51ÁÔÆæ

UNAT rejected the Appellant¡¯s submission that UNDT¡¯s failure to determine his motion to order the Secretary-General to produce relevant documents amounted to an error in procedure such as to affect the decision in the case. Article 19 of the UNDT Rules of Procedure gives UNDT broad discretion in managing its cases and in determining whether or not it has sufficient evidence and information ¡°for the fair and expeditious disposal of the case and to do justice to the parties. UNAT noted that the Appellant adduced no evidence to support his contention that the exercise of discretion by UNDT was...

UNAT considered an appeal by the Secretary-General. UNAT held that the UNDT¡¯s finding that there was no legal basis for the Administration to assert that Mr Muwambi was subject to the requirement of clearance by a central review body, constituted an error of law since such clearance was a requirement clearly established by the legal framework of the Organisation. UNAT held that, given the discontinuation since 30 June 2015 of the practice of temporarily reassigning staff affected by downsizing in a peacekeeping mission to allow them to apply for vacant positions, practice on which Mr Muwambi¡¯s...

UNAT considered whether UNRWA DT erred in finding that the Agency correctly decided not to transfer the Appellant to the post in question. UNAT held that the issue of whether the Agency has an obligation to contact all staff members who made a transfer request is not receivable because it was not raised before UNRWA DT. UNAT held that the Appellant¡¯s complaint required factual findings in order to ascertain whether the claim was meritorious, and UNRWA DT did not make such findings. UNAT upheld the appeal, vacated UNRWA/DT/2018/026, and remanded the issue of whether the Administration fulfilled...

UNAT considered the Appellant¡¯s appeal, requesting that the UNRWA DT judgment be vacated. UNAT agreed with UNRWA DT and upheld its findings that the Agency was entitled, under the provisions of paragraph 2 of FTI 01/2016, to fill the concerned post by means of a lateral transfer of current staff members. UNAT also agreed with, and upheld, the ruling that it was not within the remit of UNRWA DT to pronounce on the exercise of the Agency¡¯s discretion in deciding on the lateral transfers unless there is evidence that the discretion was exercised arbitrarily or unlawfully. UNAT found that there...

UNAT considered the appeal of the consolidated applications. With respect to the first issue, UNAT found no error in UNRWA DT¡¯s conclusion that the Appellant had failed to establish that the decision not to confirm his appointment as TDSE Advisor and to transfer him to his previous post was unlawful. UNAT noted that there was no merit in the Appellant¡¯s contention that UNRWA DT failed to examine the relevant facts and to apply legal and regulatory provisions to his performance evaluations during his probationary period. UNDT also noted that the review of the Appellant¡¯s performance assessments...

UNAT considered an appeal of judgment No. UNRWA/DT/2019/070 by the Commissioner-General of UNRWA. UNAT held that UNRWA DT did not commit any error when it concluded that UNRWA had failed to consider the Applicant¡¯s personal and humanitarian reasons in the impugned decision. UNAT held that UNRWA DT correctly concluded that relevant matters (personal and humanitarian reasons) had been ignored in the exercise of the Commissioner-General¡¯s discretion. UNAT dismissed the appeal and affirmed the UNRWA DT judgment.

UNAT made several findings on the appeal. First, UNAT held that UNDT did not err when it did not hold a case management or substantive hearing on the issues. UNAT agreed that the first instance Judge is in the best position to decide what is appropriate for the fair and expeditious disposal of a case and to do justice to the parties. Second, UNAT agreed with the UNDT that the administrative action was not a disguised disciplinary sanction. UNAT also found that the USG had the authority to transfer the appellant to a different unit to address a political situation. However, UNAT disagreed with...

UNAT first agreed with the UNDT that the abolition of post was not a reviewable administrative decision. Second, UNAT ruled there was no evidence of improper motives regarding the non-renewal of the staff member¡¯s appointment. The staff member¡¯s main contention on appeal was that his post should have been subject to a Comparative Review Process (CRP) instead of being identified as a ¡°dry cut.¡± A ¡°dry cut¡± happens when a post is unique and can therefore be abolished without a comparative review. The staff member claims his post should have undergone a CRP because there were other P-5 political...

UNAT first dismissed the cross-appeal, finding that although the Administration has the discretion to reassign staff members, such reassignment must be reasonable in the particular circumstances and cause no economic harm to the staff member. It must also respect the procedural and substantive rules of law and must not be arbitrary. UNAT agreed with the UNDT that the reassignment was performance-related and yet the staff member was never allowed the opportunity to address his performance issues prior to being reassigned. Regarding the appeal, UNAT disagreed with the staff member that the UNDT...

UNAT agreed and found the evidence on the record supports the UNDT finding that the administrative action was lawful and rational in furtherance of the operational needs of the Organization. Second, UNAT also found no error in the UNDT conclusion that the administrative decision was not tainted by improper motives, and that the staff member had failed to meet her burden of proof of proving otherwise. Finally, UNAT found no error in the UNDT conclusion that the additional commute of 17 km was not overly onerous, yielding to a disproportionate measure by the Administration.