Judgment No. 336

• Organization: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
• Date: 08.05.1978
• Original: English
• Judges: Letourneur, Grisel, Devlin
• Full judgment text - Full judgment text (french)

Decision

THE COMPLAINT IS DISMISSED.

Considerations

Extract:

Assuming that the letter in question constitutes a claim requiring a decision, sixty days had elapsed without a decision being taken by the organisation. "But a complainant is not thereby obliged to treat silence as an adverse decision. He may prefer to continue or to resume the correspondence in the hope of obtaining a favourable decision. If he continues or reopens the case in this way, he must wait for another period of sixty days' silence before he can treat his claim as rejected. Since the complainant has not obtained a final decision [...] the complaint is irreceivable."

Reference(s)

ILOAT reference: ARTICLE VII OF THE STATUTE

Keywords

absence of final decision; failure to answer claim; receivability of the complaint; internal appeal; time limit

Considerations

Extract:

"Paragraph 3 of Article VII [of the Statute of the Tribunal] does not require a claim to be made in any particular form. There must however be a clear indication that the administration is being asked to take a decision; a letter whose object is to initiate a discussion will not do."

Reference(s)

ILOAT reference: ARTICLE VII, PARAGRAPH 3, OF THE STATUTE

Keywords

formal requirements; internal appeal