Special leave without pay (SLWOP) at the UN: what it actually covers

Most conversations about UN leave stop at annual and sick leave, covered in the leave entitlements guide. Special leave without pay (SLWOP) is the catch-all category behind those two — the mechanism staff actually use to step away from a post for months or years without resigning it outright. It is used far more than its low profile suggests, and it works differently enough from ordinary leave that it is worth its own explanation.

What special leave without pay actually is

SLWOP is exactly what the name says: an approved absence from an appointment during which the staff member draws no salary, but the appointment itself is not terminated. It sits apart from resigning and reapplying later, and apart from the ordinary paid leave categories, because it is meant for absences too long or too open-ended for annual or sick leave to cover — while still keeping a formal link to the organization intact for the duration.

The reasons organizations actually grant it

The recurring cases are a spouse or partner’s relocation for their own career (the practical mechanism behind dual-career support), an external assignment or secondment to another organization, government or academic institution that falls outside the formal inter-agency mobility routes, full-time study, an extended family or medical situation beyond what certified sick leave covers, or a national service obligation. None of these are automatic — each is assessed on its own facts by the releasing office.

Why it is discretionary, not an entitlement

Unlike annual leave, which accrues as a matter of right, SLWOP requires the head of the office or department to approve both the request and, critically, that the position can be covered or left vacant for the requested period. A manager can decline a request outright, approve a shorter period than asked for, or make approval conditional on finding operational coverage first. Asking early, and asking with a specific end date rather than an open-ended one, materially improves the odds of approval.

What it does to leave, pension and health-insurance continuity

SLWOP generally stops annual leave from accruing for the duration and pauses progress toward a within-grade step increment on the grade and step scale. Its effect on UNJSPF pension contributions and on continued staff health insurance coverage depends on the length of the absence and the specific organization’s rules — some allow a staff member to keep contributing to preserve continuity, others suspend both automatically past a certain threshold. None of this is standardized enough across the system to state as a single rule, so confirming the specifics in writing with HR before the leave starts, not after, is the only reliable approach.

Typical duration limits, and the question of returning to the same post

Organizations commonly cap a single period of SLWOP — often around two years, sometimes renewable once by further approval — rather than leaving it indefinitely open. What SLWOP does not generally guarantee is a right to return to the exact same post: in many cases the organization commits only to placement at the same grade, and a long absence can mean the original position has since been filled or restructured. That distinction between a job guarantee and a grade guarantee is worth confirming explicitly before treating SLWOP as a risk-free pause button.

A short checklist before you request it

• Get the effect on leave accrual, pension continuity and health insurance in writing from HR — do not assume it mirrors what a colleague’s case looked like.
• Ask specifically whether return is guaranteed to the same post, the same grade, or neither, before finalising external plans that depend on the answer.
• Propose a specific end date rather than an open-ended request — approval odds and manager cooperation both improve with a defined horizon.
• If the reason is an external assignment to another UN organization, check whether it actually qualifies as formal inter-agency mobility instead — that route preserves more than SLWOP does.

A free changemaker profile keeps track of appointment history and entitlement questions like these in one place, so a period of leave doesn’t mean losing the paper trail that documents it.