Judgment No. 1641
Decision
The complaints are dismissed.
Consideration 2
Extract:
The case concerns the "general methodology" which provides the procedure for the salary surveys done under the auspices of the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC) and which permits adjustments in pay. The ICSC and the United Nations were granted leave to intervene, but the complainants object to the intervention by the UN. "Under Article 13, paragraph 3, of the Rules of the Tribunal the President may allow submissions from a third party." The Tribunal holds that it was appropriate to allow the United Nations to comment, "the aim being to make for uniform application of the rules to the organisations of the United Nations 'common system'."
Reference(s)
ILOAT reference: ARTICLE 13(3) OF THE RULES
Keywords
icsc decision; organisation; president of the tribunal; submissions; inquiry; iloat statute; rule of another organisation; coordinated organisations; enforcement; salary; scale; adjustment; investigation
Consideration 3
Extract:
The complainants are challenging the methodology laid down for carrying out salary surveys and a decision by WIPO reflected in their pay slips to apply that method. The Tribunal holds that they have a cause of action, which is is to obtain from the Tribunal "a declaration that the rule and the decision they are challenging would still be unlawful even if they had later got the increase that was withheld for the six months prior to the general survey. They would indeed have been slightly better off had they received the increase earlier. They are also entitled to a decision as to whether the rule they are challenging holds good for the future."
Keywords
decision; receivability of the complaint; cause of action; decision quashed; inquiry; increment withheld; salary; payslip; scale; adjustment; increase; investigation
Consideration 4
Extract:
The Tribunal holds that "if [the rules for reckoning post adjustments] reflect the current state of the employment market and the financial straits that some organisations are in, the Commission and the Organization may not be held liable on that account."
Keywords
decision; icsc decision; organisation; salary; scale; adjustment; budgetary reasons
Consideration 7(a)
Extract:
Preserving accrued benefits is not the aim of the Flemming principle: "it requires no more than alignment with the best conditions at the duty station."
Keywords
acquired right; flemming principle; salary; scale; adjustment; purpose
Consideration 7(a)
Extract:
The Flemming principle "demands that, so far as can be, pay in the international civil service should stay on a par with the best pay on the local market. Since for the time being there is neither a continuing survey nor a new one interim adjustment answers the purpose of Flemming. Yet [...] it is not at odds with that purpose to make the adjustment for the last period retroactive in the light of the findings of the general survey. During that period, which is short, the idea of interim adjustment is not discarded but the grant of it simply made subject to other conditions."
Keywords
inquiry; flemming principle; general service category; period; salary; scale; adjustment; condition; purpose; investigation
Consideration 7(c)
Extract:
"Though an organisation must observe acquired rights and keep binding promises, it has broad discretion to amend its Staff Regulations either directly or by incorporating the rules of the common system. In the present economic context and if, like many others, it is in financial straits, it may want to cut costs. There is nothing wrong with the common system's having rules that enable it to do so."
Keywords
organisation; acquired right; organisation's duties; coordinated organisations; staff regulations and rules; amendment to the rules; promise; budgetary reasons; discretion; limits; organisation's interest; purpose; reduction of salary
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