Judgment No. 3284
Decision
1. The impugned decision is set aside.
2. The OPCW shall pay the complainant material damages in a sum of 25,000 Swiss francs plus interest at the rate of 5 per cent per annum as from 1 January 2007.
3. The OPCW shall pay the complainant moral damages totalling the sum of 20,000 Swiss francs.
4. The OPCW shall pay the complainant costs in the sum of 4,500 Swiss francs.
5. All other claims are dismissed.
Summary
The complainant successfully challenged the decision not to conduct a review of the grade assigned to his post.
Judgment keywords
Keywords
complaint allowed; decision quashed; post classification
Consideration 12
Extract:
Much of the detailed factual material and analysis advanced by the parties was designed to show (on the complainant’s part) or rebut (on the OPCW’s part) that since early 2007 the complainant had not simply been performing the tasks of the G-5 level position but had been performing the tasks of a P-2 position. This factual dispute and its resolution in the complainant’s favour was in support of his claim for material damages being the difference in salary, emoluments, pension contributions, and other benefits he would have earned or received at the P-2 level from 1 January 2007. However, the Tribunal’s role is not to undertake the evaluative task of determining what is or should have been the appropriate classification for any particular position (such as that held by the complainant in January 2007 and thereafter) nor the allied evaluative task of determining what is or should have been the appropriate remuneration. In a case such as the present a complainant’s right to either material or moral damages or both must be founded on a demonstrated failure of the employing organisation and its administration to comply with the applicable staff rules and regulations or the principles that have developed in this Tribunal governing the relationship between staff and an organisation.
Keywords
post classification; judicial review; reclassification
Consideration 17
Extract:
These cases involve the application of the principle of equal value for equal work in contexts removed from the facts of this case. The Tribunal rejects this aspect of the complaint to the extent that the complainant invites the Tribunal to determine that the work he did from January 2007 should properly be viewed as work at the P-2 level and that he should have been remunerated accordingly. However, it was not in dispute that he was performing work beyond his current grade (as acknowledged in a memorandum dated 30 November 2009 from the Head of HRB, as found by the Appeals Council and conceded by the OPCW in its reply to the Tribunal). He is entitled to material damages for this. He was offered an ex gratia payment of 3,000 euros, an offer he did not accept. This amount is inadequate. An appropriate sum is 25,000 Swiss francs.
Keywords
equal treatment
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