Judgment 726
58th Session, 1986
European Patent Organisation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Summary
Extract:
The complainants are impugning the decision by the Administrative Council of the EPO to impose a temporary levy of 1.5 per cent on staff members' salaries. The Tribunal holds that the Council's decision falls within the scope of its powers. Inasmuch as the levy is temporary and very small and there is a guarantee of nominal basic salary, the Tribunal concludes that there was no breach of the complainants' acquired rights.
Keywords:
acquired right; competence; decision; decision-maker; deduction; executive body; general decision; judicial review; reduction of salary; salary; tax;
Consideration 19
Extract:
"It is because of the terms on which the levy is at present being imposed that the Tribunal deems it not to disrupt the structure of the contract and amount to breach of an acquired right. But should any feature of the levy - particularly its duration - be so altered as to make the arrangements substantially different, that would be a new fact and the Tribunal would wish to reconsider if the matter came before it again."
Keywords:
acquired right; judgment of the tribunal; new fact on which the party was unable to rely in the original proceedings; reduction of salary; salary;
Judgment 470
47th Session, 1982
Pan American Health Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Considerations 8-9
Extract:
The applicable provision "does not state that the official whose post has been abolished shall be entitled to full compensation for the prejudice he has suffered. Instead it contains a schedule setting out the lump sums to be paid in compensation scaled according to years of service." As to the loss of pension rights, the material provision "does not grant the official who has lost his post any compensation over and above that which is prescribed in the schedule".
Reference(s)
Organization rules reference: ARTICLE 1050.4 F THE PAHO STAFF RULES
Keywords:
abolition of post; material damages; pension; pension entitlements; reduction of salary; scale;
Judgment 460
46th Session, 1981
European Patent Organisation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 10
Extract:
"The complainant has been receiving since the date of his promotion lower remuneration than before. This anomaly is unacceptable. It is quite unfair to reduce remuneration when responsibility is increased."
Keywords:
consequence; promotion; reduction of salary; salary;
Judgment 391
43rd Session, 1980
International Labour Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 3
Extract:
The organisation imposed four unpaid days of leave on the staff. It "doubts whether there is any substance to the complaints and hence whether they are receivable. It argues that if the complainants take the cash equivalent of the compulsory leave, all they will have done is make a 'loan' [...] 'bearing a high rate of interest' at that. But that is just a hypothesis and does not mean that there is no substance to the claims for relief."
Keywords:
cause of action; compensatory measure; leave; receivability of the complaint; reduction of salary; salary;
Considerations 7 and 15
Extract:
The organisation imposed four unpaid days of leave on officials. The decision "was [...] true to the aims of [the organisation] which, in the interests of workers, not only safeguards their employment but protects its terms." It was not contrary to the interests of the organisation. "Although it was not of benefit to Member States, it was in keeping with the [organisation's] aims, and so with its interests as construed by its founders."
Keywords:
budgetary reasons; compensatory measure; deduction; leave; organisation's interest; reduction of salary; salary;
Consideration 14
Extract:
The organisation imposed four unpaid days of leave on officials over a period of six months. "It is immaterial that the decision made no formal amendment to the Staff Regulations or to individual contracts of employment of the staff members to which it applied. First, it was a temporary measure, and so there was no question of amending the Staff Regulations. Secondly, what happened was that individual contracts of employment were subject to implied amendment for a period of six months, as provided for" in the provision concerning the modification of contracts.
Keywords:
amendment to the rules; compensatory measure; contract; deduction; formal requirements; leave; reduction of salary; salary; staff regulations and rules;
Consideration 8
Extract:
"There is no need to consider whether it is a breach of the rule [requiring consideration for services rendered] to reduce remuneration without reducing working time. In this case both salary and working time were reduced. Whatever may have been the reasons for granting compulsory leave, there was no breach of the rule."
Keywords:
compensatory measure; entitlement for service rendered; leave; reduction of salary; salary;
Consideration 7
Extract:
"It is [...] quite within the realm of possibility that, had the parties, at the time when the contracts of employment were concluded and revised, envisaged the straitened circumstances in which the [organisation] was [...] to be placed, they would not have treated the agreed salary as inviolate. On the contrary, they would have consented to its slight and temporary reduction [four unpaid days of leave over a period of six months]. In other words, the complainants have failed to prove any breach of acquired rights."
Keywords:
acquired right; amount; budgetary reasons; reduction of salary; salary; terms of appointment;
Judgment 368
42nd Session, 1979
European Patent Organisation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 7
Extract:
There is no acquired right to the amount and method of calculation of an indemnity; a staff member should expect amendments to be made. The reduction in the indemnity "does not infringe any right which was of decisive importance to [the complainants] in accepting appointment and which may be regarded as acquired. Moreover, there is no clause in their contract which even tacitly guaranteed them any such right."
Keywords:
acquired right; allowance; amendment to the rules; amount; reckoning; reduction of salary; terms of appointment;
Judgment 366
41st Session, 1978
International Patent Institute
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 10
Extract:
"Someone who offers his services to an organisation may [...] be expected to give decisive importance to the provisions on his pension rights. any curtailment should therefore be regarded as affecting an acquired right."
Keywords:
acquired right; pension; pension entitlements; reduction of salary;
Judgment 365
41st Session, 1978
International Patent Institute
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 10
Extract:
Vide Judgment 366, consideration 10.
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 366
Keywords:
acquired right; pension; pension entitlements; reduction of salary;
Judgment 323
39th Session, 1977
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 25
Extract:
According to the organization "the decision impugned was taken by one of the governing bodies of the FAO in the exercise of its constitutional powers and represented a legislative enactment. [T]he term 'governing body' is not a term used in the constitution of the FAO and there is no definition of what it means." The Council is the executive organ of the Conference, which is the organization's supreme body. The Constitution gives the Council such powers as the Conference may delegate to it. "There is no assertion in the organization's reply of the delegation of any power that would justify the Council in depriving any official of any part of the salary to which under the Regulations he or she is entitled."
Keywords:
competence; decision-maker; executive body; reduction of salary; salary;
Summary
Extract:
Under the "Guiding principles for the determination or revision of conditions of service of staff in the general service category" the reckoning of interim adjustments is straightforward. Whenever the local wage index goes up by 5 per cent an official's salary should also go up by 5 per cent. The complainant had her increase lowered to 1 per cent. The Tribunal finds no evidence in the file that the progressive increase in Italian income tax or that fringe benefits were behind the reduction. It holds that the reduction was either arbitrary or designed to serve some purpose of which it is ignorant.
Keywords:
adjustment; fringe benefits; general service category; reduction of salary; salary; scale;
Judgment 257
34th Session, 1975
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Considerations 4-5
Extract:
"After the complainant's promotion the changes which occurred in salary scales and adjustments in the general service category were more beneficial to the staff than those which occurred in the professional category. [...] The consequence is that her annual pension is now [...] less than it would have been if she had not accepted promotion." The complainant ought not to have to suffer from her promotion.
Keywords:
amendment to the rules; consequence; general service category; pension; professional category; promotion; reduction of salary; salary; scale;
Consideration 5
Extract:
The material rule "leaves the solution to special arrangements to be made for maintaining the pensionable remuneration at its previous level [when promotion results in a reduction]. If the word 'on' is construed as meaning 'on or after' and the phrase 'at its previous level' is construed as meaning 'at the level at which it would otherwise have been', the word 'maintaining' can be given its full effect [...] Having regard to the manifest object of the rule, the Tribunal does not consider that this reading of it puts a strain upon the language which it cannot bear."
Keywords:
compensatory measure; consequence; interpretation; pension; pensionable remuneration; promotion; provision; reduction of salary; staff regulations and rules;
Judgment 173
26th Session, 1971
European Organization for Nuclear Research
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 3
Extract:
In cases where the affected persons are at fault, their disability pension may be reduced under the applicable provision. "[T]he Tribunal cannot reduce the benefits granted to the complainant in accordance with the impugned decision [...] without there being any need to examine whether the fault attributable to the complainant would in itself have warranted the cancellation of the pension awarded, it is sufficient to find that in any case, in view of the experts' report, the reduction made under the impugned decision is in no way excessive."
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 141
Keywords:
complainant; consequence; disability benefit; invalidity; judicial review; liability; misconduct; reduction of salary;
Judgment 61
10th Session, 1962
International Telecommunication Union
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 17
Extract:
"[The] salary increases resulted from the equating of the complainant's salary to that of officials of the United Nations with similar duties and responsibilities, and such salary increases cannot be set off against any loss which the complainant can be shown to have suffered as the result of the application to him of the new conditions of service."
Keywords:
amendment to the rules; compensatory measure; enforcement; increase; provision; reduction of salary; salary; staff regulations and rules; terms of appointment;
Judgment 60
10th Session, 1962
World Health Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration II 2(C)
Extract:
The Tribunal holds that the organization made a mistake in placing the complainant, a budget clerk, in grade M.4. "In fact, the complainant belonged to grade M.5 [...]. Under the new classification plan [...], the complainant was [...] downgraded, and the effects of this change on her salary must be determined."
Keywords:
consequence; downgrading; flaw; grade; post classification; reduction of salary; salary;
Judgment 51
8th Session, 1960
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 5
Extract:
"Salary and non-resident's allowance cannot be assimilated in every respect. Salary is the remuneration received by an official for his work, that is to say in direct consideration of the service he has rendered. On the other hand [...] the non-resident's allowance has a different object. In consequence a salary increase cannot be set off against a reduction of the allowance."
Keywords:
allowance; compensatory measure; flaw; increase; non-resident allowance; reduction of salary; salary;
Consideration 5
Extract:
The Staff Regulations make provision for amendments to be made to them without prejudice to acquired rights. While the amount of the non-resident's allowance is not a matter of acquired rights, "the entitlement to the allowance actually paid [...] at the former rate constituted an acquired right within the meaning of [the material] Staff Regulation [...] which, under the most restrictive interpretation, has the same scope as the principle of the prohibition of retroactivity." A back-dated reduction of the amount of the allowance is unlawful.
Keywords:
acquired right; amendment to the rules; amount; non-resident allowance; non-retroactivity; provision; reduction of salary; staff regulations and rules;
