Judgment 1787
86th Session, 1999
International Organization for Migration
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Considerations 10-11
Extract:
"The qualifications expected may be just 'desirable', not requirements binding in law. But the appointing authority is not free on that account [...] to disregard the fact that some do qualify and to plump for the very one who does not, even one who in other respects has the right experience and skills. [...] Here the Organization picked someone wanting in listed qualifications which, though said to be only 'desirable', were in fact essential. It thereby fell short of the standards of objectiveness and openness that must govern appointment to a senior post in an international organisation. The process of selection cannot stand [...]" (See Judgment 1595, under 10.)
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 1595
Keywords:
appointment; candidate; competition; competition cancelled; condition; criteria; discretion; flaw; post; post description; procedure before the tribunal; professional experience; qualifications; vacancy notice;
Consideration 5
Extract:
"When a decision is adverse to a staff member the competent administrative authority does have to reveal the reasons for it. But when the result of a competition is announced and, more broadly, when a choice is made between candidates the reasons for the choice need not be notified at the same time as the decision."
Keywords:
candidate; competition; decision; discretion; duty to substantiate decision; grounds; procedure before the tribunal; time limit;
Judgment 1706
84th Session, 1998
United Nations Industrial Development Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 16
Extract:
The complainant, placed on special leave without pay following an 'agreed termination' was a candidate in an internal competition. The Organization maintains that she was no longer a staff member at the moment of recruitment. "The Tribunal [...] holds that the 'agreed termination' did not in any way restrict her rights under the Staff Rules, while she remained a staff member, to preference over an outside male candidate in any future competition where qualifications were equal."
Keywords:
agreed termination; appointment; candidate; competition; internal candidate; priority; right; sex discrimination; special leave; staff regulations and rules; unpaid leave;
Consideration 15
Extract:
"UNIDO's professed policy of increasing the number of women staff at all levels required at least that, other things being equal, it should give preference to applications from women; indeed encouraging women to apply was consistent only with their right to such preference."
Keywords:
candidate; competition; priority; right; sex discrimination;
Judgment 1689
84th Session, 1998
European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 8
Extract:
"The Agency replies that [...] where candidates are found suitable and put on a par no explanation is called for, though 'a reasoned report would have made sense had the Board put the two candidates in order of preference'. The plea is unsound. It postulates that the complainant was unaffected by the finding that he was as fit for the post as the other candidate, and in any event overlooks the fact that the candidates are in competition. [...]. If two are ranked ex aequo each may have an interest in contending that the other should have been marked lower. [...]. In any event the final ranking [...] must be accounted for."
Keywords:
candidate; cause of action; competition; duty to substantiate decision; selection board;
Judgment 1646
83rd Session, 1997
International Telecommunication Union
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Considerations 6 and 10
Extract:
"When an organisation chooses to hold a competition it must abide by its written rules and by the general principles set forth in the case law, particularly insofar as they govern the formal side of the process. [...] As the Appeal Board gathered from the personal records of the candidates on the preselection panel's list, [the successful candidate] had neither the university degree nor the experience that the notice required."
Keywords:
applicable law; appointment; candidate; case law; competition; criteria; degree; due process; international civil service principles; organisation's duties; patere legem; procedure before the tribunal; professional experience; selection procedure; staff regulations and rules; vacancy notice;
Consideration 11
Extract:
"The defendant contends on the strength of the complainant's personal file and his supervisors' reports on his conduct and performance that he was not up to the job anyway. That is neither here nor there. The Union has neglected the cardinal rule of any process of selection: the chosen candidate must have at least the qualifications stipulated in the notice."
Keywords:
appointment; candidate; competition; criteria; due process; organisation's duties; personal file; procedure before the tribunal; qualifications; vacancy notice;
Judgment 1585
82nd Session, 1997
World Health Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 4
Extract:
"Any termination calculated to get rid of an unwanted candidate for a position would offend against the organization's interests and amount to misuse of authority."
Keywords:
abuse of power; candidate; competition; misuse of authority; organisation's interest; termination of employment;
Judgment 1564
82nd Session, 1997
World Health Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 8
Extract:
"The firm case law has it that the Tribunal will not interfere with the comparison of entrants in a competition. Only when it appears that the choice of candidate may rest on some mistake of fact or law or there may have been misuse of authority will the Tribunal order the production of evidence so that it may review such comparison and will the complainant be entitled to see such evidence. In the instant case the review of the selection procedure reveals neither a breach of the Organization's Staff Regulations or other rules, nor any mistake of fact or law, nor misuse of authority."
Keywords:
abuse of power; candidate; case law; competition; confidential evidence; disclosure of evidence; discretion; due process; judicial review; limits; mistake of fact; misuse of authority; staff regulations and rules;
Judgment 1554
81st Session, 1996
European Patent Organisation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 10
Extract:
"The complainant is wrong in contending that for challenging the non-renewal of his contract the time limit of ninety days was somehow held over because of a connexion with his application for a post. His complaint shows two distinct elements: the non-renewal of his contract on 31 January 1994 and his unsuccessful application for a post in April 1994. His failure to file a complaint with the Tribunal within ninety days of 31 January 1994 means that any claim in relation to his contract is time-barred. As for his application for a post, by the time he made it he was no longer an employee of the Organisation. Since an outside candidate for employment does not have access to the Tribunal his complaint is irreceivable in that regard as well."
Reference(s)
ILOAT reference: ARTICLE VII OF THE STATUTE
Keywords:
candidate; competition; complainant; contract; external candidate; locus standi; non-renewal of contract; ratione personae; receivability of the complaint; status of complainant; time bar; time limit;
Judgment 1553
81st Session, 1996
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 24
Extract:
UNESCO Staff Regulation 4.4 grants priority to serving staff for appointment to vacant posts. "Despite the unanimous recommendations by the senior personnel advisory boards and by the Appeals Board the Organization failed to give the complainant priority for vacant posts. It put the wrong question to its units and to its bureau of personnel. The right question was not whether there was a post that fitted her qualifications and experience but whether there was a post of which she was capable of fulfilling the duties competently. [...] No instructions went out that she should be given priority for any vacant posts. So the decision to terminate her services rested on a misinterpretation of Regulation 4.4 and so on a mistake of law. That decision must therefore be set aside".
Reference(s)
Organization rules reference: UNESCO STAFF REGULATION 4.4
Keywords:
abolition of post; candidate; decision; internal candidate; interpretation; material damages; moral injury; organisation's duties; priority; qualifications; reassignment; reinstatement; staff regulations and rules; termination of employment; vacancy;
Judgment 1549
81st Session, 1996
International Atomic Energy Agency
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 13
Extract:
"Although an organisation [may consider] late applicants, it must, whenever a competition is required or desired, announce a new deadline in the same way as it did the vacancy. It will then commit no breach of equality and the competition will be seen as fair."
Keywords:
appointment; candidate; competition; delay; due process; equal treatment; internal candidate; new time limit; organisation's duties; receivability of the complaint; selection procedure; time limit; vacancy; vacancy notice;
Consideration 6
Extract:
"An official of an international organisation who applies for a vacancy is entitled to have his application considered and assessed according to the set procedure once the organisation admits it under the terms of the vacancy notice. It may not deny that an applicant has a cause of action after it has appointed someone else, especially if the applicant is challenging the appointment on the grounds of breach of his rights in failure to apply the proper procedure".
Keywords:
appointment; candidate; case law; cause of action; competition; due process; internal candidate; organisation's duties; receivability of the complaint; staff regulations and rules; vacancy; vacancy notice;
Consideration 8
Extract:
"Whether [the complainant who is now retired] still has any interest in the quashing of someone else's appointment is moot; but he still has an interest in exposing a breach of due process which may warrant an award of damages: see Judgment 729 [...]."
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 729
Keywords:
appointment; candidate; cause of action; claim moot; compensation; competition; due process; flaw; internal candidate; post; procedural flaw; receivability of the complaint; retirement;
Consideration 9
Extract:
"Any applicant [for employment], whatever his hopes of success, must be considered in good faith and in line with the basic rules of fair competition."
Keywords:
appointment; candidate; competition; due process; equal treatment; general principle; good faith; internal candidate; organisation's duties; vacancy;
Judgment 1509
81st Session, 1996
United Nations Industrial Development Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 16
Extract:
When the complainant lodged a claim to reinstatement "he was neither a serving nor a former official of UNIDO, to which he was no more than an outside applicant for employment and whose decision was in fact a refusal to recruit him. That decision raises no question of non-observance of the terms of appointment of an official of UNIDO, or of its Staff Regulations. So again the Tribunal may not entertain the claim."
Keywords:
appointment; breach; candidate; competence of tribunal; competition; complainant; contract; external candidate; locus standi; official; refusal; reinstatement; staff regulations and rules; status of complainant;
Judgment 1497
80th Session, 1996
World Health Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 5
Extract:
"Anyone who applies for a post to be filled by some process of selection is entitled to have his application considered in good faith and in keeping with the basic rules of fair and open competition. That is a right that every applicant must enjoy, whatever his hopes of success may be."
Keywords:
candidate; cause of action; competition; equal treatment; good faith; organisation's duties;
Consideration 7
Extract:
"The conclusion [of the Tribunal] is that in appointing [the successful applicant] the Organization broke the basic rule of any process of selection that the successful applicant must have all the minimum qualifications required in the notice of vacancy."
Keywords:
appointment; candidate; competition; condition; due process; qualifications; vacancy notice;
Judgment 1436
79th Session, 1995
International Telecommunication Union
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 6
Extract:
"As was said for example in Judgment 1223, the Tribunal will not interfere with comparison of candidates in a competition. Only when it appears that the choice rests on a mistake of fact or law or that there has probably been misuse of authority will the Tribunal order the defendant to produce further evidence so that it may review such comparison."
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 1223
Keywords:
abuse of power; burden of proof; candidate; case law; competition; due process; evidence; further submissions; judicial review; mistake of fact; misuse of authority; presumption of innocence; qualifications; selection procedure;
Judgment 1390
78th Session, 1995
European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 24
Extract:
"To what extent must an administration substantiate its decisions? The answer is that it depends on the sort of decision that is to be substantiated. In the present case a distinction must be drawn between the rejection of an external application, particularly where a competition has attracted many candidates, and the rejection of an application by a serving official. In the latter case the organisation has a duty to maintain the relations of trust it has with the staff member, and although it must remain free to choose how it will notify the reasons to him it must be wary of damaging his career prospects."
Keywords:
appointment; candidate; competition; competition cancelled; discretion; duty to substantiate decision; internal candidate; organisation's duties; purport; refusal; staff member's interest;
Consideration 27
Extract:
Article 15 of Annex 1 to the Eurocontrol Convention says that "the Agency shall be empowered to recruit personnel directly only if the contracting parties are unable to make qualified personnel available to it". The Tribunal holds that the provision "limits the organisation's freedom to recruit by giving priority to candidates prescribed by the contracting parties over 'outside' candidates, but it puts no restrictions on the organisation's freedom to assess the suitability of applicants, wherever they may come from, nor its right to give serving staff a reasonable opportunity of advancement provided that they are as well qualified as other candidates."
Reference(s)
Organization rules reference: ARTICLE 15 OF ANNEX 1 TO THE EUROCONTROL CONVENTION
Keywords:
appointment; candidate; career; competition; competition cancelled; discretion; equal treatment; internal candidate; international instrument; interpretation; legitimate expectation; member state; official; priority; promotion; qualifications;
Judgment 1383
78th Session, 1995
World Health Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 12
Extract:
"It is axiomatic that a candidate who does not fulfil the minimum requirements set out in a vacancy notice does not qualify for selection."
Keywords:
candidate; competition; condition; vacancy notice;
Considerations 14-15
Extract:
The selection process for a vacancy that had been put up for competition was fatally flawed because the successful candidate did not meet the minimum requirements in the vacancy notice. The complainant "admits that she drafted the description to fit her own qualifications and experience [and that she was] endeavouring from the outset to pervert the process to secure her own appointment. [...] In the circumstances she is not entitled to any damages at all. [...] Accordingly, the Tribunal will [not] award the complainant damages for material or moral injury."
Keywords:
candidate; compensation; competition; good faith; material damages; moral injury; vacancy notice;
Judgment 1378
78th Session, 1995
Pan American Health Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 8
Extract:
"The relevant provisions of the Manual require that [...] the receiving unit prepare written evaluations of [the candidates]. Thus it was both proper and reasonable for the receiving unit to interview candidates in order to prepare the required reports and evaluations."
Reference(s)
Organization rules reference: WHO MANUAL PARAGRAPH II.3.340; WHO MANUAL PARAGRAPH II.3.341 WHO MANUAL PARAGRAPH II.3.342
Keywords:
candidate; competition; due process; qualifications; staff regulations and rules;
Judgment 1371
77th Session, 1994
Pan American Health Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 11
Extract:
The ad hoc reduction-in-force committee has discretion to consider a candidate well-suited for work in a particular group "on the strength of his actual qualifications and experience. In this case the committee failed to exercise such discretion and so the reduction-in-force procedure has not been duly completed. It must therefore be restarted."
Keywords:
advisory body; candidate; discretion; due process; flaw; procedure before the tribunal; professional category; staff reduction;
Judgment 1359
77th Session, 1994
European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 12
Extract:
One consistent requirement the regulations lay down for filling posts "is the appointment of a selection board that may consider all applicants [...] who qualify under one and the same notice of vacancy. As was said in Judgment 1223, that formal requirement affords every applicant a basic safeguard of open and objective decision-making, and it holds good whether the applicant wants promotion, transfer or a change of category."
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 1223
Keywords:
appointment; candidate; case law; competition; organisation's duties; procedure before the tribunal; promotion; safeguard; selection board; staff regulations and rules; transfer; vacancy notice;
Consideration 7
Extract:
"The complainant qualified under the wording of the notice and was entitled as a eurocontrol official to have his application considered and assessed by a process that complied with the rules. [...] It was not, and the breach of his rightful interest affords grounds for this complaint."
Keywords:
candidate; cause of action; competition; internal candidate; procedural flaw; procedure before the tribunal; receivability of the complaint; staff member's interest; staff regulations and rules; vacancy notice;
Judgment 1355
77th Session, 1994
Universal Postal Union
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 4
Extract:
"According to the case law - especially Judgment 1235 [...] - the Director-General is not bound by the appointment and Promotion Committee's recommendations and in particular need not appoint the candidate the Committee has put first. In the exercise of discretion, he must ensure that his choice is not tainted with any mistake of law or fact and, to allow the tribunal to exercise its power of review, he must state the reasons for his decision."
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 1235
Keywords:
advisory body; advisory opinion; appointment; candidate; case law; competition; discretion; duty to substantiate decision; executive head; judicial review; limits; mistake of fact; promotion board;
Consideration 9
Extract:
"Any promotion wholly or even mainly based on considerations of sex would unquestionably be unlawful."
Keywords:
candidate; discretion; flaw; judicial review; promotion; sex discrimination;
Consideration 9
Extract:
"Qualifications being comparable, it was lawful for the Union to apply the test of seniority" when picking a candidate for promotion.
Keywords:
candidate; competence; criteria; discretion; judicial review; promotion; seniority;
Consideration 10
Extract:
The Tribunal rejects his plea "that the Director-General erred in law by assuming that he was empowered to disregard the Appointment and Promotion Committee's 'decisions'. What the Committee does is advise, not decide, and the Director-General simply exercised his discretion in choosing between the candidates on its short-list. Although [...] he must exercise such discretion lawfully he is not bound by the Committee's ranking of candidates."
Keywords:
advisory body; advisory opinion; appointment; candidate; competition; condition; decision; discretion; executive head; promotion board;
Consideration 8
Extract:
"There is no rule or principle of law that requires the Director-General to state in so many words just why he has turned someone down for promotion or appointment. What matters is that, if the official asks, the reasons must be revealed. Otherwise the Tribunal may not exercise its power of review and determine whether the reasons are lawful and the decision sound."
Keywords:
appointment; candidate; decision; duty to substantiate decision; general principle; grounds; judicial review; no provision; official; organisation's duties; post; promotion; refusal; request by a party; subsidiary; written rule;
Judgment 1323
76th Session, 1994
World Health Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Considerations 8-9
Extract:
The WHO appointed an external candidate to a position which the complainant had applied for. On the grounds of privilege the organization offered no evidence to the Board or the Tribunal of the external candidate's qualifications. "The Tribunal does not accept that the disclosure of a candidate's identity and qualifications may [...] inhibit the free expression of views by members of selection committees or prejudice the interests of other candidates. [...] The external candidate's qualifications were of essential importance to the Selection Committee in making its choice and to any appeal against the appointment made." No such documents may be withheld from the Tribunal.
Keywords:
candidate; confidential evidence; evidence; internal appeals body; internal candidate; open competition; selection board; submissions;
Consideration 10
Extract:
Vide Judgment 133.
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 133
Keywords:
candidate; career; internal candidate; legitimate expectation; organisation's interest; post; priority; professional experience; satisfactory service; seniority; staff member's interest;
Judgment 1316
76th Session, 1994
European Patent Organisation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 4
Extract:
The EPO submits that unless the complainant shows that he had a genuine chance of gaining appointment to a post put up for competition he may not challenge the appointment procedure. It therefore alleges that the decision he is impugning has caused him no injury. "The plea is mistaken. The material question is whether the complainant's rights as a candidate for the post were infringed. [...] The EPO included the complainant in the list of applicants eligible for consideration by the Selection Board and thereby accepted his candidature. So it may not now contend that he had no interest in the outcome of the procedure and has no right to challenge it."
Keywords:
candidate; cause of action; competition; competition cancelled; decision; organisation's duties; selection board;
