Employee Services

Family Association

The IDB Family Association is a non-profit organization, working under the auspices of the Inter-American Development Bank, with the following objectives:

• Promote the welfare of the families of the IDB employees.
• Collaborate with the Bank in various stages of adaptation of the families to the new surroundings.
• Promote friendship, cooperation, personal development and cultural exchange among all members, and maintain and encourage their involvement in the Association.
• Maintain contact and exchange information with the IDB Family Association in the Country Offices, encouraging them in their endeavors.
• Cooperate with the Staff Association and the Human Resources Department, working on behalf of the employees and their dependents.
• Develop programs and events of interest to member countries, in coordination with other international and national institutions.

Services:

The IDB Family Association offers English, French and Spanish classes for adults, as well as Spanish classes for children.

It also offers computer and painting classes. Encounters are organized to reflect on unity and family strengthening. Trips for “Moms and Dads”, cinema cycles, reading groups, and opera cycle meetings are also offered.

All programs are implemented, coordinated, executed and evaluated by volunteer members grouped in different divisions.

Staff Association

The Inter-American Development Bank Staff Association was founded in 1964 as a representative body for IDB employees. Its essential purpose is to promote the well being of the Bank’s employees. Membership is open to all staff of the IDB group, at Headquarters and in the Country Offices. The Association’s main objectives, as set out in its Bylaws, are to:

• ensure compliance and promote improvement of the Bank’s Personnel Policies.
• submit proposals it deems necessary to the Bank’s Administration, to the benefit of staff members.
• provide advisory services through its Labor Relations Committee to members who feel their rights and employment conditions have been infringed upon, in particular with respect to cases brought before the Bank’s Conciliation Committee and Administrative Tribunal.
• maintain relations with similar associations in the other national and international organizations.

Special members of the Association include:

i) former employees who are still members of the Staff Retirement Plan.

ii) employees of the IDB/IIC Federal Credit Union.

Services:

• Legal advice: The Association retains the services of a lawyer who may be consulted by Association members in need of legal advice on civil, immigration or labor-related matters.
• Health Insurance for G(5) Visa Holders: The Staff Association facilitates assistance in obtaining these services for all G(4) Visa Holders who employ domestic help.
• Bulletin boards: Members may use the Bulleting Boards (at the Fitness Center entrance) to announce different types of services offered or sought.
• Fitness Center: The Staff Association administers a state-of-the-art Fitness Center with the most modern exercise equipment, aerobics floor and classes.
• Cellular telephones: The Association has made arrangements with local vendors to provide cellular telephones at group rates.
• Cultural activities: The Association promotes social, cultural and recreational activities through different clubs and special interest groups.
• Art Gallery: The Association programs art exhibits of emerging artists from the Bank’s member countries.

BID KIDs Day Care Center

The Center is designed to meet the emotional, social, physical and intellectual needs of the children in a safe, home-like and loving environment. The unique characteristics of each individual child are valued at the Center. Each child’s interests and development advances are nurtured by a well-trained and talented team of early childhood professionals.

AGES: Children are enrolled from 3 months through preschool age.

Fitness Center

Bank staff, their spouses and children over 16 are eligible for fee-based membership in the Fitness Center administered by the Staff Association.  It is located on the Concourse level in the Main Building.  The Fitness Center is equipped with locker rooms, showers, exercise studios and equipment rooms.  Members can also make appointments for fitness assessments and equipment orientation.

IDB-IIC Federal Credit Union

The IDB-IIC Federal Credit Union is a not-for-profit, financial service cooperative owned by more than 4,400 members of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC) community. It was chartered in 1961 to meet the saving and borrowing needs of IDB staff, pensioners and their families. The IIC, an affiliate of the IDB, was added as a sponsor in October 1992.

Services include:

• A secure place to save and borrow.
• Payroll deposit (IDB paycheck direct deposit).
• MasterMoneyTM/ATM card accepted worldwide.
• Free Internet banking with an optional bill-payer service.
• Consumer resources, including an on-line library.
• Monthly educational seminars.
• Free counseling services (real estate, credit, car buying and investment).
• Investment services through a bilingual financial consultant (located on premises) of a nationwide, full-service registered securities brokerage firm.

Food Services

The Bank has a cafeteria, carryout service, and a vending operation.

Carryout Information

There is a carryout menu for items that may be ordered (in advance) for events in offices, conference rooms and at home. Menus are available near the door to the cafeteria. All cafeteria items are also available for carryout and can be stored in the cafeteria refrigerators until the end of the day.

Vending Information

The vending operation is open 24 hours and is located on the concourse level, West side, near the door to the Fitness Center. Snack food such as chips and candy, sodas, bottled juices, coffee and sandwiches are available there.

Occupational Health Services

• The Human Resources Department (HRD) maintains the Bank’s Occupational Health Services. Its mission is to promote health and prevent disease of the Bank’s employees, both at Headquarters and in the Country Offices. Toward this goal, the Occupational Health Services Unit:
• performs pre-employment and periodic medical exams and health assessments, providing clinical recommendations.
• attends to employees’ minor health problems as well as ongoing medical treatments (e.g., administration of allergy injections) and provides applicable medical referrals.
• provides first-aid emergency medical and nursing care at Headquarters and coordinates medical evacuations from Country Offices.
• provides travel medicine for staff traveling on Bank missions, Home Country Travel, and rotations/transfers, including recommendations on risk factors, inoculations of vaccines, and administration of anti-malaria, anti-diarrhea, and medication for high altitude.
• provides health hazards assessment and surveillance of employee’s workplace (includes ergonomic evaluations and surveillance, and case management for occupational and non-occupational illness and injury).
• provides preventative medicine programs where health awareness and updated health information and education are provided, e.g., Health Fair, Influenza Vaccine Program, Breast Self-Exam Workshop, Stress Management Workshops, Weight Watchers, and various medical lectures.
• acts as a gateway into the U.S. health care system through information and counseling services, coordinating aspects of medical care, and providing language translation and interpretation of clinical matters.
• provides access to Employee Assistance Program, including counseling and intervention.

Employee Assistance Program

The Bank, through the Health Unit, has implemented an Employee Assistance Program (EAP), a confidential counseling and referral service to assist employees, retirees, and family members when personal problems are adversely affecting their quality of life. Individuals should call the EAP to speak with a counselor and/or set up an appointment at one of the nearest offices. Counselors will address the problem, providing short-term counseling and, if necessary, refer the individual to an outside source for further assistance, counseling, and/or treatment.

Parking

Reserved or unreserved parking is available in the Bank’s garage upon payment of a monthly parking fee. The monthly fee is payable through payroll deduction.

Felipe Herrera Library

The Felipe Herrera Library, a section of the Integration and Regional Programs Department, is located on the ground level of the Headquarters building, and provides information and research services to staff of the IDB and IIC at headquarters and in the Country Offices. The collection contains more than 100,000 catalogued items in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese in the areas of economic and social development, finance, and sectoral areas concentrating on Latin America and the Caribbean region. The Library subscribes to more than 1,000 periodicals, back files of which are maintained in bound volumes and/or in an extensive microfiche collection. The Library also catalogs documents from the most important international organizations, such as the World Bank, IMF, ECLAC, the United Nations, and the European Union, as well as many of the leading economic think tanks such as Brookings Institution, National Bureau of Economic Research and the Institute for International Finance.

The audiovisual collection allows Bank staff to engage in self-directed study with the use of CD-ROMs, videos, audiocassettes, and workbooks on a variety of subjects covering languages, computer software applications, management and leadership topics. The material may be borrowed or used in the Library’s audiovisual area where interactive workstations are located.

A wide range of services are available including periodical routing service, purchase of requested publications, interlibrary loans, reference and research support by e-mail or telephone, delivery of periodical tables of contents by e-mail, and online database searching, to name a few. The Library’s Home Page, at http://www.iadb.org/lib/ provides detailed descriptions of these and many other services available, including access to an online catalog that is accessible from office or home computers via Internet 24 hours a day.

The Library’s intranet site provides access to many full-text online journals and to a variety of reference sources. Also, it allows users to send requests for articles and books or to as reference questions electronically from the desktop.

Law Library

The IDB Law Library provides legal research and reference services in support of the work performed by the Bank’s staff.

The Law Library maintains an excellent collection of Latin American and Caribbean legal materials and general works about private and public international law. These materials include books, periodicals, office legal gazettes, documents and online commercial databases, such as LEXIS/NEXIS and DIALOG. In addition, the Law Library maintains an online index to selected Latin American legislation and keeps printed copies of all laws and regulations citied in the index.

The Law Library participates in an interlibrary loan system that allows IDB staff to borrow books and journals from the other libraries in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and throughout the United States.

Cultural Center

Enrique V. Iglesias, President of the IDB, established the Cultural Center in May 1992 as part of the Quincentennial celebration of the encounter between Europe and the Americas. The Center provides a forum of discussion and a showcase for the most outstanding intellectual and artistic manifestations of the member countries, with emphasis on Latin America and the Caribbean. The Center is the only institution in Washington, D.C. promoting the countries of the region through cultural expressions with a comprehensive program.