Lateral reassignment: The Tribunal held that the decision to laterally transfer the Applicant was lawful as it fulfilled the conditions for such a transfer as set out in Rees. The new post was at the staff member’s grade; the responsibilities involved corresponded to his level; the functions to be performed were commensurate with the Applicant’s competence and skills and the Applicant had substantial experience in the field. Reasons for the contested decision: The Tribunal held that the Applicant’s complaints about the lack of or the adequacy of reasons for the decision were unsubstantiated...
Regulation 1.2(c)
UNDT held that the conduct of the Acting Chief of Mission Support and the Applicant’s direct supervisor constituted an abuse of authority in their treatment of the Applicant. Given the gross injustice meted out to the Applicant by her managers, UNDT awarded her compensation representing twelve months' net base salary. UNDT awarded the Applicant three months’ net base salary as moral damages. UNDT awarded the Applicant USD5,000 for the unfair treatment at the hands of her managers. UNDT noted that the two managers literally destroyed the Applicant’s career and made decisions in clear breach of...
N/A
Scope and standard of review Although the Applicant raised a number of arguments related to the non-renewal of his fixed-term appointment and seeks remedies consequent to this decision, the decision not to renew the Applicant’s fixed-term appointment is not properly put before the Tribunal and does not fall within the ambit of the judicial review in the present case. In any event, the Applicant is time-barred from challenging his separation from service. He was separated from service on 28 July 2014 and he did not submit a request for management evaluation of that decision within the 60-day...
The applicability of the duty of care to International Organizations had already been addressed in the earliest years of the United Nations: in its Resolution 258/III of December 3, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly raised “with greater urgency … the question of the arrangements to be made by the United Nations with a view of ensuring to its agents the fullest measure of protection”. The duty of care was formally addressed in ST/SGB/2009/7 (Staff Rules - Staff Regulations of the United Nations and provisional Staff Rules), by requiring the Secretary-General to ensure, having regard to...
The best interests of UNHCR were clearly not served by the removal of the Applicant. It is unfortUNATe that some members of the UNHCR senior management sought to hide behind the veil of acting in the Organization’s best interests to act in their own self-interest. The Tribunal therefore found on that score that the Respondent’s explanation were a mere afterthought which was only spun to defend an action that was clearly lacking in due process and constituted an unfair and highhanded removal of the Applicant and abuse of official discretion. The Tribunal was not in any doubt that the removal of...
Temporary reassignment: The characteristic of a temporary reassignment is its limited duration. From the outset, it is clear that it has an expiration date and that, unless renewed by a subsequent discretionary decision, it will come to an end naturally on the date specified for this purpose. The natural outcome of a temporary assignment is the staff member’s return to his/her original duties. Accordingly, a staff member on temporary reassignment has no entitlement or legal expectancy to have such reassignment extended. The decision not to extend a temporary reassignment is within the...
The Applicant, as an ad litem judge of the ICTY, is considered to be a “non-Secretariat United Nations official”. It follows that the Applicant cannot be considered as a former United Nations staff member within the meaning of art. 3.1 of the Dispute Tribunal’s Statute. Whilst being fully cognizant of the Applicant’s right to access to justice, the Tribunal is forced to apply its Statute, which prevents it from asserting jurisdiction over the application. As the Applicant does not fall under any of the categories of potential applicants described in art. 3.1 of the Dispute Tribunal’s Statute...
The failure to re-interview the subject of an investigation to confront him/her with additional gathered evidence constitutes a breach of his/her due process rights: the contested disciplinary decision is unlawful since it was taken based on the evidence and recommendations of the SIU/UNAMID investigation reports issued in January 2013 and December 2013, even though the SIU/UNAMID continued the investigation and gathered additional evidence from two witnesses in January 2015 and April 2015. The new evidence was never brought to the attention of the Applicant or of the decision-maker before...
The Administration decided to re-examine an earlier decision not to review the two job descriptions. The Applicant was notified that after multiple reviews it was decided that the two job descriptions would not be revised. The Applicant received notification of this final and unambiguous decision at a moment, which puts her request for management evaluation well within the deadline. The application is deemed receivable.