UNDT/2010/047, Saab-Mekkour
UNDT found that the Applicant, requested on two occasions to make the necessary corrections to her application, had failed to do so. UNDT dismissed the application finding that the Applicant is no longer interested in pursuing her case.
UNDT/2010/035, Megerditchian
In accordance with article 18, paragraph 2, of its rules of procedure, the Tribunal may order the production of evidence for either party and the parties have to provide such evidence, even though they consider it to be confidential. According to article 18, paragraph 4, of its rules of procedure, it falls upon the Tribunal to assess the confidentiality of the evidence and, if it finds the evidence to be confidential, it is the Tribunal’s responsibility to ensure that measures are taken to preserve such confidentiality. In the instant case, the Tribunal did not use the confidential documents...
UNDT/2010/031, Bidny
The Applicant’s request for review is time-barred as far as the decision not to renew her appointment is concerned. As regards both the non-renewal of the Applicant’s contract and the alleged mishandling of her visa request (even assuming that such mishandling could be linked to an administrative decision subject to appeal), the Applicant, in the absence of a response from the Secretary-General within two months of her request for review, had one month to file an appeal with the JAB. The appeal is time-barred as well. Given that the time limits prescribed in staff rule 111.2 (a) were not...
UNDT/2010/027, Calvani
At the time the Applicant submitted his application to the Tribunal, the Administration had already reviewed its initial decision to grant the Applicant a three-month extension and extended him for an additional nine-month period. The Tribunal determined that since the contested decision was de facto rescinded by the Administration before the application was filed with the Tribunal, the application is not receivable. Had the Administration rescinded its decision after the filing of the application, the application would have become moot during the proceedings and the Tribunal would have...
UNDT/2010/021, De Porres
The Tribunal noted that the case was one of the cases provided for under Section 4.2 of ST/SGB/2009/11 on transitional measures. At the outset, the Tribunal declared the application irreceivable with respect to any claim which had not been raised previously in the request for review to the Secretary-General. The Tribunal further raised ex officio the issue of the receivability ratione personae of the application since the decision not to select the Applicant to the post was taken when the Applicant was a former staff member. The Tribunal noted that article 3, paragraph 1 (b), of the UNDT...
UNDT/2010/013, Pellet
Paragraph 19 of the APPC Procedural Regulations of June 2006 states that only staff members who have served for a minimum of one year in their post are eligible to apply for vacancies.The Applicant claims that the contested decision dated 29 February 2008 to appoint 12 staff members to vacant posts affects his rights since these vacant posts were not advertised. However, in accordance with the above-mentioned provision, at the time the 12 staff members were appointed, the Applicant was not eligible to any of these posts as he had been appointed only in September 2007. Therefore, without it...
UNDT/2010/014, Umpleby
Paragraph 19 of the APPC Procedural Regulations of June 2006 states that only staff members who have served for a minimum of one year in their post are eligible to apply for vacancies. The Applicant claims that the contested decision dated 29 February 2008 to appoint 12 staff members to vacant posts affects her rights since these vacant posts were not advertised. However, in accordance with the above-mentioned provision, at the time the 12 staff members were appointed, the Applicant was not eligible to any of these posts as she had been appointed only in September 2007. Therefore, without it...
UNDT/2010/007, Saka
Chapter 6.3.1 of the UNHCR Staff Administraion and Management Manual (SAMM) provides that “staff members on active duty who hold an indefinite or a fixed-term appointment will be entitled to maternity leave with full pay for a total period of 16 weeks comprising a pre-natal and a post-natal period. When the expiry date of a staff member’s fixed-term appointment, which is not considered for renewal, falls before the beginning of the six-week period prior to the delivery date, there will be no entitlement to maternity leave”.The Applicant’s contract expired on 31 December 2006. At that time, she...
UNDT/2010/008, Glavind
Even though the contested decision resulted in a reduction of the Applicant’s responsibilities, by removing from her all authority over this section which she previously managed, the challenged decision is in itself a simple decision of organization of a service, which is not open to appeal before the Tribunal. Indeed, it results from the Staff Rules and from the Tribunal’s Statute that a staff member may only contest before the Tribunal an administrative decision which affects his or her rights as provided for in his or her letter of appointment and administrative issuances applicable to...
UNDT/2010/005, Azzouni
A single testimony reporting discriminatory statements made by an individual is insufficient to establish whether such statements were made if the accused individual denies having made such statements. From the moment that a confrontational relationship exists between a senior staff member and his/her supervisor, the Judge, without its being necessary to determine who bears a responsibility of the conflict, considers that the interest of the service requires addressing without delay the conflict and justifies the non-renewal of the staff member’s contract, unless, in the instant case, the...
UNDT/2009/094, Bernard
In accordance with former staff rule 104.12(b)(i) and provisional staff rule 4.13(c), the Applicant cannot claim a right to the renewal of her fixed-term appointment. The Applicant claims that the difficult working relationship she had with her supervisor led the latter, with the objective of getting rid of the former, to seek the reclassification of her post at a higher level. However, the Applicant does not prove that the non-extension of her appointment results solely from the desire of her supervisor to remove her from the service, nor that, consequently, the contested decision appears...
UNDT/2009/092, Calvani
The Tribunal’s decision to grant a suspension of action on such a decision would not have the effect of rescinding or reversing the contested decision as claimed by the Respondent, but only that of suspending temporarily, from the date of the Tribunal’s decision and until such date as provided for in the UNDT statute, the legal consequences of the contested decision. The Applicant claims that the decision was not taken by the Secretary-General despite the Respondent’s claims to the contrary. The Respondent refused to comply with the Tribunal’s orders to submit a signed confirmation from the...
UNDT/2009/093, Syed
In the present case, the Applicant, who was advised by OSLA that his case lacked legal merit and who nevertheless could be represented by a counsel of his choice before the Tribunal, cannot claim that his due process rights were violated. The Tribunal reiterates that a fixed-term appointment carries no expectancy of renewal. However, the Judge must examine whether the Administration’s actions may have created a legitimate expectation of renewal and whether the decision not to renew the appointment was motivated by extraneous factors. In the present case, the decision not to renew the Applicant...
UNDT/2009/087, Mezoui
Article 11.3 of the UNDT statute provides that in the absence of an appeal, a UNDT judgment shall be executable following the expiry of the time provided for appeal in the statute of the Appeals Tribunal. Article 12.1 of the UNDT statute provides, among other things, that a party may apply to the UNDT for a revision of an executable judgment on the basis of the discovery of a decisive fact. It results from the above-mentioned provisions read together that if a party discovers a decisive fact before the expiry of the time provided for appeal, that party may challenge the judgment rendered by...
UNDT/2009/085, Boutruche
The former Staff Regulations provided that: “For the purpose of these Regulations, the expressions ‘United Nations Secretariat’, ‘staff member’ or ‘staff’ shall refer to all staff members of the Secretariat […].” Former staff rule 104.10 (a) prohibited the recruitment of the father, mother, son, daughter, brother or sister of a staff member, except where another person equally well qualified could not be recruited. It results from the foregoing that candidates who have a family relationship with a staff member working for an entity part of the UN Secretariat are precluded from recruitment to a...
UNDT/2009/077, Hocking, Jarvis, McIntyre
The reservations which each of the Applicants formulated upon accepting the lump sum are not binding on the Administration since, at the time the agreement was signed, the Administration and the staff member were not in a contractual situation in which each could negotiate rights. Instead, they were in a situation governed by rules in which the Administration could only apply the rules and the staff member could only accept or reject the lump-sum payment proposed. The applicants contend that only by accepting the lump-sum payment with reservations could they challenge the basis on which the...
UNDT/2009/072, Ishak
All staff have a right and a duty to report to management any facts that come to their notice which may constitute professional misconduct. The UNHCR Inspector General’s decision not to follow up on the allegations made by the applicant, after an investigation, is an internal measure pertaining to the organization and management of the service which is non- appealable by the staff member who made the allegations, since the alleged misconduct in no way violates the applicant’s rights as derived from his status. In the case at hand, the applicant alleged that his supervisor had wrongly claimed...
UNDT/2009/066, Parker
UNDT preliminarily held that only facts occurred from early 2005 to 7 November 2007 were to be taken into consideration with regard to the allegations of harassment leveled by the Applicant. Consequently, reported actions and decisions dating back to 2004, in particular the non-promotion of the Applicant in 2004, were excluded from the present Judgment. Regarding the remainder of the application, UNDT held that the Applicant failed to provide sufficient evidence to substantiate his allegations that he was subjected to harassment by the Organization and that the latter bore responsibility for...
UNDT/2009/049 Corr.1, Vangelova
The applicant submits that the decision not to promote her is contrary to the Charter of the United Nations and the provisions of the Staff Rules stipulating that the main factors to be considered with regard to promotions are efficiency, competence and integrity. However, the applicant does not specify in what respects the contested decision violates the said provisions and thus does not enable the judge to rule on these assertions. The principal reason for the refusal to recommend promotion was that the applicant had not been recommended in 2007. While the applicant is contesting that...
UNDT/2009/045, Solanki
The High Commissioner is not bound to follow the recommendations of the Appointments, Promotions, and Postings Commission, but he cannot grant a promotion without the situation of the eligible official having been examined by the Commission. It is up to the administration to establish the list of promotions to put in place regulations to reconcile the two imperatives of advancement on merit and that of gender parity, if necessary by establishing quotas. Failing to have such regulations in place, the administration must apply the regulations in force. .Article 10, paragraph 5, of the Tribunal's...