Judgment No. 1130

• Organization: European Patent Organisation (EPO)
• Date: 03.07.1991
• Original: English
• Judges: Ducoux, Suffian, Ruda
• Full judgment text - Full judgment text (french)

Decision

THE COMPLAINTS ARE DISMISSED.

Consideration 2

Extract:

"The rule against retroactivity, though a general principle of law, is not absolute. One qualification is, as indeed the complainants acknowledge, that the retroactive decision will be admissible in law where the effect of it is favourable to the staff member it applies to. Another qualification is that the rule will not hold where the retroactive decision supersedes an earlier one which, at the time at which it was taken, was merely provisional and so was to hold good only until replaced by a final decision."

Keywords

provisional decision; exception; general principle; non-retroactivity

Consideration 3

Extract:

The Organisation granted the complainants incremental steps on a provisional basis while awaiting for new salary scales to come into force. The Tribunal holds that "there was nothing unlawful about replacing them several months later with retroactive decisions granting them lower steps."

Keywords

provisional decision; withdrawal of decision; amendment to the rules; step; increment; salary; scale; reduction of salary