and applied identically to every candidate.
• Equal opportunity: no discrimination on grounds of sex, origin, religion, belief, disability or social background.
• No fee: TIPCS never asks a candidate for any payment.
• Honesty: TIPCS does not promise a visa, a permanent job or a recognised qualification as a result of an application.

4. Rules and procedure

The Board supervises; the executive administration manages and signs. Spending, including any commitment of salary or fees, needs three different signatures.

5. Roles and responsibilities

• The Board approves this policy, new posts and the funding architecture, and receives a yearly summary of recruitment.
• The executive administration runs each recruitment, signs contracts and keeps records.
• Reviewers and panel members score honestly, declare conflicts and keep candidate information confidential.
• Line managers conduct induction and probation reviews.
• Records of recruitment decisions, scores and approvals are kept in the access-controlled systems of TIPCS. Personal HR data classes remain under the data-protection rules in section 8.

6. Rights and obligations of the person concerned

Candidates are adults. They have the right to a clear call, an acknowledgement, a decision in their account, and a request for reasonable adjustments in confidence. They must give accurate information, may not canvass panel members, and must have, or be able to obtain, the right to work where the post is based. Staff and consultants must respect the code of conduct, safeguarding and confidentiality commitments. Terms are set in an individual written agreement.

7. Legal framework

• Code du travail (loi n° 66-27 du 30 avril 1966): general rules for employment relations, to be applied in the contract.
• Code de la sécurité sociale (loi n° 60-30 du 14 décembre 1960): social-security obligations of the employer, in general terms.
• Code des obligations et des contrats: contracts for consultants.
• Organic Law 2004-63 of 27 July 2004 on personal data: how candidate data is handled.
• Décret-loi n° 2011-88 du 24 septembre 2011 on associations: governance, accounting and transparency of TIPCS.
• Organic Law 2018-50 of 23 October 2018 on racial discrimination: no discrimination in hiring.
• Loi organique n° 2017-58 du 11 août 2017: protection of women from violence, including at work.

8. Data protection

Candidate and staff data is processed under Organic Law 2004-63. The TIPCS declaration to the INPDP is in progress. Data is used only for recruitment and employment, seen only by those who need it, and kept securely. Retention periods: [period to be fixed by the Board after the INPDP declaration]. Candidates in the talent pool are covered by the talent pool and candidate data policy. No automated system makes a hiring or rejection decision.

Controller: Tunisian Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies (TIPCS), registered office Avenue Mahmoud Bourguiba, Monastir 5000, Tunisia; contact Contact@tipcs.org. Under Organic Law 2004-63 you may ask to be informed about how your data is used, to access it, to have it corrected, to object to its processing and to have it deleted, within the limits of that law, by writing to Contact@tipcs.org. If you are not satisfied with our answer, you may complain to the National Authority for the Protection of Personal Data (INPDP), www.inpdp.nat.tn.

TIPCS does not request criminal-record or health data from candidates.

9. Safeguarding, non-discrimination and conflicts of interest

Offers are conditional on references and acceptance of the safeguarding policy and code of conduct. Anyone with a family, financial or close personal link to a candidate declares it in writing and withdraws from that recruitment, as set out in the conflicts of interest policy. A relative of a Board member or manager may apply but takes no part in the process. Consultants are screened under the sanctions and due diligence policy.

10. Complaints and whistleblowing

A candidate or staff member who believes this policy was not followed may write to Contact@tipcs.org with the subject “CONFIDENTIAL – Concern”. Reports in good faith are protected under Law 2017-10 and the whistleblowing and complaints policy.

11. Review and version control

The Board reviews this policy every year, or earlier after a legal change or a serious incident. Each version carries a number and date, and previous versions are archived.