Judgment 1392
78th Session, 1995
European Patent Organisation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 36
Extract:
The complainant objects to the actuarial method which the organisation used in a study of the pension fund's foreseeable costs. "Like any public authority, the EPO enjoys a presumption in its favour - especially when it is taking technical measures and it has done thorough preparatory work - that its choice of actuarial method is the most suitable and the fairest. [...] It is of course open to a staff member under a system of administrative law to challenge the organisation's choice, but he must be able to adduce evidence to show why the chosen method, when compared with others, may suffer from technical flaws that should have disqualified it."
Keywords:
actuarial valuation; burden of proof; contributions; discretion; evidence; increase; judicial review; mistake of fact; organisation; pension; reckoning; right of appeal;
Judgment 1386
78th Session, 1995
European Patent Organisation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 27
Extract:
The complainant was wrongfully dismissed following probation. The Tribunal holds that "in material damages the EPO shall pay him an amount equivalent to the emoluments he would have earned from the date of dismissal until the end of the month in which the Tribunal delivers the present judgment. Since he has convincingly shown that he has not been employed since the EPO dismissed him, the organisation may not subtract from that amount any indemnities or other earnings he may have received during that period."
Keywords:
compensation; flaw; material damages; material injury; probationary period; reckoning; termination of employment;
Judgment 1384
78th Session, 1995
World Health Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 18
Extract:
The complainant was accused of stealing computer equipment but no formal proof of this was ever given. The organization decided not to renew his fixed-term appointment on grounds of theft. The Tribunal holds that the complainant "must be put in the same position as if his contract had never terminated and be reinstated as from the date of termination up to the date of this judgment. Since his performance was good he should be granted any within-grade salary increases he would ordinarily have been entitled to. Although any indemnities or earnings from employment after termination may be deducted from the amounts due, he is entitled to the payment of interest on all arrears of pay at the rate of 8 per cent a year from the dates at which each component sum fell due. [...] He is to be granted an appointment for a period of two years starting at the date of delivery of this judgment."
Keywords:
compensation; contract; date; fixed-term; increment; interest on damages; non-renewal of contract; procedural flaw; professional injury; reckoning; reconstruction of career; reinstatement;
Judgment 1356
77th Session, 1994
International Telecommunication Union
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 8
Extract:
"In refusing the complainant's claims the Union has acted in accordance with its own rules and with its obligations as a member of the common system and under the Statute of the International Civil Service Commission. Those claims are nothing more than an attempt to challenge the pay scales under the guise of attacking the multiplier."
Keywords:
adjustment; coordinated organisations; icsc decision; icsc statute; organisation's duties; reckoning; salary; scale; staff regulations and rules;
Judgment 1311
76th Session, 1994
European Southern Observatory
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Considerations 9-10
Extract:
"In determining the amount of basic salary [...] as against the special allowances what counts is sums actually paid in salary, whatever they may be called and whatever method of accounting may be applied." The Tribunal holds that what the ESO regards as "special allowances" form part of "the basic salary that counts in reckoning the service indemnity where [it is] a regular additional item of pay."
Keywords:
allowance; base salary; definition; elements; reckoning; terminal entitlements;
Consideration 21
Extract:
The complainant, who reached retirement age, is challenging the amount he received in terminal entitlements. Two former officials, also retirees, have filed applications to intervene. "It appears from the wording of the applications that the interveners' cases were settled once and for all when they left the ESO. Their entitlements are therefore beyond challenge and this judgment may neither reduce nor increase them. The applications fail."
Keywords:
intervention; reckoning; request by a party; retirement; terminal entitlements;
Judgment 1280
75th Session, 1993
World Health Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 29
Extract:
Vide Judgment 1279, consideration 29.
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 1279
Keywords:
adjustment; discretion; executive head; flemming principle; general service category; local status; reckoning; salary; scale;
Judgment 1279
75th Session, 1993
Pan American Health Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 29
Extract:
The organization carried out a review of the salary scales for general-service staff on the basis of an overall survey of local employment conditions. The complainants object to the new scales. "Whether the list of local employers makes a reasonable cross- section of economic sectors and whether the fund and the world bank are too closely linked to be taken separately are matters of appreciation that must ultimately be decided by the Director in the exercise of his discretion."
Keywords:
adjustment; discretion; executive head; flemming principle; general service category; local status; reckoning; salary; scale;
Judgment 1266
75th Session, 1993
International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 21
Extract:
Vide Judgment 1265, consideration 21.
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 382, 825
Keywords:
adjustment; case law; coordinated organisations; general service category; icsc decision; local status; organisation's duties; reckoning; right of appeal; salary; scale; tribunal;
Consideration 24
Extract:
Vide Judgment 1265, consideration 24.
Keywords:
adjustment; competence of tribunal; coordinated organisations; declaration of recognition; general service category; icsc decision; local status; official; organisation's duties; reckoning; right of appeal; salary; scale; written rule;
Consideration 23
Extract:
Vide Judgment 1265, consideration 23.
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 1197
Keywords:
adjustment; adversarial proceedings; coordinated organisations; duty to inform; general service category; icsc decision; local status; organisation's duties; reckoning; salary; scale; tribunal;
Considerations 26 and 28
Extract:
Vide Judgment 1265, considerations 26 and 28.
Keywords:
adjustment; case law; criteria; discretion; general service category; icsc decision; judicial review; limits; local status; reckoning; salary; scale;
Considerations 26 and 29
Extract:
Vide Judgment 1265, considerations 26 and 29.
Keywords:
adjustment; case law; criteria; discretion; icsc decision; judicial review; limits; municipal court; reckoning; salary; scale;
Considerations 26-27
Extract:
Vide Judgment 1265, considerations 26 and 27.
Keywords:
adjustment; criteria; discretion; general service category; icsc decision; judicial review; limits; local status; reckoning; salary; scale; staff member's interest;
Judgment 1265
75th Session, 1993
World Intellectual Property Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
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:
adjustment; case law; compensation; criteria; discretion; general service category; icsc decision; judicial review; limits; municipal court; reckoning; salary; scale;
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:
adjustment; competence of tribunal; coordinated organisations; declaration of recognition; general service category; icsc decision; international civil service principles; judicial review; local status; official; organisation's duties; reckoning; right of appeal; salary; scale; staff member's interest; written rule;
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:
adjustment; case law; criteria; discretion; general service category; icsc decision; judicial review; limits; local status; reckoning; salary; scale;
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:
adjustment; case law; coordinated organisations; general service category; icsc decision; judicial review; local status; organisation's duties; reckoning; right of appeal; salary; scale;
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:
adjustment; criteria; discretion; general service category; icsc decision; judicial review; limits; local status; patere legem; reckoning; salary; scale; staff member's interest;
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:
adjustment; adversarial proceedings; coordinated organisations; duty to inform; general service category; icsc decision; judicial review; local status; organisation's duties; reckoning; salary; scale;
Judgment 1232
74th Session, 1993
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 5
Extract:
The complainant, a civil servant of the organization who had been sentenced in his country of origin, was released from prison but was not allowed to leave the country. Under duress he wrote a letter applying for early retirement which was forwarded to the organization by his government. The organization accepted the request and rejected the complainant's internal appeal against that decision. The Tribunal quashes the decision. "The organization must reinstate [the complainant] and restore pension and sickness insurance entitlements for himself and his dependants. It shall pay him damages reckoned according to the amount of the salary and allowances he would have been entitled to".
Keywords:
allowance; consequence; health insurance; illness; insurance; judgment of the tribunal; pension entitlements; reckoning; reconstruction of career; salary;
Judgment 1199
73rd Session, 1992
International Labour Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 6
Extract:
The complainants plead breach of their acquired rights concerning pay. "In this case the changes were made because of shifts in economic trends and tax rules in the United States [...] The competent authorities [...] decided in the exercise of their discretion to keep the link with the civil service of the member State - the United States - that is customarily the 'comparator' in determining pay in the international civil service. Their solution is not intrinsically unlawful."
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 832
Keywords:
acquired right; amendment to the rules; discretion; domestic law; general principle; noblemaire principle; reckoning; salary; scale;
Consideration 8
Extract:
The complainants contend "that the arrangement for adjustment ought to have reflected average economic trends in more than just one country. That is to question the whole basis of the pensions scheme. The United States federal civil service was the 'comparator' for determining the pay and pensions in the United Nations common system. It was therefore only reasonable to take economic trends in the United States alone into account. So it was not just a matter of policy: the ILO's decision was a logical application of the prescribed approach."
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 832
Keywords:
adjustment; coordinated organisations; domestic law; general principle; noblemaire principle; pension; reckoning; salary; scale;
Judgment 1175
73rd Session, 1992
European Patent Organisation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 6
Extract:
"The organisation is free to set quotas for the output of patent examiners. The complainant has failed to offer any evidence to suggest that the quotas the organisation set for him were in any way unreasonable or that, even when he attained them, the evenness of his output was such as the organisation was entitled to expect of him. In the circumstances it is not proven that the decision not to confirm his appointment shows any [...] fatal flaws".
Keywords:
discretion; evidence; output; qualifications; reckoning; staff member's duties; unsatisfactory service; work appraisal;
Judgment 1160
72nd Session, 1992
World Health Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Considerations 11, 12 and 17
Extract:
Salary scales for locally-recruited staff in the general service category are reviewed every few years on the strength of comprehensive surveys of local practice. The ICSC having approved a new "general methodology" for making the surveys, WHO decided to apply it. "Although the methodology was not binding on the Organization merely by virtue of the Commission's approval of it, the Organization's decision to apply it is one that it is not free afterwards to disclaim. [...] It is inconsistent for the Organization to argue before the Tribunal that there was nothing wrong with the surveys when the methodology was not strictly followed. [...] Because the survey was not carried out in accordance with the approved methodology the case must be sent back to the Director-General for a new decision".
Keywords:
adjustment; general service category; icsc decision; inquiry; investigation; local status; organisation's duties; reckoning; salary; scale;
Judgment 1095
70th Session, 1991
European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Summary
Extract:
The complainant's fees for difficult confinement were refunded at the 100 per cent rate up to a maximum limit reckoned by likening the treatment she received to a surgical operation. Though the Tribunal finds nothing wrong with setting maximum limits in general it holds that there was no valid limit at the material time on costs incurred for difficult confinements and that the complainant was entitled to the refund of her confinement expenses in full.
Keywords:
amount; analogy; flaw; health insurance; maximum limit; medical expenses; no provision; rate; reckoning; refund;
Judgment 1081
70th Session, 1991
European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 4
Extract:
The complainants want to have the revised weighings with retroactive force from 1 January 1981 taken into account for determination of the "Eurocontrol reduction" imposed on their salaries. The impugned decision does not "put figures on the entitlements of each of the complainants it applies to. [...] In the circumstances the complainants may not now challenge the validity of the general decision they are objecting to. Before they come to the Tribunal they must be able to cite individual decisions."
Keywords:
adjustment; cost-of-living weighting; general decision; individual decision; receivability of the complaint; reckoning; reduction of salary; salary;
Judgment 1001
68th Session, 1990
United Nations Industrial Development Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Summary
Extract:
The complainants, who are employed by UNIDO in the general service category, seek the quashing of decisions setting their pay according to the new salary scales brought in as from 1 October 1987. They are objecting to the flat 2.4 per cent salary cut included in scales drawn up on the basis of an International Civil Service Commission recommendation to account for the so-called "commissary benefit". UNIDO Staff Regulation 6.5(a) says that the pay of staff in the general service category shall be based on "the best prevailing conditions of employment in the locality" (Flemming principle). The Tribunal holds that for the purpose of establishing parity with local pay the only relevant items are the ones defined in the Staff Regulations and financial rules of the organisation and paid out of its own funds. It follows that such a benefit as access to the commissary, which is provided for neither in the Staff Regulations nor in the financial rules and is a form of tax relief bestowed by the host country at no cost to the Organisation, may not count in a comparison of this nature. The Organization's decision to reduce salaries is unlawful and cannot stand. The cases are sent back to UNIDO for the recalculation of their pay.
Reference(s)
Organization rules reference: UNIDO STAFF REGULATION 6.5(A)
Keywords:
elements; enforcement; flaw; flemming principle; fringe benefits; general service category; headquarters agreement; icsc decision; privileges and immunities; reckoning; reduction of salary; salary; scale; staff regulations and rules;
Judgment 1000
68th Session, 1990
International Atomic Energy Agency
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Summary
Extract:
The complainants, who are employed by the IAEA in the general service category, seek the quashing of decisions setting their pay according to the new salary scales brought in as from 1 October 1987. They are objecting to the flat 2.4 per cent salary cut included in scales drawn up on the basis of an International Civil Service Commission recommendation to account for the so-called "commissary benefit". Annex II.B.1 of the Agency's Provisional Staff Regulations says that the pay of staff in the general service category shall be based on "the best prevailing conditions of employment in the locality" (Flemming principle). The Tribunal holds that for the purpose of establishing parity with local pay the only relevant items are the ones defined in the Staff Regulations and financial rules of the organisation and paid out of its own funds. It follows that such a benefit as access to the commissary, which is provided for neither in the Staff Regulations nor in the financial rules and is a form of tax relief bestowed by the host country at no cost to the organisation, may not count in a comparison of this nature. The Agency's decision to reduce salaries is unlawful and cannot stand. The cases are sent back to the Agency for the recalculation of their pay.
Reference(s)
Organization rules reference: ANNEX II.B.1 OF THE IAEA PROVISIONAL STAFF REGULATIONS
Keywords:
elements; enforcement; flaw; flemming principle; fringe benefits; general service category; headquarters agreement; icsc decision; privileges and immunities; reckoning; reduction of salary; salary; scale; staff regulations and rules;
Judgment 990
68th Session, 1990
International Labour Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 8
Extract:
The Tribunal "may not order any increase in [the complainant's] pension in redress for the breach of the regulations since the body that determines the pension is outside its jurisdiction."
Keywords:
amount; competence; competence of tribunal; flaw; pension; reckoning; unjspf;
Judgment 962
66th Session, 1989
European Patent Organisation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Summary
Extract:
Paragraph 4 of Circular 34 of 15 May 1979 says that "for the purpose of calculating seniority for advancement in the prescribed steps within the relevant grade, the period of part-time work will be taken into account in the same way as in the case of normal full-time work". The Tribunal holds that the EPO's practice of counting part-time work towards seniority for promotion on a pro-rata basis on the principle that promotion is a reward for service rendered is in no way at odds with the guidelines in the material circular as the complainant mistakenly argues.
Reference(s)
Organization rules reference: PARAGRAPH 4 OF CIRCULAR 34 OF 15 MAY 1979
Keywords:
consequence; difference; part-time employment; professional experience; promotion; proportionality; reckoning; seniority; step;
Judgment 957
66th Session, 1989
European Patent Organisation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 5
Extract:
The complainant contends that his professional experience was not properly reckoned in accordance with Circular 144 of 2 September 1985. He alleges breach of the principle of equal treatment inasmuch as his seniority was lower than that granted to someone with equivalent professional experience recruited as an A3 examiner. His plea fails "because the material provisions of the service regulations deal with promotion within the organisation as distinct from the attributions of grade and step on appointment: the comparison he is drawing is between staff members who are not in the same position in law."
Reference(s)
Organization rules reference: CIRCULAR 144
Keywords:
appointment; difference; equal treatment; grade; professional experience; promotion; reckoning; seniority; step;
