Notification of allegations (902,-666)

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Keywords: Notification of allegations
Total judgments found: 3

• Judgment 4310

  
  130th Session, 2020
  International Labour Organization
  Extracts: EN, FR
  Full Judgment Text: EN, FR
  Summary: The complainant challenges the decision to apply the sanction of summary dismissal to him.

  Consideration 6

  Extract:

  Although this is not an indispensable condition for due process (see Judgments 3295, under 8, and 4106, under 9), it is preferable that the subject of an investigation should be notified of the opening of an investigation into her or his conduct and the charges against her or him before being heard, so that she or he has an opportunity to explain her or his conduct and to submit any exculpatory evidence. If this does not occur, that information must, in any event, be provided at the beginning of the hearing.
  [A]t the beginning of the interview, one of the investigators explained that it was a “follow-up” to the audit report of 2012 and to “certain things” that had come to the IAO’s attention. He then emphasised that the interview was confidential, adding that “for example, [the] report goes to the Director-General afterwards. [There’s] a committee in Geneva which is responsible for reading reports from the [Investigation] Unit, and then [makes] direct recommendations to the Director-General.” Given that the complainant had not been notified in advance and was unaware of the content of the 2012 audit report, such general statements cannot be considered sufficient to inform him of the opening of an investigation and the charges against him. The investigators failed to indicate plainly the allegations against him. They merely questioned him on the events leading to the finding of misconduct on eight counts for which the disciplinary sanction was ultimately imposed. It is true that at the end of the interview, the investigators mentioned, in a very cursory manner, that a report on the interview would be forwarded to the Director of the IAO and the Committee on Accountability, which could recommend “disciplinary action or sanctions or things like that” to the Director-General. However, that explanation had to be clearly expressed at the beginning of the interview.

  Reference(s)

  ILOAT Judgment(s): 3295, 4106
  

  Keywords:

  notification of allegations; opening of an investigation; procedural rights during investigation;
  

  
  
  

• Judgment 4227

  
  129th Session, 2020
  Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
  Extracts: EN, FR
  Full Judgment Text: EN, FR
  Summary: The complainant challenges the decision to dismiss him for misconduct.

  Consideration 13

  Extract:

  The fourth of the complainant’s procedural grounds is that during the investigation and disciplinary process the allegations against him shifted. While the focus of the factual foundation of the charges varied during the entire process, the substance of the charges remained constant. This is not a case analogous to that arising in Judgment 4063.

  Reference(s)

  ILOAT Judgment(s): 4063
  

  Keywords:

  notification of allegations; procedural rights during investigation;
  

  
  
  

• Judgment 3200

  
  115th Session, 2013
  Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
  Extracts: EN, FR
  Full Judgment Text: EN, FR
  Summary: The complainant challenges the decision to impose on her the disciplinary measure of demotion.

  Consideration 8

  Extract:

  It will often be fair to the accused to give notice of the allegations some time before the interview, perhaps even days, so that the accused has an opportunity to gather their thoughts about who might give evidence on the accused’s behalf and, in appropriate cases, identify documents which might assist the accused’s defence. Of course, as paragraph 5.2 [of the OSDI Quality Assurance Manual] also contemplates, such notice might be inappropriate if it compromised the integrity of the investigation, but that is likely not to be the norm. However, what is clear is that this step of informing the accused of the allegations should occur before the interview.

  Keywords:

  duty to inform about the investigation; notification of allegations; procedural rights during investigation;