Judgment 486
48th Session, 1982
Pan American Health Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Considerations 4 and 8
Extract:
The complainant was promoted from GS to P. This change was not an appointment. Under the stated policy of the organization such a promotion justified a review of the place of residence. But such a statement of practice "must not conflict with the rule which it is elaborating". The applicable provision stipulates that the place determined at the time of appointment should be recognised throughout the service. "This forbids the change of residence which the complainant is asking the Tribunal to order."
Keywords:
amendment to the rules; contract; enforcement; general service category; local status; practice; professional category; promotion; provision; residence; staff regulations and rules;
Consideration 6
Extract:
The complainant moved from grade GS.8 to P.2. "The Tribunal doubts whether the change was an appointment of any sort; the complainant remained in the same post which was reclassified into a higher grade. But anyway appointment is a word whose meaning depends upon the context. It can be used to mean an appointment to the staff of [the organization] or an appointment to a post on the staff. [Here] it is clearly being used in the former sense, as an appointment to the service. [...] It is not and cannot be contended that in January 1979 the complainant concluded one period of service and without changing his post embarked upon another. This solution must be rejected."
Keywords:
appointment; consequence; general service category; post classification; professional category; promotion;
Considerations 7-8
Extract:
It is organization policy to treat a promotion from GS grades to P category as justifying a review of the place of residence. "There is ample evidence that this was the stated policy, though [...] there is no evidence in the dossier of the policy being put into practice. [...] The question is therefore whether it is within the competence of the Tribunal to enforce a rule of policy or practice." A statement by the Director-General explaining a practice which he intends to follow can under certain circumstances create a contractual obligation arising out of the relationship created by the appointment. The Tribunal is competent to hear the complaint.
Keywords:
amendment to the rules; binding character; competence of tribunal; contract; general service category; practice; professional category; promotion;
Consideration 4
Extract:
"It is to be noted that the change in the complainant's situation affected [statutory] entitlements [...] these are expatriate entitlements designed for recruits from abroad who will wish to maintain their contacts with the home country, the most important being grants for home leave and education. They are more freely available to officials in the P grades than to those in the GS."
Keywords:
allowance; consequence; education expenses; general service category; home leave; professional category; promotion; right;
Judgment 460
46th Session, 1981
European Patent Organisation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 9
Extract:
"The duty allowance is a temporary one. The staff member who receives it knows that he will continue to do so only as long as he is performing duties pertaining to a higher grade. If [...] he is assigned the duties of a higher grade because of promotion, there are no grounds for payment of the duty allowance".
Keywords:
consequence; promotion; special post allowance;
Consideration 10
Extract:
"The complainant has been receiving since the date of his promotion lower remuneration than before. This anomaly is unacceptable. It is quite unfair to reduce remuneration when responsibility is increased."
Keywords:
consequence; promotion; reduction of salary; salary;
Judgment 457
46th Session, 1981
European Patent Organisation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Summary
Extract:
The complainants failed to get a promotion and addressed an appeal within the applicable time limits to the Director. He failed to take a decision on the matter within the sixty-day time, relying on the major criteria for compiling lists of officials for promotion. The final decision fell within the discretionary authority of the Director, who was free to endorse the recommendations of the Promotion Committee, although he was not bound to. There were no grounds for finding an abuse of discretionary authority. Complaint dismissed.
Keywords:
advisory opinion; binding character; discretion; executive head; promotion; promotion board; proposal;
Judgment 424
45th Session, 1980
Pan American Health Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 7
Extract:
"The complainant [...] had to wait six months for his promotion. It is immaterial whether the long and futile delay was the fault of any PAHO body. All that need be said is that it was entirely due to the way in which PAHO bodies worked and that the organization should make good the wrong by transferring the complainant with effect from the date on which he ought normally to have been transferred [...]. The organization shall [...] pay the complainant the difference between the sums due and those actually paid to him [...] and shall correct his personnel records accordingly."
Keywords:
administrative delay; date; decision quashed; effective date; promotion;
Judgment 395
43rd Session, 1980
International Labour Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Summary
Extract:
The complainant, who held grade P.4, was appointed to a post for which he was to be paid a special post allowance corresponding to step 3 of grade P.5. He claimed promotion by direct selection to this grade. The decisions of the Director-General concerning his assignment and remuneration are not open to challenge. It appears from the provision respecting P.5 posts that "the Director-General enjoys discretionary authority and is free, but not obliged, to make an appointment by direct selection." The decision is not tainted with any of the flaws which entitle the Tribunal to interfere.
Keywords:
discretion; judicial review; promotion; special post allowance;
Judgment 371
42nd Session, 1979
European Patent Organisation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 7
Extract:
"The provisions which lay down the conditions governing promotion do not confer any acquired rights on a staff member because, when he takes up his appointment, he cannot foresee how he will fare in his career. On the contrary, those provisions are subject to amendment and the staff member must expect such amendment."
Keywords:
acquired right; amendment to the rules; career; promotion; provision; staff regulations and rules; terms of appointment;
Judgment 370
42nd Session, 1979
European Patent Organisation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 8
Extract:
The decision not to promote the complainant is a matter of discretion. In this case, the Tribunal notes that the Director-General did not abuse his discretionary authority. "Moreover, the effects of the decision not to promote the complainant derive from the relevant rules. However detrimental the complainant may find them, they afford no reason for promoting him."
Keywords:
discretion; enforcement; judicial review; promotion; provision; staff regulations and rules;
Judgment 366
41st Session, 1978
International Patent Institute
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 9
Extract:
"[E]ven if a staff member gets no salary increase on promotion his position is not necessarily just as before. Not only may he be given work which will give him greater satisfaction but he will be better placed for further promotion which does bring a salary increase."
Keywords:
consequence; increase; promotion; salary;
Consideration 9
Extract:
"[T]he acquired right to promotion is merely the possibility of advancement because it is only on the strength of such a possibility that a staff member may have accepted appointment. The provisions which lay down the conditions governing promotion do not confer any acquired rights on a staff member because, when he takes up his appointment, he cannot foresee how he will fare in his career. On the contrary, those provisions are subject to amendment and the staff member must expect such amendment."
Keywords:
acquired right; amendment to the rules; career; promotion; provision; staff regulations and rules;
Judgment 365
41st Session, 1978
International Patent Institute
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 9
Extract:
Vide Judgment 366, consideration 9.
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 366
Keywords:
consequence; increase; promotion; salary;
Consideration 9
Extract:
"It is true that when he takes up employment with an organisation an official may reasonably hope some day to advance in grade and that the rules on promotion create an acquired right in so far as they offer the prospect of advancement. But the substance of the acquired right to promotion is merely the possibility of advancement because it is only on the strength of such a possibility that a staff member may have accepted appointment."
Keywords:
acquired right; career; legitimate expectation; promotion; terms of appointment;
Consideration 9
Extract:
Vide Judgment 366, consideration 9.
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 366
Keywords:
acquired right; amendment to the rules; career; promotion; provision; staff regulations and rules;
Judgment 347
40th Session, 1978
International Patent Institute
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 2
Extract:
The complainant was promoted but granted no seniority at his new step. He failed to impugn that decision in time. Claiming that he had been less fairly treated than officials promoted in the meantime, the complainant submitted a further request to the Director-General, which was dismissed. Although the effect of that decision is the same as that of the first decision, it is an answer to the claim made by the complainant. "Since it is not merely confirmatory, it may be impugned before the Tribunal."
Keywords:
confirmatory decision; internal appeal; promotion; receivability of the complaint; seniority; time bar;
Consideration 3
Extract:
The decision, which concerns a condition of the complainant's promotion, is a discretionary one. Hence the Tribunal may quash it only if [...]. For the Tribunal "to have a wider power of review, the Director-General would, before he decided on promotions, have had to adopt rules or criteria of which the staff were duly informed."
Keywords:
discretion; judicial review; promotion;
Judgment 330
39th Session, 1977
International Patent Institute
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 3
Extract:
In the present case "the Tribunal has no grounds for broadening the scope of its customary power to review decisions on promotion. Indeed, the [relevant provision] states that promotion is a matter of choice and so qualifies it as a discretionary decision - in other words, one over which the Tribunal may exercise only a limited power of review."
Keywords:
discretion; judicial review; promotion;
Judgment 304
38th Session, 1977
International Patent Institute
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 5
Extract:
"It is for the [competent] committees and for the Director-General to adapt the conditions of promotion to the [organisation's] requirements. Hence those conditions may change from year to year and, since they do so, different staff members are differently treated according to the dates on which they receive promotion. Where there are administrative reasons for such difference in treatment, it is no breach of the principle of equality laid down in [the Staff Regulations]."
Keywords:
amendment to the rules; competence; criteria; equal treatment; executive head; organisation's interest; promotion; promotion board;
Consideration 1
Extract:
"The decision not to promote [...] falls within the Director-General's discretionary authority. Hence the Tribunal will interfere with that decision only if [...]."
Keywords:
discretion; executive head; judicial review; promotion; refusal;
Judgment 303
38th Session, 1977
International Patent Institute
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 1
Extract:
Vide Judgment 304, consideration 1.
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 304
Keywords:
discretion; executive head; judicial review; promotion; refusal;
Judgment 301
38th Session, 1977
International Patent Institute
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 4
Extract:
"The function of [careers] committees is purely advisory, and the criteria they adopt have no binding force. Hence, even though those criteria are not beyond reproach, the Director-General's decisions are not tainted on that account."
Keywords:
advisory body; binding character; criteria; discretion; executive head; promotion; promotion board;
Consideration 5
Extract:
It is for the competent committees and the Director-General to adapt the conditions of promotion to the requirements of the organisation. "Hence those conditions may change from year to year and, since they do so, different staff members are differently treated according to the dates on which they receive promotion. Where there are administrative reasons for such difference in treatment, it is no breach of the principle of equality."
Keywords:
amendment to the rules; competence; criteria; date; effective date; equal treatment; executive head; organisation's interest; promotion; promotion board;
Consideration 1
Extract:
Vide Judgment 304, consideration 1.
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 304
Keywords:
discretion; executive head; judicial review; promotion; refusal;
Judgment 300
38th Session, 1977
International Patent Institute
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 1
Extract:
Vide Judgment 304, consideration 1.
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 304
Keywords:
discretion; executive head; judicial review; promotion; refusal;
Consideration 5
Extract:
Vide Judgment 301, consideration 5.
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 301
Keywords:
amendment to the rules; competence; criteria; date; effective date; equal treatment; executive head; organisation's interest; promotion; promotion board;
Judgment 295
38th Session, 1977
International Labour Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Considerations
Extract:
The complainant was seconded from a national ministry. "The fact that [he] was apparently promoted in the French civil service [on a particular date] has in any event no bearing on the terms of his contract with the organisation."
Keywords:
consequence; domestic law; promotion; secondment;
Judgment 282
37th Session, 1976
European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Considerations
Extract:
"A clear distinction must be drawn between the quality of a staff member's work, as reflected in such things as performance reports and promotion, and specific facts or a general attitude at variance with his duties as a staff member and warranting disciplinary action."
Keywords:
conduct; elements; fitness for international civil service; promotion; rating; staff member's duties; work appraisal;
Judgment 263
35th Session, 1975
International Patent Institute
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 2
Extract:
The Director-General may before taking decisions lay down rules for promotion which he notifies to the staff. In formulating the rules the Director-General exercises real discretionary authority; accordingly, when the Tribunal has to determine the validity of such rules its power of review takes the limited form already described.
Keywords:
discretion; flaw; judicial review; promotion; provision; staff regulations and rules;
Consideration 3
Extract:
In refusing to promote officials who had resigned the Director-General did not draw any clearly mistaken conclusion from the situation of such officials. Promotion may have two consequences: either a salary increase with new duties and greater responsibilities; or salary increase alone. "In the former case promotion would serve no purpose: the official who had resigned would remain for too short a time in the higher grade to which he had been promoted to perform the duties of the new post. In the latter case the decision not to promote the official is also warranted: [the] purpose [of promotion] is not merely to reward the official for past and present performance but also generally to encourage him to remain for a long period in the service of his employer."
Keywords:
consequence; organisation; promotion; purpose; refusal; resignation; separation from service;
Consideration 2
Extract:
"[A]s a rule the decision whether or not to promote an official falls within the discretionary authority of the Director-General and is therefore subject to only limited review by the Tribunal. In general the Tribunal will not interfere with the decision unless [...]."
Keywords:
discretion; judicial review; promotion;
Judgment 262
35th Session, 1975
International Patent Institute
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 1
Extract:
Vide Judgment 263, consideration 2.
Keywords:
discretion; flaw; judicial review; promotion; provision; staff regulations and rules;
Consideration 3
Extract:
The Director-General informed the staff of the criteria for promotion applicable in 1974. One of these criteria refers to officials who reached a specific step "not later than" 1974. The other material criterion merely refers to those who by 1974 had a certain seniority at another step. "Whether intentional or not, the difference between the two texts does not necessarily mean that the solutions should be different. The solution should nevertheless be based on objective reasons."
Keywords:
consequence; criteria; difference; promotion; provision;
Consideration 4
Extract:
"[T]he complainant is justified in contending that [two criteria respecting promotion] of the Director-General's circular to the staff are applicable. He is therefore as a matter of course entitled to rely on the provision which is more favourable to him. [T]he former provision is [...] more favourable to the complainant than the latter, which the Director-General was wrong in taking as the basis for his decision. The impugned decision should therefore be reviewed."
Keywords:
administrative instruction; criteria; difference; equal treatment; promotion; provision; right;
Consideration 1
Extract:
Vide Judgment 263, consideration 2.
Keywords:
discretion; judicial review; promotion;
Judgment 257
34th Session, 1975
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 1
Extract:
"The two categories have separate salary scales and are subject to different systems of calculation for variations and adjustments to meet cost of living increases and so forth. The problems stem from the fact that there is no inter-relationship between the two systems with the consequence that, unless special provision is made, promotion could leave the staff member promoted financially worse off."
Keywords:
adjustment; consequence; difference; general service category; professional category; promotion; salary; scale;
Considerations 4-5
Extract:
"After the complainant's promotion the changes which occurred in salary scales and adjustments in the general service category were more beneficial to the staff than those which occurred in the professional category. [...] The consequence is that her annual pension is now [...] less than it would have been if she had not accepted promotion." The complainant ought not to have to suffer from her promotion.
Keywords:
amendment to the rules; consequence; general service category; pension; professional category; promotion; reduction of salary; salary; scale;
Consideration 5
Extract:
The material rule "leaves the solution to special arrangements to be made for maintaining the pensionable remuneration at its previous level [when promotion results in a reduction]. If the word 'on' is construed as meaning 'on or after' and the phrase 'at its previous level' is construed as meaning 'at the level at which it would otherwise have been', the word 'maintaining' can be given its full effect [...] Having regard to the manifest object of the rule, the Tribunal does not consider that this reading of it puts a strain upon the language which it cannot bear."
Keywords:
compensatory measure; consequence; interpretation; pension; pensionable remuneration; promotion; provision; reduction of salary; staff regulations and rules;
