HR, Recruitment and Role Conduct

ASF selects Council members, Secretariat staff, Coordinators and Monitors on merit, through documented process, and treats everyone engaged with ASF in line with applicable labour law and international labour standards. Owner: ASF Secretariat, reporting to the International Standards Council. Coordinator and Monitor eligibility, conflict-of-interest screening, and rotation limits are governed specifically by ASF-MON-STD-v1; this policy covers recruitment, employment terms, and conduct more broadly.

Recruitment

1. Written role description for every Secretariat post and every Council candidacy.
2. Selection by a panel of at least two, with signed conflict-of-interest declarations and written scoring — the same declaration required of Council, Panel, Coordinator and Monitor candidates under the Conflict-of-Interest Policy and ASF-MON-STD-v1.
3. Reference and identity checks for every Secretariat appointment.

Equal opportunity, non-discrimination and gender equality

ASF recruits, engages and serves people on merit and need alone. ASF does not discriminate on grounds of sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, nationality, language, religion or belief, political opinion, disability, health status (including HIV status), age, marital or family status, pregnancy, social origin, or migration status. This statement is grounded in the French Constitution, the European Convention on Human Rights, French anti-discrimination law, French gender equality law, and the French Labour Code (Code du travail). This applies to Council and Secretariat recruitment, Coordinator/Monitor certification eligibility, pay, and — distinctly from PHIG’s version of this policy — to how ASF conducts accreditation itself.

• Recruitment and certification: job and role descriptions based on essential requirements only; reasonable adjustments made for Coordinator/Monitor candidates with disabilities sitting the proctored examination under ASF-MON-STD-v1.
• Pay: equal pay for work of equal value across Secretariat roles.
• Accreditation practice: Monitor verification accounts for disability access at the facility being assessed as a matter of practice, not only where a specific criterion names it; a Monitor unable to assess a facility’s accessibility-related practice competently refers the relevant criterion for a second opinion rather than guessing.
• Gender equality: the Patient Voice survey programme and facility-level patient-centred criteria are reviewed for gender-responsive design as part of the standards revision cycle.
• Workplace: flexible arrangements for caring responsibilities; maternity, paternity and parental leave at least as required by French law.
• Research and publishing: Georgian Medical Journal authors are asked to report sex and gender following the SAGER (Sex and Gender Equity in Research) guidelines.
• Accessibility: ASF’s own digital content and published standards are made accessible wherever practical, consistent with the Website Accessibility Statement (WCAG/RGAA).

Monitoring: the Secretariat reports to the International Standards Council annually on staff and certified-Coordinator/Monitor composition by gender, pay gap, and equal-opportunity complaints received and how they were resolved, via Feedback, Complaints and Incident Management (ASF-POL-21).

Employment and engagement terms

• Written contracts or terms of engagement stating role, remuneration, duration and termination, for Secretariat staff and for Coordinators/Monitors engaged under the contracts required by ASF-MON-STD-v1 Standard F1.
• Freedom of association, and no forced or child labour, for ASF and its contractors.

Performance, discipline and grievances

• Disciplinary process for Secretariat staff: written notice of the allegation, the right to respond, and a documented outcome.
• Disciplinary consequences for Coordinators and Monitors follow ASF-MON-STD-v1 Standard F2 specifically (suspension, revocation, exclusion), not this general policy. A staff member may raise a grievance about their own treatment, separately from the disciplinary process, through Feedback, Complaints and Incident Management (ASF-POL-21); either process’s outcome may be appealed once, in writing, to the Council Chair, whose decision is final. Conditions for end of service and retirement, including notice periods, follow French labour law (Code du travail) and are stated in each engagement contract.

  Confidentiality

  Every Secretariat staff member, Coordinator, and Monitor signs a confidentiality statement on completion of induction (ASF-POL-51), covering facility assessment data and any other information encountered through ASF work, consistent with ASF-POL-18.