Judgment No. 657
Decision
THE COMPLAINTS AND THE APPLICATIONS TO INTERVENE ARE DISMISSED.
Consideration 1
Extract:
For the Tribunal to join two or more complaints and deal with them in a single judgment, both the substance of the claims and the material facts should be the same. "The complainants need not all have the same arguments. The Tribunal rules as it sees fit and is not constrained by the parties' submissions, variations between them being immaterial."
Keywords
joinder; identical claims; identical facts; condition
Consideration 6
Extract:
The job descriptions require five years' experience for promotion. It is clear from the guidelines that is a minimum requirement. "The President therefore acted correctly, when he came to apply the provisions on the minimum requirements, in adopting a requirement of eight years' experience for both recruitment and promotion [...] A requirement of eight years' experience is compatible with the rules."
Keywords
post description; promotion; professional experience; appointment; condition
Consideration 5
Extract:
None of the complainants "objected to the decision on his starting grade and step, let alone duly filed an internal appeal [...] The decisions appointing them to [the grade in question] are beyond challenge and any claim which entails review of their grade and step on appointment is time-barred and irreceivable."
Keywords
individual decision; receivability of the complaint; internal remedies exhausted; time bar
Consideration 4
Extract:
The wording of the relevant guidelines "is such that they cannot be treated as a mere statement of policy: they set objective criteria for dealing with individual cases."
Keywords
general decision; administrative instruction; grade; step; promotion; appointment; binding character; criteria
Consideration 6
Extract:
The practice under consideration was being followed before the complainants were recruited and continued to be applied to all officials recruited along similar lines. "There is therefore no merit in the plea that there was breach of their good faith."
Keywords
good faith; practice
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