Judgment No. 726
Decision
THE COMPLAINTS AND THE APPLICATIONS TO INTERVENE ARE DISMISSED.
Summary
Extract:
The complainants are impugning the decision by the Administrative Council of the EPO to impose a temporary levy of 1.5 per cent on staff members' salaries. The Tribunal holds that the Council's decision falls within the scope of its powers. Inasmuch as the levy is temporary and very small and there is a guarantee of nominal basic salary, the Tribunal concludes that there was no breach of the complainants' acquired rights.
Keywords
decision; general decision; competence; acquired right; salary; deduction; tax; judicial review; decision-maker; executive body; reduction of salary
Consideration 15
Extract:
An acquired right, first, "may be a right which is laid down in a provision of the Staff Regulations or Staff Rules and which is of decisive importance to a candidate for appointment with the organisation. [...] Secondly, a right may be acquired under a provision of the contract of appointment which the parties intend should be inviolate."
Keywords
acquired right; staff regulations and rules; contract; definition
Consideration 19
Extract:
"It is because of the terms on which the levy is at present being imposed that the Tribunal deems it not to disrupt the structure of the contract and amount to breach of an acquired right. But should any feature of the levy - particularly its duration - be so altered as to make the arrangements substantially different, that would be a new fact and the Tribunal would wish to reconsider if the matter came before it again."
Keywords
new fact on which the party was unable to rely in the original proceedings; judgment of the tribunal; acquired right; salary; reduction of salary
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