employment, that would tend to reduce average costs and might ultimately lead to lower expenditure on subsidies than the existing voluntary schemes. His delegation agreed with FICSA that a compehensive review of health insurance questions, including benefits and after-service coverage should be carried out, and that the problems of insurance coverage for locally recruited staff in field duty stations should also be examined. At present coverage of local staff by voluntary schemes deprived such staff members of health insurance protection when they retired. 85. ICSC, in co-operation with the Joint Staff Pension Board, had also dealt with the question of retirement policy in the United Nations system and, in particular, within the Organization itself. In 1982 and before, his delegation had stated its / ... A/C. 5/38/SR. 31 English Page 16 (Mr. Ditz, Austria) generally favourable attitude towards a more liberal and more flexible retirement policy. Present United Nations practice permitted very few exceptions for the continuation of service beyond the age of 60. 86. In earlier statements, his delegation had pointed out that a liberalization of retirement policy would be in accordance with the recommendations of the World Assembly for the Aging and would have no adverse effect on the objective of attaining a more balanced geographical distribution as recommended by the General Assembly. That view had been corroborated by the findings of the study carried out on the subject by the ICSC secretariat. After noting that ICSC was not recommending at that stage any change in the existing mandatory retirement age, he welcomed the statement of the Chairman of ICSC that it was expected that executive heads would continue to use their discretionary authority liberally to extend appointments beyond age 60 where an employee's services were required and the employee wished to continue working. It should be pointed out, however, that the 
**Analysis**
The text discusses the topic of employment and retirement policies within the United Nations system, specifically the issue of extending employment beyond the age of 60 for staff members who wish to continue working. It also touches on the topic of health insurance coverage for local staff in field duty stations. These topics are related to the employment and human resources aspects of the organization.

**Category**
Employment, Health