Judgment No. 4064
Decision
1. The FAO shall pay the complainant 2,000 euros in moral damages.
2. The FAO shall also pay the complainant 500 euros in costs.
3. All other claims are dismissed.
Summary
The complainant challenges a request made by the Administration of the FAO that he provide comments, while he was on certified sick leave, on a report issued by the Investigation Panel appointed to investigate allegations of harassment against him.
Judgment keywords
Keywords
complaint allowed; inquiry; due process; sick leave; harassment; investigation
Considerations 8-9
Extract:
Based on the evidence before the Tribunal, there is nothing in the FAO rules regime and no proven practice which provide guidance on how the requirement of Part II(b)(iv)(g) of the Policy on the Prevention of Harassment is to be fulfilled where a staff member who is accused of harassment is on certified sick leave. Given the FAO’s duty under the Policy on the Prevention of Harassment to investigate harassment complaints, it is reasonable that it could ask a staff member who is on sick leave to comment upon an IP report if doing so would not exacerbate the illness which occasioned the grant of sick leave and if she or he is fit to do so.
[...] In the Tribunal’s view, the FAO took reasonable steps to discharge its duty to accord due process to the complainant, as well as its duty of care and its duty to be fair to him, while it sought to discharge its duty to implement its Policy on the Prevention of Harassment.
Keywords
inquiry; due process; health reasons; sick leave; medical fitness; harassment; duty of care; investigation
Consideration 12
Extract:
[T]he internal appeal process, which took some twenty-eight months to be completed, was too long. For this, the complainant will be awarded 2,000 euros in moral damages.
Keywords
moral injury; delay in internal procedure
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