Judgment 4090
127th Session, 2019
International Atomic Energy Agency
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Summary: The complainant challenges the processing of his application for a disability benefit and the calculation of his sick leave entitlements.
Consideration 10
Extract:
Even accepting, for present purposes, that the field of operation of the Flemming principle would comprehend, as an aspect of establishing appropriate levels of pay, payment of sick leave entitlements, it is not appropriate to isolate one element of salary only and compare that element with prevailing local conditions. As the Tribunal observed in Judgment 1334, consideration 24, “[the Flemming principle] offers [...] a guide for setting general levels of pay for local staff: it offers no basis for claims about any particular component of such pay”.
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 1334
Keywords:
allowance; flemming principle; local status; salary; sick leave;
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.
Consideration 17
Extract:
It must be borne in mind, that the Tribunal’s role is not to evaluate independently itself the methodology and its application. These are technical issues beyond the remit of the Tribunal and its role is more limited (see Judgment 3360, consideration 4). There is no single hard and fast approach to the application of the Flemming principle and some discretion must be afforded over method (Judgment 1713, consideration 8).
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 1713, 3360
Keywords:
flemming principle; judicial review; methodology; salary;
Judgment 1915
88th Session, 2000
International Atomic Energy Agency
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Considerations 18-19
Extract:
A comparison study of language proficiency between the common system staff and outside employers was attacked by the complainants because the required level of proficiency is higher in the common system. "The Tribunal holds that it is not necessary to achieve a perfect match between outside jobs and those in the common system. There must merely be sufficient similarity between these jobs."
Keywords:
adjustment; allowance; flemming principle; knowledge of languages; language allowance; qualifications; salary; scale;
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 manner of applying Flemming does not turn on such variables as the desire of staff to keep their jobs or the ease or difficulty of finding good local recruits. What Flemming ordains is that general service staff shall have pay and other terms of employment that match the best on offer at their duty station."
Keywords:
elements; flemming principle; icsc decision; official; safeguard; salary;
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;
Consideration 8
Extract:
"In choosing figures of local pay for the purpose of applying Flemming there can be no single hard-and-fast approach. As was held in Judgment 1265, the [ICSC] must be allowed some discretion over method, even though the Tribunal will still review the exercise of it. The decision impugned may not stand if, say, it overlooks or misconstrues some particular factor, or if some method is applied for the wilful contrivance of lower figures of local pay, or if corners are cut for the sake of saving time, but to the detriment of staff interests."
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 1265
Keywords:
abuse of power; discretion; disregard of essential fact; flaw; flemming principle; icsc decision; judicial review; mistake of fact; mistaken conclusion; misuse of authority; 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;
Consideration 7(a)
Extract:
Preserving accrued benefits is not the aim of the Flemming principle: "it requires no more than alignment with the best conditions at the duty station."
Keywords:
acquired right; adjustment; flemming principle; 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 1334
76th Session, 1994
International Atomic Energy Agency
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 24
Extract:
"As for the Flemming principle, it offers [...] a guide for setting general levels of pay for local staff: it offers no basis for claims about any particular component of such pay."
Keywords:
allowance; flemming principle; local status; salary;
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 1086
70th Session, 1991
International Atomic Energy Agency
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Summary
Extract:
In keeping with the Flemming principle and to make up for the end-of-service allowance paid to employees in Austria's private sector, general service staff at the IAEA, whose headquarters are in Vienna, got a percentage increase in gross salary from 1972 to 1987. As from 1987 the Agency brought in a system comparable to the one in Austrian enterprises. The complainants object to the IAEA's discounting service up to 1972 in reckoning the allowance. The Tribunal holds that by providing for a non-retroactive increase in applicable salary the Agency took a decision which had become final and that by replacing a system in force since 1972 by another was not in breach of any acquired right. No matter which method it followed, the Agency had complied with the Flemming principle.
Keywords:
compensatory measure; flemming principle; increase; non-retroactivity; salary; terminal entitlements; terms of appointment; time bar;
Judgment 1001
68th Session, 1990
United Nations Industrial Development Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Summary
Extract:
The complainants, who are employed by UNIDO in the general service category, seek the quashing of decisions setting their pay according to the new salary scales brought in as from 1 October 1987. They are objecting to the flat 2.4 per cent salary cut included in scales drawn up on the basis of an International Civil Service Commission recommendation to account for the so-called "commissary benefit". UNIDO Staff Regulation 6.5(a) says that the pay of staff in the general service category shall be based on "the best prevailing conditions of employment in the locality" (Flemming principle). The Tribunal holds that for the purpose of establishing parity with local pay the only relevant items are the ones defined in the Staff Regulations and financial rules of the organisation and paid out of its own funds. It follows that such a benefit as access to the commissary, which is provided for neither in the Staff Regulations nor in the financial rules and is a form of tax relief bestowed by the host country at no cost to the Organisation, may not count in a comparison of this nature. The Organization's decision to reduce salaries is unlawful and cannot stand. The cases are sent back to UNIDO for the recalculation of their pay.
Reference(s)
Organization rules reference: UNIDO STAFF REGULATION 6.5(A)
Keywords:
elements; enforcement; flaw; flemming principle; fringe benefits; general service category; headquarters agreement; icsc decision; privileges and immunities; reckoning; reduction of salary; salary; scale; staff regulations and rules;
Judgment 1000
68th Session, 1990
International Atomic Energy Agency
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Summary
Extract:
The complainants, who are employed by the IAEA in the general service category, seek the quashing of decisions setting their pay according to the new salary scales brought in as from 1 October 1987. They are objecting to the flat 2.4 per cent salary cut included in scales drawn up on the basis of an International Civil Service Commission recommendation to account for the so-called "commissary benefit". Annex II.B.1 of the Agency's Provisional Staff Regulations says that the pay of staff in the general service category shall be based on "the best prevailing conditions of employment in the locality" (Flemming principle). The Tribunal holds that for the purpose of establishing parity with local pay the only relevant items are the ones defined in the Staff Regulations and financial rules of the organisation and paid out of its own funds. It follows that such a benefit as access to the commissary, which is provided for neither in the Staff Regulations nor in the financial rules and is a form of tax relief bestowed by the host country at no cost to the organisation, may not count in a comparison of this nature. The Agency's decision to reduce salaries is unlawful and cannot stand. The cases are sent back to the Agency for the recalculation of their pay.
Reference(s)
Organization rules reference: ANNEX II.B.1 OF THE IAEA PROVISIONAL STAFF REGULATIONS
Keywords:
elements; enforcement; flaw; flemming principle; fringe benefits; general service category; headquarters agreement; icsc decision; privileges and immunities; reckoning; reduction of salary; salary; scale; staff regulations and rules;
Judgment 323
39th Session, 1977
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 20
Extract:
Under the applicable provision, the Director-General is required "to fix [general service] salary scales on the basis of the best prevailing conditions. This is an obligation of a very general character and the Director-General has a very wide discretion as to how he will carry it out."
Keywords:
discretion; flemming principle; general service category; organisation's duties; salary; scale;
