Judgment 2833
107th Session, 2009
International Labour Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 7
Extract:
In March 2006 the complainant, who had been assigned to Zimbabwe since 1996, applied for a transfer, in the same grade, to ILO headquarters in Geneva to occupy the advertised post of Senior Procurement Officer. His candidature was rejected because he failed to meet three of the core requirements listed in the vacancy notice. Circular No. 658, series 6, states that the Office should ensure, in particular, that 'priority for mobility is given to staff members who have completed their tours of duty', i.e. their assignment in a particular duty station.
"It is not disputed that the complainant can avail himself of the mobility rules to return, as and when appropriate, to the Organization's headquarters. But that does not, of course, mean that he has a right to return to headquarters to take up a particular post without it being determined beforehand that the post to which he aspires corresponds to his skills."
Reference(s)
Organization rules reference: Circular No. 658, series 6
Keywords:
administrative instruction; competition; condition; criteria; duty station; field; grade; grounds; headquarters; organisation's duties; period; post; priority; qualifications; reassignment; refusal; request for transfer; right; vacancy notice; written rule;
Judgment 2025
90th Session, 2001
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 10
Extract:
The complaint was transferred to the field against his liking. At the end of the internal procedure, the organisation decided to reassign him to Headquarters. "It thereby admitted [...] that it had failed to assess the complainant's circumstances with the care required by administrative decisions that affect its staff. That in itself warrants the conclusion that, even though his assignment [to Headquarters] met the complainant's wishes in part, it did not fully make up for the injury caused by his transfer [to the field]. Consequently [...] the Director-General was wrong not to award him the compensation he had claimed."
Keywords:
compensation; executive head; field; headquarters; injury; internal appeal; organisation's duties; reassignment; refusal; request by a party; transfer;
Judgment 1501
81st Session, 1996
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 7
Extract:
"The proper performance of his mission by an international civil servant requires him to avoid such infringement of the ethical rules of the host country as may hamper or prevent the discharge of duty." The complainant's breach of those rules warranted transfer to Headquarters.
Keywords:
conduct; duty station; field; fitness for international civil service; headquarters; official; outside activity; staff member's duties; transfer;
Judgment 1486
80th Session, 1996
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 16
Extract:
"The Tribunal concludes that the complainant's illness must be assumed to have been directly due to his assignment by the FAO to an area posing a special hazard to his health, to have occurred as a result of that hazard, and therefore to be service-incurred within the meaning of Manual Paragraph 342.213."
Reference(s)
Organization rules reference: PARAGRAPH 342.213 OF THE FAO MANUAL
Keywords:
duty station; field; illness; service-incurred; special hazard; staff regulations and rules;
Judgment 939
65th Session, 1988
International Labour Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 25
Extract:
The complainant, who has not held a headquarters post for the past thirteen years, alleges breach of Circular 180. The Tribunal holds that "the Circular does not [...] make an unqualified promise to bring back to Headquarters an official who has spent a substantial period in the field: all it promises is intensive effort to do so".
Reference(s)
Organization rules reference: CIRCULAR 180 (SERIES 6) OF 22 MAY 1980
Keywords:
administrative instruction; assignment; field; headquarters; interpretation; request for transfer; right; transfer;
Judgment 901
64th Session, 1988
International Labour Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 7
Extract:
The complainant was on mission when he was terminated as persona non grata. "There was no objective report on this case. [...] All this makes it plain that summary termination under 11.4 [of the Staff Regulations] was in breach of the complainant's right of reply and cannot stand."
Reference(s)
Organization rules reference: ARTICLE 11.4 OF THE ILO STAFF REGULATIONS
Keywords:
contract; field; fixed-term; flaw; persona non grata; procedural flaw; project personnel; right to reply; termination of employment;
Consideration 7
Extract:
"When an international official on mission shows professional shortcomings or fails in his duty of 'reserve' the government may of course ask the organisation to withdraw him. But termination is not the inevitable outcome. For one thing, so long as the contract is in force the Director-General does not have discretionary authority; for another, he may discuss the matter with the government [...] In any case even when the organisation acquiesces it need not terminate the appointment on that account."
Keywords:
consequence; discretion; duty of discretion; field; misconduct; organisation's duties; persona non grata; project personnel; termination of employment;
Judgment 870
63rd Session, 1987
International Labour Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 5
Extract:
"It would be in breach of an official's rights as such and a denial of his entitlements under the procedure for personal promotion to discount any of his service, including periods he may have spent on secondment to technical assistance projects. But the complainant is in a quite different case since he was not yet an official when employed on such projects."
Keywords:
equal treatment; field; general principle; headquarters official; official; personal promotion; professional experience; project personnel; promotion; status of complainant;
Consideration 4
Extract:
"Such service [technical assistance] may not count for the purpose of personal promotion unless there is an express rule to that effect. There is not. [...] Periods of service [on technical co-operation projects] do not count, not even when, like the complainant, [experts] are later appointed to the staff at headquarters."
Keywords:
administrative instruction; difference; enforcement; field; headquarters official; interpretation; personal promotion; project personnel;
Judgment 267
36th Session, 1976
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Summary
Extract:
The age limit for headquarters officials is 62, unless otherwise decided by the Director-General for exceptional reasons; for field officials there is a possibility of remaining in service until 65, but not as a matter of course [not applicable to holders of fixed-term appointments]. The complainant had been appointed project director; he was subsequently recalled to headquarters and informed that his contract would terminate. The Tribunal dismisses his claim for the quashing of the decision to retire him.
Keywords:
age limit; contract; difference; discretion; exception; executive head; extension beyond retirement age; field; headquarters official; retirement;
Judgment 235
32nd Session, 1974
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Considerations
Extract:
The Tribunal's decision is subject to the specific circumstances of each case. It "is not to be taken as laying it down that death in a country to which an official is assigned and which lacks ordinary medical facilities can never be attributed to the performance of official duties."
Keywords:
cause; death; duty station; evidence; field; illness; service-incurred;
Considerations
Extract:
The Tribunal sees no evidence of "a sufficiently close connection between the death and the performance of [...] duties [for the latter] to constitute [...] a cause of [...] death."
Keywords:
assignment; cause; death; duty station; field; lack of evidence;
Judgment 158
24th Session, 1970
World Health Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 1
Extract:
The Headquarters appeals body found several irregularities in the procedure followed by the regional appeals body. These irregularities "do not affect the validity of the decision impugned which was taken by the Director-General on the completion of a regular form of procedure after exercising powers of investigation as broad as those of the Regional Director on the advice of a body which, like the Regional Board, had a joint composition.
Keywords:
field; flaw; internal appeal; internal appeals body; judicial review; lack of injury; procedure before the tribunal;
Judgment 30
6th Session, 1957
International Labour Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Considerations
Extract:
"The Tribunal already deplored in Judgment No. 11 [...] the absence of regulations laying down the conditions of employment of [...] officials [of branch offices]; [...] it is regrettable that such regulations have still not been drawn up and that consequently there are no rules of positive law" governing the matter. It does not follow that such officials should be exposed to arbitrary action by the Director-General.
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 11
Keywords:
competence of tribunal; discretion; field; judicial review; no provision;
Considerations
Extract:
No regulations govern the conditions of employment of officials of branch offices. The complainant, an official of a branch office, was personally appointed secretary; it was natural that he should set great store by a distinction granted to him after 25 years of service. "The decision to change the complainant's title unjustifiably modified a former decision which had been in the nature of a personal reward; the Tribunal [...] finds for the complainant, insofar only as the retention of the title of secretary is concerned".
Keywords:
amendment to the rules; field; no provision; terms of appointment; title of post;
Considerations
Extract:
In the absence of any regulations, "there are no rules of positive law governing the conditions of employment of [...] officials [of branch offices such] conditions [...] are governed by general decisions of the Director-General and rules resulting from the partial assimilation of the conditions of service [...] to those of public servants in the country where the branch office is located and, in a subsidiary way, by general principles of law and, in particular, administrative law."
Keywords:
applicable law; domestic law; field; no provision;
Judgment 25
6th Session, 1957
World Health Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration (A)
Extract:
"An offer was made to the complainant to extend his appointment and to transfer him [to the field]. The complainant made his acceptance of this offer subject to conditions the Director-General felt unable to accept. [The] non-renewal of the complainant's appointment did not violate [...] any of the relevant provisions of the Staff Regulations and Staff Rules."
Keywords:
contract; field; fixed-term; non-renewal of contract; refusal; transfer;
Judgment 11
3rd Session, 1953
International Labour Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Considerations 1 and 3
Extract:
"The circumstances show that the two parties seem to agree implicitly that the national legislation of the place in which the [...] branch office [of the organisation] is situated should by analogy be applied in this case [...]. The Director-General has himself stated that this is the procedure normally followed in all the branch offices [...]. It is therefore necessary to enquire whether [national] legislation has been respected in this case and to bear in mind the opinion of the ad hoc Joint Committee".
Keywords:
analogy; applicable law; domestic law; enforcement; field; no provision;
Consideration 4
Extract:
It is clear from the statements of the Administration and the Special Joint Committee that "the absence of positive legal provisions concerning the employees of the branch offices would make their situation precarious and would expose them to arbitrary decisions without allowing them any right of appeal either to national tribunals or the Administrative Tribunal."
Keywords:
competence of tribunal; field; locus standi; no provision; right of appeal; status of complainant;
