51ÁÔÆæ

According to the available record, the applicant never received a letter of appointment and no such letter was ever signed by an authorized official. He did not, therefore, become a staff member of the United Nations within the meaning of article 3, paragraph 1, of the UNDT Statute. It follows that the applicant has no access to the system of administration of justice in its present state. It is noted that the General Assembly has requested the Secretary-General to investigate the option of granting access to non-staff personnel. Outcome: the application was rejected.

According to former staff regulations 9.1 and 9.3, the decision to offer an agreed termination is within the discretion of the Secretary-General. In accordance with the ¡°note on agreed termination¡±, a guideline used by Administration to ensure equal treatment, the applicant was not in a situation in which the Organization may have considered that an agreed termination was in the interest of the good administration. In fact, his health problems were not grave enough to prevent the proper exercise of his functions in accordance with the recommendations of the Medical Joint Service. Neither did...

In accordance with ST/AI/234/Rev.1, setting the normal number of working hours per week is a matter within the authority of the Executive Director of UNEP. Thus when he initially decided not to reduce the normal working hours in Paris, the Executive Director of UNEP acted within his discretionary authority. Since the applicants were legally required to work 40 hours per week from January 2006 to March 2007, their claim for 2.5 hours of overtime per week during that period is without merit. The applicants alleged discrimination, arbitrariness and bad faith on the part of the Administration in...

Out of the various decisions that the applicant challenged, only those raised in the request for administrative request are receivable. Mere preparatory decisions may not be contested before UNDT, in accordance with article 2, paragraph 1, of its statute. Indeed, those decisions are not of such nature as to affect the staff member¡¯s rights per se; they can be called into question in contesting the main/final decision, but not by themselves. Furthermore, since the applicant had already been promoted by the time he filed the present case, he had no legitimate interest to take legal action.

Since the applicant did not comply with the time limits prescribed in former staff rule 111.2 (a), the Tribunal examined whether there were any exceptional circumstances within the meaning of former staff rule 111.2 (f) which prevented her from submitting a request for review in time.The Tribunal applied the definition of exceptional circumstances adopted by the former UNAT and upheld by the UNDT in a number of judgments, i.e. circumstances beyond the control of the applicant. Outcome: The application was rejected as time-barred.

The contested decision did not affect the applicant¡¯s terms of appointment derived from his status as a former staff member or from his status as a retiree. Furthermore, there is not a contractual relationship between the applicant and the Organization derived from his voluntary service as a member of the Panel of Counsel. The application was thus neither receivable before the UNAT nor before the UNDT. Outcome: The application was rejected.

The contested decision was linked to the decision to bar the applicant from entering the VIC in October 1999, when he was no longer a staff member of UNOV. Hence, the decision to deny his counsel access to the applicant¡¯s OSF did not affect and could not have affected his terms of appointment. The application was thus neither receivable before the UNAT nor before the UNDT. Outcome: The application was rejected.

Since the applicant, in a timely manner, addressed his requests to competent officials within the former system of internal justice and followed the advice received from them, it was beyond his control that he did not file his request for administrative review within the time limits; therefore, exceptional circumstances are given. In view of the provision of the letter of appointment quoted above, no termination was possible without keeping a thirty days notice period. The decision to terminate the appointment with immediate effect is in noncompliance with the applicant¡¯s terms of appointment...

The Applicant withdrew her application and therefore UNDT closed the proceedings.

In his request for review to the Secretary-General, the Applicant contested the decision not to appoint him to the post of Chief (D-1), Information and Communication Technology Division, at ESCWA. Subsequently, in his appeal to the JAB, the Applicant sought to contest several other decisions. The only decision that the Tribunal is competent to examine is the decision for which administrative review was sought. The evaluation of candidates to a post falls within the discretion of the Secretary-general and the Tribunal will not substitute its views to that of the Secretary-General. However, as...