Judgment 1821
86th Session, 1999
European Southern Observatory
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 15
Extract:
"All comments and statements by member states were made within the context of the proper decision-making organs of the [organisation's] structure. To the extent that the complainants are attempting to show that member states tried to influence the decision through the committees or the governing body to which they belonged, it was perfectly proper for them to do so. An international organisation would not exist without its member states and the proper means for them to exert influence over an organisation they create is precisely that of debate, discussion and persuasion within the committees and governing body of the organisation itself."
Keywords:
decision; discretion; executive body; independence; legislative body; member state;
Judgment 1131
71st Session, 1991
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 5
Extract:
"The Tribunal will not review a policy set by the General Conference, but it does review individual decisions taken to give effect to such policy".
Keywords:
competence of tribunal; decision; general decision; individual decision; judicial review; legislative body;
Consideration 2
Extract:
In keeping with a resolution adopted by the General Conference in response to budgetary constraints UNESCO had to make staff cuts. "According to the definition of its competence in its Statute, the Tribunal will not review the policy followed by the Director-General in furtherance of the Conference's decision. It will, however, consider whether there was any flaw in the Director-General's exercise of his authority in an individual case."
Keywords:
abolition of post; budgetary reasons; competence of tribunal; decision; enforcement; executive head; general decision; individual decision; judicial review; legislative body;
Judgment 1118
71st Session, 1991
European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Considerations 10-11
Extract:
The organisation submits that the Tribunal is not competent to entertain a challenge to measures taken by the Permanent Commission, which is a legislative body. "An organisation may of course freely decide what its staff regulations are to say and what the structure of its secretariat is to be. But once it has laid those administrative foundations the political and administrative bodies that frame personnel policy have a duty as employer at all times and more particularly when amending conditions of service to abide by [the] general principles [of the international civil service]. As it stated in Judgment 986 [...], under 2, the Tribunal is fully competent when the relationship between the organisation and its staff is at issue, subject only to Article XII of its Statute."
Reference(s)
ILOAT reference: ARTICLE XII OF THE STATUTE
ILOAT Judgment(s): 986
Keywords:
competence of tribunal; enforcement; executive body; general decision; international civil service principles; legislative body; organisation's duties;
Judgment 1012
68th Session, 1990
European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Summary
Extract:
On 7 July 1987 Eurocontrol's Permanent Commission decided provisionally to reduce pay by 0.7 per cent with effect from 1 July 1986. The Commission's decision was not confirmed until 12 November 1987. The complainants are challenging the pay slips they got for July, August and September 1987 which indicated a reduction in pay backdated to 1 July 1986. The Tribunal holds that the pay slips, which were issued before the commission's decision entered into force, have no basis in law and must be set aside insofar as they cause the complainants injury.
Keywords:
decision; effective date; legislative body; non-retroactivity; reduction of salary; salary;
Judgment 963
66th Session, 1989
European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 5
Extract:
The complainants challenge Eurocontrol's decision to reduce the amount of education expenses to be refunded to them insofar as it applied retroactively. Though the Director General's decisions are the only ones the Tribunal may quash and those under challenge did not have retroactive effect, "a staff member may challenge in an individual appeal the lawfulness of any decision of the [Permanent] Commission's that affords the basis in law for a decision by the appointing authority if he believes the latter decision to be at odds - as indeed here the decisions are - with a rule or principle that governs the international civil service."
Keywords:
decision; education expenses; enforcement; executive head; international civil service principles; judicial review; legislative body; non-retroactivity; reduction of salary; refund; salary;
Judgment 961
66th Session, 1989
European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 4, Summary
Extract:
The Permanent Commission of Eurocontrol took a decision of policy to bring about a differential of up to 5 per cent between staff pensions in the European Communities and pensions in Eurocontrol. The complainants are challenging a general decision, not individual decisions. Not one of the complainants has retired. "Since the amount of the complainants' pension contributions is not under challenge, all that is material in this case is the amount each complainant will get when he retires. The Tribunal will not make a general ruling, being competent only to entertain individual and actual disputes, and it therefore declares the complaints irreceivable."
Keywords:
cause of action; competence of tribunal; general decision; individual decision; legislative body; pension; pension entitlements; receivability of the complaint; reduction of salary;
Judgment 902
64th Session, 1988
European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 25
Extract:
The Permanent Commission of the Organisation took a decision bringing in a 5 per cent differential between pensions in Eurocontrol and pensions in the European Community. "Since the Commission is not the appointing authority its decisions are not subject to appeal".
Keywords:
competence of tribunal; complaint; condition; decision; decision-maker; legislative body; pension; pension entitlements; receivability of the complaint; reduction of salary;
Consideration 27
Extract:
"If a staff member [...] lodges an appeal under the Staff Regulations he may thereby also challenge the lawfulness of any decision of the Permanent Commission's that affords the legal basis for the individual decision by the appointing authority if he alleges breach of the rules and principles of the international civil service that are binding on the organisation. As the Tribunal says in Judgment 899 [...], under 19, an organisation may not cite its own decision-making procedures to avoid compliance with the rules in dealings with staff."
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 899
Keywords:
competence of tribunal; enforcement; general decision; international civil service principles; legislative body; organisation's duties;
Judgment 323
39th Session, 1977
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 22
Extract:
"[T]he Council in general in its dealings with the staff acts through the Director-General to whom [...] the staff is responsible and who [...] carries out the Council's decision."
Keywords:
competence; decision; enforcement; executive head; legislative body;
Consideration 22
Extract:
It is not the case that "a decision of the Council which, when executed, will inevitably have an effect upon an official's rights, ipso facto alters those rights from the moment it is made and before it is executed. [I]t is the Director-General, not the Council, who vis-a-vis the official fixes his salary; this is so, whether or not in fixing the salary the Director-General is required to conform with decisions of the Council."
Keywords:
competence; decision; decision-maker; enforcement; executive head; general decision; legislative body; salary;
Consideration 26
Extract:
"The conception of a legislative enactment, insofar as it applies to matters within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, means the power to alter unilaterally by general enactment the relationship created by the contract. The Tribunal has recognised this power to the extent that it may affect those terms of the contract which appertain to the structure and functioning of the international civil service and to benefits of an impersonal nature and subject to variation, but not the the extent to which it purports to affect the individual terms and conditions of an official in consideration of which he accepted appointment."
Keywords:
acquired right; amendment to the rules; contract; discretion; judicial review; legislative body; limits; staff regulations and rules;
Consideration 28
Extract:
According to the organization, the modification of the salary schedule was decided by a legislative enactment of the Council. If this is true, "it means that there is no control whatever over the dealings of an executive body such as the Council with the staff of the organization [...]. Since the Director-General in his dealings with the staff is subject to the control of the Council, it means that an official's contract gives him no rights which the Council cannot nullify and in particular that he is paid his salary ex gratia and not as a matter of contract. In the opinion of the Tribunal this is not the law."
Keywords:
amendment to the rules; contract; enforcement; legislative body; right; salary; scale;
Consideration 7
Extract:
Is the Director-General required "to act independently as he thinks right [...] when appointing, assigning and promoting staff, or [is he] acting as executive officer [...] and carrying out the decisions of the Council" ? The Tribunal believes that the latter is the correct view [...]. "The Council must act through the Director-General. What the [Regulation] requires is a decision by the Director-General, but it is as satisfied with a decision which he is taking on the instructions of the Council as with one which he is taking on his own responsibility."
Keywords:
competence; decision; executive head; legislative body;
