Judgment No. 1265
Decision
1. THE DECISIONS DETERMINING THE COMPLAINANTS' PAY ACCORDING TO THE SALARY SCALE APPLICABLE TO THE ORGANIZATION'S GENERAL SERVICE STAFF ARE SET ASIDE AS FROM 1 JANUARY 1991 INSOFAR AS THE EXTRA WITHIN- GRADE STEPS GRANTED BY OTHER ORGANISATIONS IN GENEVA TO THEIR STAFF COUNTED IN RECKONING THAT SCALE.
2. THE CASE IS SENT BACK TO THE ORGANIZATION SO THAT IT MAY ACT ON THIS RULING. IN ACCORDANCE WITH WHAT IS SAID IN 37 ABOVE IT SHALL DRAW UP A REVISED SCALE THAT DISCOUNTS THOSE STEPS FOR THE SAKE OF COMPARISON AND PAY THE COMPLAINANTS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE PRESENT FIGURE AND THE FIGURE ON THE REVISED SCALE. THE ORGANIZATION SHALL FURTHER PAY THEM INTEREST AT THE RATE OF 8 PER CENT A YEAR ON THE ARREARS DUE UP TO THE DATE OF REVISION OF THEIR PAY.
3. IT SHALL PAY THE COMPLAINANTS 5,000 SWISS FRANCS EACH IN COSTS.
4. THEIR OTHER CLAIMS ARE DISMISSED.
Consideration 21
Extract:
The organization, a member of the "common system" administered by the ICSC, revised the salaries of its staff in the general service category in keeping with a scale drawn up by the ICSC for organisations whose headquarters are in Geneva. The organization, having thus complied with the obligations it derives from membership of the common system, "may not in that way decline or limit its own responsibility towards the members of its staff or lessen the degree of judicial protection it owes them. The Tribunal has already had occasion to speak of that responsibility and to stress the duty of any organisation that introduces elements of the common system or any other outside system into its own rules to make sure that the texts it thereby imports are lawful: see Judgment 825 [...], under 18, which in turn refers to Judgment 382 [...], under 6."
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 382, 825
Keywords
icsc decision; right of appeal; case law; organisation's duties; coordinated organisations; general service category; reckoning; salary; local status; scale; adjustment; judicial review
Consideration 22
Extract:
In Judgment 1000, under 12, the Tribunal held that "when impugning an individual decision that touches him directly the employee of an international organisation may challenge the lawfulness of any general or prior decision, even by someone outside the organisation, that affords the basis for the individual one". The complainants may therefore challenge "the lawfulness of any measure taken by the Commission that serves as the basis for the decisions affecting them, whatever method may have been adopted to import it into the organization's own rules."
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 1000
Keywords
decision; general decision; icsc decision; individual decision; complainant; cause of action; case law; judicial review; decision-maker
Consideration 23
Extract:
The organization, a member of the "common system" administered by the ICSC, revised the salaries of staff in the general service category in keeping with a scale drawn up by the ICSC for organistions whose headquarters are in Geneva. WIPO says it is unable to submit any comments on the complainants arguments because it lacked authority to set the salary scales. Having done what was required to import the challenged scale in full into WIPO's own rules and thereby endorsed the ICSC's decisions without qualification, the Director General then "took up an unhelpful posture and thereby prevented before the Tribunal the adversarial pleadings that are an essential feature of judicial process and, besides, indispensable for providing the Tribunal with adequate information: see Judgment 1197 [...], under 13 and 14."
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 1197
Keywords
icsc decision; adversarial proceedings; organisation's duties; duty to inform; coordinated organisations; general service category; reckoning; salary; local status; scale; adjustment; judicial review
Consideration 24
Extract:
The organization, a member of the "common system" administered by the ICSC, revised the salaries of staff in the general service category in keeping with a scale drawn up by the ICSC for organisations whose headquarters are in Geneva. The complainants submit that the ICSC's decisions are invalid. "Insofar as such standards are found to be flawed they may not be imposed on the staff and WIPO must if need be replace them with provisions that comply with the law of the international civil service. That is an essential feature of the principles governing the international legal system the Tribunal is called upon to safeguard. It is therefore plain that the complainants' rights to judicial process are safeguarded by the defendant organization's recognition of the Tribunal's jurisdiction. Such jurisdiction may not be restricted by the introduction into the organization's Staff Regulations or Rules adopted by bodies outside the Tribunal's competence."
Keywords
icsc decision; competence of tribunal; right of appeal; international civil service principles; organisation's duties; staff member's interest; written rule; declaration of recognition; coordinated organisations; general service category; reckoning; salary; local status; scale; adjustment; judicial review; official
Considerations 26-27
Extract:
The organization, a member of the "common system" administered by the ICSC, revised the salaries of staff in the general service category in keeping with a scale drawn up by the ICSC for organisations whose headquarters are in Geneva. The complainants submit that the ICSC's decisions are invalid. "[T]he Tribunal may not interfere in the exercise of such discretion or in the drafting of the salary policy it is based on. But it does have a power of review in this area which is clearly defined [...] it will consider in the event of dispute whether the Commission's methodology has been properly observed. The methodology is an important factor in ensuring that the results are stable, foreseeable and clearly understood. And though the Commission is free to choose its methods, once it has chosen them the staff may expect them to be followed in all circumstances."
Keywords
icsc decision; staff member's interest; patere legem; general service category; reckoning; salary; local status; scale; adjustment; judicial review; discretion; limits; criteria
Considerations 26 and 28
Extract:
The organization, a member of the "common system" administered by the ICSC, revised the salaries of staff in the general service category in keeping with a scale drawn up by the ICSC for organisations whose headquarters are in Geneva. The complainants submit that the ICSC's decisions are invalid. "The Tribunal may not interfere in the exercise of such discretion or in the drafting of the salary policy it is based on. But it does have a power of review in this area which is clearly defined [...] there are specific [factors] that in this comparative sort of exercise must be taken in isolation from the rest and subject to critical evaluation. Judgment 1000 [...] illustrates how such a procedure may yield notable results. In this case the information provided by the Commission shows that it is quite possible to isolate the factor at issue and even to put exact figures on the effects they have on the salary scale."
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 1000
Keywords
icsc decision; case law; general service category; reckoning; salary; local status; scale; adjustment; judicial review; discretion; limits; criteria
Considerations 26 and 29
Extract:
The organization, a member of the "common system" administered by the ICSC, revised the salaries of staff in the general service category in keeping with a scale drawn up by the ICSC for organisations whose headquarters are in Geneva. The complainants submit that the ICSC's decisions are invalid. "The Tribunal may not interfere in the exercise of [the organization's] discretion or in the drafting of the salary policy it is based on. But it does have a power of review in this area which is clearly defined [...] the Tribunal has, like other international and national administrative tribunals, set criteria for what may be termed 'external' or 'marginal' review of discretionary decisions, and [...] they were set out in detail in Judgment 1000, under 12."
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 1000
Keywords
icsc decision; case law; municipal court; general service category; reckoning; salary; scale; adjustment; judicial review; discretion; limits; compensation; criteria
Consideration 38
Extract:
"The complainants claim damages for breach of their basic rights, which the Tribunal has acknowledged. All that need be said is that payment of damages is not a proper means of giving them satisfaction on a matter of principle of that kind."
Keywords
tribunal; international civil service principles; breach; allowance; compensation; request by a party
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