Judgment No. 3170
Decision
1. The decision of the Director-General of the WTO of 2 December 2010 is set aside.
2. The WTO shall pay the complainant moral damages in the amount of 50,000 Swiss francs.
3. The Organization shall also pay her 6,000 francs in costs.
4. All other claims are dismissed.
Summary
The complainant alleges that she was the victim of harassment and that the investigation thereon was flawed.
Judgment keywords
Reference(s)
Jugement(s) TAOIT: 3010, 3131
Keywords
complaint allowed; inquiry; abolition of post; reorganisation; termination of employment; harassment; investigation
Consideration 21
Extract:
[I]t is clear from the wording of the [...] terms of reference that harassment covered all behaviour “the purpose or effect” of which was to impair the complainant’s working conditions in a manner likely to undermine her fundamental rights or dignity. This definition therefore encompassed not only intentional harassment, but also harassment which, irrespective of the perpetrator’s intent, could objectively result from acts which were perceived by the victim as undermining her fundamental rights or dignity (for a case where a staff regulation defining harassment in a similar manner was applied, see Judgment 2370, under 8 and 10). Moreover, this is a similar definition to that employed by the Tribunal when it has to determine the existence of harassment in cases where the scope of this notion is not otherwise specified in the legal texts applicable to the dispute (see Judgment 2524, under 25).
Reference(s)
Jugement(s) TAOIT: 2370, 2524
Keywords
harassment
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