UNDT/2020/160, Krioutchkov
According to section 9.4 of the staff selection system, a Hiring Manager may lawfully select from a pool of pre-screened candidates without further assessment or referral to a central review body. However, in the case at hand, the Hiring Manager decided to establish a Panel of three senior language professionals to conduct informal interviews with the pre-selected candidates, including the Applicant. There is no provision in the Staff Rules preventing these interviews from being held in Russian. The Applicant further contends that he was discriminated since he has been serving in a Regional...
UNDT/2020/161, Batra
The Applicant¡¯s performance appraisal was fair and supported by the facts in evidence. The Administration was justified in deciding not to extend the Applicant¡¯s temporary appointment for poor performance. There was no justification to extend the Applicant¡¯s appointment beyond the maximum 364 days. The Applicant filed a complaint of harassment after she had received the request for management evaluation. She was therefore not able to show a link between her complaint and the decision not to renew her appointment given that the decision occurred months before the filing of the complaint. There...
UNDT/2020/159, Khane
Under Sanwidi, it is not for the Tribunal to review the wisdom of the USG/DGACM¡¯s decision among other all viable options, but rather to assess the legality by which the decision was reached. In the given circumstances, the Tribunal finds that the decision to transfer the Applicant was not ¡°arbitrary or capricious, motivated by prejudice or extraneous factors¡± with reference to Chemingui, or that ¡°relevant matters [were] ignored and irrelevant matters considered¡± or the decision was ¡°absurd or perverse¡± as per Sanwidi. By itself, the Tribunal therefore finds no issue in the transfer decision...
UNDT/2020/156, Tarabay
The authority to grant an SPA, which, at Annex IV to ST/SGB/2019/2, is delegated to Heads of entity (D-1 and below) and which the Officer in Charge exercised in handling the SPA request is different from the authority to grant an ex gratia payment. The Applicant did not provide any evidence to prove that the authority to award an ex gratia payment was at any point delegated from the USG/DMSPC. In the absence of evidence of express transmission of authority, the Tribunal was not satisfied with the Applicant¡¯s assertion that the Acting Director of the Admiistrative Services Division had...
UNDT/2020/157, Stephan
The authority to grant an SPA, which, at Annex IV to ST/SGB/2019/2, is delegated to Heads of entity (D-1 and below) and which the Officer in Charge exercised in handling the SPA request is different from the authority to grant an ex gratia payment. The Applicant did not provide any evidence to prove that the authority to award an ex gratia payment was at any point delegated from the USG/DMSPC. In the absence of evidence of express transmission of authority the Tribunal was not satisfied with the Applicant¡¯s assertion that the Acting Director of the Administrative Services Division had...
UNDT/2020/158, Matar
The Tribunal found that the post encumbered by the Applicant was abolished due to a restructuring exercise in UNAKRT linked to budgetary restrictions and the implementation of Umoja, which rendered the Applicant¡¯s position redundant. The Tribunal noted that the Organization is not bound to initiate a formal consultation process with a staff member before deciding to abolish his/her post. In any event, consultation is not equivalent to negotiation, and it is not necessary for the Administration to secure consent or agreement of the consulted party. The Tribunal found that the Organization did...
UNDT/2020/155, Ssewaguma et al.
The Tribunal found the application receivable because: 1)Although the Applicants, who were self-represented, referred to and addressed some of the findings in the management evaluation response at section VII of their application, the applications were evidently not directed at the Management Evaluation Unit response but rather at the decision not to renew their appointments beyond 30 June 2019. 2)The 5 April 2019 notice was not unambiguous and the non-extension decision may have been interpreted as conditioned upon the future General Assembly resolution on the budget. The communication dated...
UNDT/2020/152, Alsaqqaf et al.
Receivability The Applications were found receivable for the following reasons: 1) Staff rule 11.2(a) had been observed because the Applicants requested management evaluation timeously. 2) Individual administrative decisions, namely, to apply the new post adjustment in relation to the Applicants, had been issued and implemented, as demonstrated by their salary slips of February 2018. 3) The transitional allowance was not a prefatory act, but a corollary to the lowering of a pay component. 4) The Tribunal rejected the claim that discretion is a criterion for receivability. Merits The ICSC¡¯s...
UNDT/2020/153, Aligula et al.
Receivability The Applications were found receivable for the following reasons: 1) Staff rule 11.2(a) had been observed because the Applicants requested management evaluation timeously. 2) Individual administrative decisions, namely, to apply the new post adjustment in relation to the Applicants, had been issued and implemented, as demonstrated by their salary slips of February 2018. 3) The transitional allowance was not a prefatory act, but a corollary to the lowering of a pay component. 4) The Tribunal rejected the claim that discretion is a criterion for receivability. Merits The ICSC¡¯s...
UNDT/2020/154, Aksioutine et al.
Receivability The Applications were found receivable for the following reasons: 1) Staff rule 11.2(a) had been observed because the Applicants requested management evaluation timeously. 2) Individual administrative decisions, namely, to apply the new post adjustment in relation to the Applicants, had been issued and implemented, as demonstrated by their salary slips of February 2018. 3) The transitional allowance was not a prefatory act, but a corollary to the lowering of a pay component. 4) The Tribunal rejected the claim that discretion is a criterion for receivability. Merits The ICSC¡¯s...