Judgment No. 4197

• Organization: European Patent Organisation (EPO)
• Date: 03.07.2019
• Original: English
• Judges: Barbagallo, Hansen, Diakité
• Full judgment text - Full judgment text (french)

Decision

The complaint is dismissed.

Summary

The complainant challenges the decision to reject his request for payment of overtime hours performed under the terms of an informal agreement concluded within his department.

Judgment keywords

Keywords

overtime; complaint dismissed

Consideration 4

Extract:

The complainant claims that the impugned decision was not taken by the proper authority. The Tribunal is satisfied, having regard to the Acts of Delegation provided by the EPO, that the Principal Director of Human Resources had been properly delegated by the President of the Office to take such a decision.

Keywords

delegated authority

Consideration 5

Extract:

The Tribunal finds that a practice was established based on the informal agreement, which was not contrary to the written provisions of Articles 57 and 58 of the Service Regulations. This practice, which was followed for a long time without any contestation by the parties to the agreement, became a legally binding practice, which only regarded voluntary work, thus, there was no requirement to consult the Local Advisory Committee (LAC) or the General Advisory Committee (GAC).

Reference(s)

Organization rules reference: Articles 57 and 58 of the Service Regulations

Keywords

practice; consultation