Judgment 4778
137th Session, 2024
International Telecommunication Union
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Summary: The complainant, who was promoted from grade G.6 to grade P.3, challenges what he regards as the withdrawal of the decision to take his family allowance into account when determining his step in his new grade P.3.
Judgment keywords
Keywords:
complaint dismissed; general service category; professional category; promotion; receivability of the complaint;
Judgment 4777
137th Session, 2024
International Telecommunication Union
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Summary: The complainant challenges the calculation of his remuneration and the determination of his step following his promotion from grade G.6 to grade P.3.
Judgment keywords
Keywords:
complaint dismissed; general service category; professional category; promotion;
Considerations 7-9
Extract:
The complainant concludes that the higher the grade, the higher the remuneration ought to be, so that a promotion should necessarily lead to a significant increase in pay.
However, firstly, the Tribunal notes that, as the organisation rightly points out in its submissions, the methodology that has been embodied and applied in the United Nations system for decades for determining salaries does not show a linear continuity between the responsibilities and levels of pay at the higher grades in category G and those at the lower grades in category P. Secondly, it is apparent from the submissions and the evidence that to accede to the complainant’s claim for a higher level of remuneration in his grade P.3 post than that resulting from the adjustment already awarded to him on the basis of the remuneration he received at grade G.6 would, on the contrary, amount to a deviation from the principle of equal pay for equal work when compared with other ITU staff members at grade P.3 who did not come from the General Service category.
In that regard, the Tribunal already recalled, in its Judgment 1196, consideration 19, that it is well known that different salary scales exist for the General Service category and the Professional category, which in itself neither is discriminatory nor constitute a breach of the principle of equal treatment, emphasising the following:
“[A]ccording to consistent precedent the distinction between international and local staff is a fundamental one inherent in the very nature of an international organisation. It is due to the peculiar circumstances in which such organisations work and it is concurred in, with both its advantages and its drawbacks, by anyone who seeks employment with them, be it in one category of staff or in the other. Each category of staff offers career prospects and conditions of recruitment and pay that differ according to its own requirements, and a staff member may not plead breach of equal treatment if treated differently because he belongs to one category rather than to the other.”
Similarly, in Judgment 498, consideration 1, the Tribunal had made the following remarks in relation to those distinctions:
“G staff are recruited largely in [the headquarters country] or neighbouring countries. It is therefore only right that [...] their pay [...] should be in line with pay scales in [the headquarters country]. Officials in other categories, however, may come from and be required to serve anywhere in the world. [...] [The organisation] takes as its standard of comparison the best-paid national civil service. Consequently the allegation of unlawful discrimination fails.”
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 1196
Keywords:
equal pay for equal work; equal treatment; general service category; professional category; promotion; salary;
Consideration 9
Extract:
In Judgment 498, the Tribunal had [...] noted that, contrary to what the complainant maintains in the present case, it was not unlawful for staff members in the Professional category and those in the General Service category to receive different amounts of family allowance, since the principle of equal treatment can only be applied to staff members who are in the same situation.
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 498
Keywords:
allowance; equal treatment; family allowance; general service category; professional category;
Judgment 4249
129th Session, 2020
International Labour Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Summary: The complainants contest the implementation of the 2013 comprehensive local salary survey for New Delhi, India.
Judgment keywords
Keywords:
complaint dismissed; general service category; material injury; salary;
Judgment 4088
127th Session, 2019
International Atomic Energy Agency
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Summary: The complainant challenges the decision to reassign him to the General Service category upon the expiry of his fixed-term appointment to a position in the Professional category.
Judgment keywords
Keywords:
complaint dismissed; general service category; professional category; reassignment;
Judgment 3931
125th Session, 2018
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Summary: The complainants contest the decision to apply new salary scales in New Dehli as from 1 November 2014, which show a salary freeze for staff members already in service and a lower salary for new staff.
Judgment keywords
Keywords:
complaint dismissed; general service category; icsc decision; salary;
Judgment 3883
124th Session, 2017
International Labour Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Summary: The complainants contest the implementation of new salary scales as from March 2012 in Bangkok.
Judgment keywords
Keywords:
complaint allowed; general service category; icsc decision; salary;
Judgment 3740
123rd Session, 2017
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Summary: The complainants challenge the legality of changes to the FAO General Service category staff salary scale consequent to the implementation of recommendations contained in an ICSC report in 2012 on local employment conditions in Rome.
Judgment keywords
Keywords:
complaint dismissed; general service category; icsc decision; salary;
Judgment 2356
97th Session, 2004
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 16
Extract:
The complainant claims damages for the injury resulting from the inclusion in her personnel file of a memorandum bearing negative remarks about her performance. "While there is no evidence whatsoever to support the complainant's claim that she was humiliated and that her future career prospects were adversely affected by this memorandum, the fact remains that the Appeals Committee found, and the Director-General accepted, that the document should be removed from her file. That necessarily implies an acceptance by the Organization that it had acted wrongly in putting it there in the first place. This entitles her to a nominal award of moral damages which the Tribunal evaluates at 500 euros."
Keywords:
acceptance; advisory opinion; breach; career; claim; executive head; general service category; grade; injury; internal appeals body; lack of evidence; moral injury; official; personal file; request by a party; respect for dignity; right; supervisor; unsatisfactory service;
Judgment 1976
89th Session, 2000
International Telecommunication Union
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 6
Extract:
The complainant, who holds a post in the general service category, requested a job description "in line with current tasks being carried out [...] at the professional level". The Tribunal considers that "as regards her request that her current tasks be classified at the professional level, this is not within the competence of the Tribunal. The Tribunal has no power to direct that a particular job be classified at the professional level."
Keywords:
competence of tribunal; general service category; post classification; post description; professional category;
Judgment 1713
84th Session, 1998
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 14
Extract:
"The dropping, and even the phasing out, of the language factor is a decision that ignores the peculiarities of the employment market in Rome. It therefore amounts to breach of the right of general service staff to one of the terms of employment - namely pay - that must [...] be 'among the best in the locality without being the absolute best'."
Keywords:
breach; flemming principle; general service category; icsc decision; language allowance; official; salary;
Judgment 1641
83rd Session, 1997
World Intellectual Property Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 7(a)
Extract:
The Flemming principle "demands that, so far as can be, pay in the international civil service should stay on a par with the best pay on the local market. Since for the time being there is neither a continuing survey nor a new one interim adjustment answers the purpose of Flemming. Yet [...] it is not at odds with that purpose to make the adjustment for the last period retroactive in the light of the findings of the general survey. During that period, which is short, the idea of interim adjustment is not discarded but the grant of it simply made subject to other conditions."
Keywords:
adjustment; condition; flemming principle; general service category; inquiry; investigation; period; purpose; salary; scale;
Judgment 1519
81st Session, 1996
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 17
Extract:
"The complainants argue that the [salary] survey ought to have compared jobs at like levels of seniority inside and outside [the organization] and not ignored the inverted 'pyramid' of the age structure of [the organization's] staff. There is merit to the criticism. Yet to whichever side one may tend on that point, the comparison is fated to go awry. In any event there was nothing unlawful in the approach the survey took. Neither [the ICSC] nor [the] organization went beyond the bounds of the discretion that the case law allow".
Keywords:
case law; discretion; flemming principle; general service category; icsc decision; inquiry; investigation; salary; seniority; step; terms of appointment;
Consideration 2
Extract:
"At its 15th and 37th sessions the [International Civil Service] Commission reaffirmed the Flemming principle, which dates back to 1949. The principle requires organisations to offer staff in the general service category conditions of employment on a par with 'the best prevailing conditions of employment in the locality' - i.e. salary and other basic components of pay - 'without being necessarily the best local conditions'."
Keywords:
base salary; definition; duty station; flemming principle; general service category; salary; terms of appointment;
Consideration 7
Extract:
"The complainants' plea that the [ICSC's] method of comparison with outside pay [as modified in 1992] should not have disregarded training would carry weight if it had any merit [...] but it is hard to evaluate the benefits of it to staff. Any attempt to do so may end in approximation or error because those benefits are not a reward for services rendered and depend on each staff member's duties, experience and career prospects. Though comparison of such benefits might have proved possible, the [ICSC's] methodology did not have to take account of them."
Keywords:
discretion; flemming principle; general service category; icsc decision; inquiry; investigation; salary; terms of appointment;
Consideration 12
Extract:
The International Civil Service Commission was not "bound to recommend that [the organization] fall in line with the practice of outside employers [...] In respect of compulsory insurance premiums and the refund of expenses incurred [the organization's] scheme of staff health insurance and the [national] social security system [...] are not closely comparable; indeed they are quite different. [...] The Commission abided by the applicable methodology - for all its flaws on that count - and [the organization] made no mistake of fact or of law."
Keywords:
contributions; flemming principle; general service category; health insurance; icsc decision; inquiry; insurance; investigation; salary; social benefits; terms of appointment;
Consideration 6
Extract:
"The revision of 1992 [of the general methodology which the International Civil Service Commission applies to salary service] did result in a reduction of outside employees' fringe benefits. [...] According to the survey [...] the goods and services taken into account were such that the effect of the change was slight. So the revision is not to be deemed unlawful on that score, the Commission exercised its discretion".
Keywords:
discretion; flemming principle; fringe benefits; general service category; icsc decision; inquiry; investigation; reckoning; salary; scale;
Judgment 1423
79th Session, 1995
International Telecommunication Union
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 4
Extract:
Since the complainant's grade is P.2 he "has no locus standi in challenging any new salary scales applicable to the general service category of staff. Because he belongs to another category of staff the revision of those scales cannot cause him injury."
Keywords:
cause of action; claim; complainant; general service category; injury; lack of injury; professional category; receivability of the complaint; salary; scale;
Judgment 1382
78th Session, 1995
Pan American Health Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Considerations 4-6
Extract:
The complainant was a locally recruited official in the general service category whose appointment was terminated after the paho abolished his post. He submits that the Organization ruled out the possibility of reassignment by limiting the geographical scope of a competition. The plea fails. WHO Manual paragraph II.9.290 confers no right on general service staff to reassignment on a post outside their duty station. Staff Rule 510.1 precludes reassignment of such staff outside their duty station unless there is mutual agreement and under Rule 1310.2 all posts in the general service category are subject to local recruitment.
Reference(s)
Organization rules reference: WHO MANUAL PARAGRAPH II.9.290; PAHO STAFF RULE 510.1; PAHO STAFF RULE 1310.2
Keywords:
appointment; duty station; general service category; interpretation; local status; reassignment; right; staff regulations and rules; written rule;
Judgment 1370
77th Session, 1994
International Telecommunication Union
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 8
Extract:
The complainant pleads that he had been promoted from grade G.7 to P.2 "even though he was drawing the post allowance. It is immaterial whether or not the conditions in which he was granted the allowance met the requirements of Regulation 3.8: suffice it to observe that he acquiesced and amply reaped the benefit for most of the period during which he received the allowance. So the Tribunal cannot allow his plea that he was promoted."
Reference(s)
Organization rules reference: ITU STAFF REGULATION 3.8
Keywords:
acceptance; amendment to the rules; condition; general service category; grade; professional category; promotion; special post allowance; staff regulations and rules;
Judgment 1280
75th Session, 1993
World Health Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 29
Extract:
Vide Judgment 1279, consideration 29.
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 1279
Keywords:
adjustment; discretion; executive head; flemming principle; general service category; local status; reckoning; salary; scale;
Judgment 1279
75th Session, 1993
Pan American Health Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 29
Extract:
The organization carried out a review of the salary scales for general-service staff on the basis of an overall survey of local employment conditions. The complainants object to the new scales. "Whether the list of local employers makes a reasonable cross- section of economic sectors and whether the fund and the world bank are too closely linked to be taken separately are matters of appreciation that must ultimately be decided by the Director in the exercise of his discretion."
Keywords:
adjustment; discretion; executive head; flemming principle; general service category; local status; reckoning; salary; scale;
Judgment 1266
75th Session, 1993
International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 21
Extract:
Vide Judgment 1265, consideration 21.
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 382, 825
Keywords:
adjustment; case law; coordinated organisations; general service category; icsc decision; local status; organisation's duties; reckoning; right of appeal; salary; scale; tribunal;
Consideration 24
Extract:
Vide Judgment 1265, consideration 24.
Keywords:
adjustment; competence of tribunal; coordinated organisations; declaration of recognition; general service category; icsc decision; local status; official; organisation's duties; reckoning; right of appeal; salary; scale; written rule;
Consideration 23
Extract:
Vide Judgment 1265, consideration 23.
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 1197
Keywords:
adjustment; adversarial proceedings; coordinated organisations; duty to inform; general service category; icsc decision; local status; organisation's duties; reckoning; salary; scale; tribunal;
Considerations 26 and 28
Extract:
Vide Judgment 1265, considerations 26 and 28.
Keywords:
adjustment; case law; criteria; discretion; general service category; icsc decision; judicial review; limits; local status; reckoning; salary; scale;
Considerations 26-27
Extract:
Vide Judgment 1265, considerations 26 and 27.
Keywords:
adjustment; criteria; discretion; general service category; icsc decision; judicial review; limits; local status; reckoning; salary; scale; staff member's interest;
Judgment 1265
75th Session, 1993
World Intellectual Property Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Considerations 26 and 29
Extract:
The organization, a member of the "common system" administered by the ICSC, revised the salaries of staff in the general service category in keeping with a scale drawn up by the ICSC for organisations whose headquarters are in Geneva. The complainants submit that the ICSC's decisions are invalid. "The Tribunal may not interfere in the exercise of [the organization's] discretion or in the drafting of the salary policy it is based on. But it does have a power of review in this area which is clearly defined [...] the Tribunal has, like other international and national administrative tribunals, set criteria for what may be termed 'external' or 'marginal' review of discretionary decisions, and [...] they were set out in detail in Judgment 1000, under 12."
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 1000
Keywords:
adjustment; case law; compensation; criteria; discretion; general service category; icsc decision; judicial review; limits; municipal court; reckoning; salary; scale;
Consideration 24
Extract:
The organization, a member of the "common system" administered by the ICSC, revised the salaries of staff in the general service category in keeping with a scale drawn up by the ICSC for organisations whose headquarters are in Geneva. The complainants submit that the ICSC's decisions are invalid. "Insofar as such standards are found to be flawed they may not be imposed on the staff and WIPO must if need be replace them with provisions that comply with the law of the international civil service. That is an essential feature of the principles governing the international legal system the Tribunal is called upon to safeguard. It is therefore plain that the complainants' rights to judicial process are safeguarded by the defendant organization's recognition of the Tribunal's jurisdiction. Such jurisdiction may not be restricted by the introduction into the organization's Staff Regulations or Rules adopted by bodies outside the Tribunal's competence."
Keywords:
adjustment; competence of tribunal; coordinated organisations; declaration of recognition; general service category; icsc decision; international civil service principles; judicial review; local status; official; organisation's duties; reckoning; right of appeal; salary; scale; staff member's interest; written rule;
Considerations 26 and 28
Extract:
The organization, a member of the "common system" administered by the ICSC, revised the salaries of staff in the general service category in keeping with a scale drawn up by the ICSC for organisations whose headquarters are in Geneva. The complainants submit that the ICSC's decisions are invalid. "The Tribunal may not interfere in the exercise of such discretion or in the drafting of the salary policy it is based on. But it does have a power of review in this area which is clearly defined [...] there are specific [factors] that in this comparative sort of exercise must be taken in isolation from the rest and subject to critical evaluation. Judgment 1000 [...] illustrates how such a procedure may yield notable results. In this case the information provided by the Commission shows that it is quite possible to isolate the factor at issue and even to put exact figures on the effects they have on the salary scale."
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 1000
Keywords:
adjustment; case law; criteria; discretion; general service category; icsc decision; judicial review; limits; local status; reckoning; salary; scale;
Consideration 21
Extract:
The organization, a member of the "common system" administered by the ICSC, revised the salaries of its staff in the general service category in keeping with a scale drawn up by the ICSC for organisations whose headquarters are in Geneva. The organization, having thus complied with the obligations it derives from membership of the common system, "may not in that way decline or limit its own responsibility towards the members of its staff or lessen the degree of judicial protection it owes them. The Tribunal has already had occasion to speak of that responsibility and to stress the duty of any organisation that introduces elements of the common system or any other outside system into its own rules to make sure that the texts it thereby imports are lawful: see Judgment 825 [...], under 18, which in turn refers to Judgment 382 [...], under 6."
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 382, 825
Keywords:
adjustment; case law; coordinated organisations; general service category; icsc decision; judicial review; local status; organisation's duties; reckoning; right of appeal; salary; scale;
Considerations 26-27
Extract:
The organization, a member of the "common system" administered by the ICSC, revised the salaries of staff in the general service category in keeping with a scale drawn up by the ICSC for organisations whose headquarters are in Geneva. The complainants submit that the ICSC's decisions are invalid. "[T]he Tribunal may not interfere in the exercise of such discretion or in the drafting of the salary policy it is based on. But it does have a power of review in this area which is clearly defined [...] it will consider in the event of dispute whether the Commission's methodology has been properly observed. The methodology is an important factor in ensuring that the results are stable, foreseeable and clearly understood. And though the Commission is free to choose its methods, once it has chosen them the staff may expect them to be followed in all circumstances."
Keywords:
adjustment; criteria; discretion; general service category; icsc decision; judicial review; limits; local status; patere legem; reckoning; salary; scale; staff member's interest;
Consideration 23
Extract:
The organization, a member of the "common system" administered by the ICSC, revised the salaries of staff in the general service category in keeping with a scale drawn up by the ICSC for organistions whose headquarters are in Geneva. WIPO says it is unable to submit any comments on the complainants arguments because it lacked authority to set the salary scales. Having done what was required to import the challenged scale in full into WIPO's own rules and thereby endorsed the ICSC's decisions without qualification, the Director General then "took up an unhelpful posture and thereby prevented before the Tribunal the adversarial pleadings that are an essential feature of judicial process and, besides, indispensable for providing the Tribunal with adequate information: see Judgment 1197 [...], under 13 and 14."
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 1197
Keywords:
adjustment; adversarial proceedings; coordinated organisations; duty to inform; general service category; icsc decision; judicial review; local status; organisation's duties; reckoning; salary; scale;
Judgment 1196
73rd Session, 1992
World Intellectual Property Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 19
Extract:
The complainants, who belong to the professional and higher categories of staff, contend that the repeal of a provision in the Staff Regulations which insure the stability of their conditions of pay discriminated in favour of local staff. "According to consistent precedent the distinction between international and local staff is a fundamental one inherent in the very nature of an international organisation. It is due to the peculiar circumstances in which such organisations work and it is concurred in, with both its advantages and its drawbacks, by anyone who seeks employment with them, be it in one category of staff or in the other. Each category of staff offers career prospects and conditions of recruitment and pay that differ according to its own requirements, and a staff member may not plead breach of equal treatment if treated differently because he belongs to one category rather than to the other."
Keywords:
appointment; career; case law; equal treatment; general service category; international civil service principles; local status; non-local status; professional category; salary;
