Judgment 3591
121st Session, 2016
Universal Postal Union
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Summary: The complainant challenges the decision to reduce his salary by half following the exhaustion of his entitlement to sick leave on full salary and pending a determination by an ad hoc medical board as to whether his illness is service-incurred.
Judgment keywords
Keywords:
complaint dismissed; counterclaim; reduction of salary; salary; service-incurred; sick leave;
Judgment 3020
111th Session, 2011
World Trade Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 6
Extract:
WTO Staff Rule 106.11 provides that "[n]ational income tax on salaries, allowances, indemnities or grants paid by the WTO shall be refunded to the staff member by the WTO." The complainant considers that her salary is indirectly taxed, because it is included in the assessment of her husband's rate of income tax. The Organization rejected her claims for reimbursement of what she describes as "over-taxation by the Swiss tax authorities". The Tribunal holds that "[t]he refusal to provide compensation for the additional amount of tax unfairly levied on the couple's income solely because of the complainant's earned income, although it was exempt from taxation, would have a paradoxical effect. A rule designed to guarantee equal wages would lead to unjustifiable inequality between an official whose earned income was unduly taxed although it was by law exempt from taxation and an official whose tax-exempt salary was taken into account for assessment purposes, thus reducing his/her spouse's disposable income after tax and therefore his/her economic capacity from which the official living with him/her naturally benefits. The impugned decision is therefore unlawful."
Reference(s)
Organization rules reference: WTO Staff Rule 106.11
Keywords:
allowance; breach; compensatory allowance; decision quashed; deduction; domestic law; effect; equal treatment; grounds; marital status; official; organisation; payment; purpose; rate; reckoning; recovery of overpayment; reduction of salary; refund; refusal; request by a party; safeguard; salary; staff regulations and rules; status of complainant; tax; written rule;
Judgment 3010
111th Session, 2011
World Trade Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 13
Extract:
"[T]he restructured service is independent of the [Organization], has a new and different focus and has resulted in a significant reduction in cost, all of which make it impossible to accept the complainant's argument that the restructuring was not in the Organization's interest and did not result in budget efficiency. In these circumstances, it is to be concluded that the restructuring was genuine and not simply 'a pretext for dislodging undesirable staff' (see Judgment 1231, under 26)."
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 1231
Keywords:
organisation's interest; reduction of salary; reorganisation; staff reduction;
Judgment 2150
93rd Session, 2002
International Criminal Police Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 10
Extract:
"The reduction in income suffered by detached employees when returning to their administration cannot be deemed the responsibility of the organisation concerned. [...] All employees who are detached should bear in mind that when, for one reason or another, they return to their administration, their salary is very likely to be lower. [...] Detachment offers particular advantages which encourage employees to apply for it, as well as disadvantages, including the precariousness arising out of the duration of the appointment offered. If an appointment is not renewed when it expires, this does not automatically result in an injury for which compensation may be claimed, whatever the nature of the injury."
Keywords:
career; consequence; contract; duration of appointment; non-renewal of contract; reduction of salary; salary; secondment;
Judgment 2129
93rd Session, 2002
World Health Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 14
Extract:
The Organization's Regional Office was transferred from Brazzaville (Congo) to Harare (Zimbabwe). The amount of the per diem the complainants were paid was progressively reduced. "Since the travel per diem is merely intended to cover the essential expenses of a staff member on duty travel, including lodging and food, a high rate of travel per diem cannot be justified where duty travel, which by nature implies that the staff member will continue to work primarily at his or her original duty station, lasts for two years or more."
Keywords:
allowance; amount; assignment; compensatory allowance; compensatory measure; extension of contract; official; payment; period; place of origin; purpose; rate; reduction of salary; transfer; travel expenses;
Judgment 1791
86th Session, 1999
European Organization for Nuclear Research
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Considerations 15-16
Extract:
"The complainants contend that [...] the impugned decision was in breach of [...] their right to a steady level of pay. [...] [T]hey maintain that [...] the Organization acted in breach of the general principle of the international civil service known as Noblemaire. The Tribunal is satisfied that there was no breach here of any principle of the international civil service. [...] [T]he measure the complainants are objecting to was exceptional and limited in time. As for their right to a steady level of pay, that measure neither changed the pay scales nor had any impact whatever on terms of employment in the long term. The conclusion is that there was no breach of acquired rights."
Keywords:
acquired right; amendment to the rules; breach; exception; international civil service principles; noblemaire principle; official; provisional decision; reduction of salary; right; salary; scale; terms of appointment;
Considerations 13-14
Extract:
"The complainants plead breach of their acquired rights [...]. [T]hey argue that those terms are inviolate, particularly the clauses on pay. [...] The financial crisis [facing the Organization] at the material time did amount to exceptional circumstances that warranted the slight reduction in pay that [the Organization] applied, for only one year anyway and in consideration for extra time off."
Keywords:
acquired right; amendment to the rules; budgetary reasons; compensatory leave; contract; exception; proportionality; provisional decision; reduction of salary; salary; terms of appointment;
Considerations 7-8
Extract:
"In support of their plea that the impugned decision rested on wrong reasons and wrong conclusions [the complainants] contend that [the Organization] was mistaken in its explanation: there was in fact no financial crisis warranting a compulsory pay cut. [...] The plea fails. The evidence [...] shows that [the Organization's] member States had not been spared the economic and financial plight of Europe at the time and so were much less able to fund the Organization. That was why [...] they had to think again about the budget [...] and demand a big cut. The Tribunal is satisfied on the evidence that [the Organization] did not give wrong reasons or draw any blatantly wrong conclusions."
Keywords:
budgetary reasons; duty to substantiate decision; evidence; grounds; mistaken conclusion; reduction of salary; salary;
Judgment 1641
83rd Session, 1997
World Intellectual Property Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
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:
acquired right; amendment to the rules; budgetary reasons; coordinated organisations; discretion; limits; organisation; organisation's duties; organisation's interest; promise; purpose; reduction of salary; staff regulations and rules;
Judgment 1515
81st Session, 1996
European Organization for Nuclear Research
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 6
Extract:
Purchasing power at CERN has plainly declined during the last several years and recent rises in pay did not offset the fall, far from it. "Yet the trend does not amount to breach of a fundamental term of the appointment of CERN staff." The Tribunal finds no breach of acquired rights.
Keywords:
acquired right; adjustment; breach; cost-of-living increase; cumulative decisions; reduction of salary; salary; terms of appointment;
Judgment 1514
81st Session, 1996
European Organization for Nuclear Research
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 12
Extract:
"The complainants put their cumulative loss at some 10 per cent of the purchasing power of their pay since 1990 [...] and say it impairs an essential term of employment. A fall in purchasing power below some critical point may indeed be breach of an official's acquired right. But, save where the written rules require the indexing of pay, not every financial setback the official may suffer will amount to such breach." (The Tribunal cites Judgment 832.)
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 832
Keywords:
acquired right; adjustment; breach; case law; cost-of-living increase; cumulative decisions; reduction of salary; salary; staff regulations and rules; terms of appointment;
Judgment 1130
71st Session, 1991
European Patent Organisation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 3
Extract:
The Organisation granted the complainants incremental steps on a provisional basis while awaiting for new salary scales to come into force. The Tribunal holds that "there was nothing unlawful about replacing them several months later with retroactive decisions granting them lower steps."
Keywords:
amendment to the rules; increment; provisional decision; reduction of salary; salary; scale; step; withdrawal of decision;
Judgment 1123
71st Session, 1991
European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Considerations 7-8
Extract:
The complainant seeks the quashing of a 1.53 per cent "reduction" applied to his pay in pursuance of a decision by Eurocontrol's Permanent Commission to bring in a 5 per cent differential between pay in the European Communities and within the organisation. The Tribunal holds that "the objection that there has been no statement of the reasons is unsound: the staff have known all along the reasons for the adjustments, which have been fully discussed in the context of the cases. There was therefore no need to state reasons for the individual decisions [...]. The Tribunal may [not] review the reasons of policy underlying the general decision." Besides, the reasons fall within the ambit of Article 65.
Reference(s)
Organization rules reference: ARTICLE 65 OF THE EUROCONTROL STAFF REGULATIONS
Keywords:
adjustment; competence of tribunal; duty to substantiate decision; general decision; grounds; individual decision; judicial review; reduction of salary; salary;
Judgment 1122
71st Session, 1991
European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 5
Extract:
The complainants want the Tribunal to set aside all the decisions that applied the "Eurocontrol reduction" to their salaries after 12 November 1987. To avoid the time bar, they rely on the emergence of a new fact, namely Judgment 1012, which quashed the decision to lower pay by 0.7 per cent before that date. "That judgment is final and has the authority of res judicata, including the ruling in it that certain claims are irreceivable. On no account may it be treated as a new fact setting off a new time limit for filing a complaint."
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 1012
Keywords:
adjustment; complaint; exception; judgment of the tribunal; new fact on which the party was unable to rely in the original proceedings; new time limit; receivability of the complaint; reduction of salary; res judicata; salary; time bar;
Consideration 5
Extract:
"The complaints are challenging pay slips [reflecting the so-called 'Eurocontrol reduction'], of which the latest date back to September 1989, and they were filed on 27 August 1990, long after the time limits had expired." They are irreceivable.
Keywords:
adjustment; complaint; payslip; receivability of the complaint; reduction of salary; salary; time bar; time limit;
Judgment 1121
71st Session, 1991
European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 6
Extract:
Eurocontrol did not apply a restraining measure to rises in the pay of certain officials. bBut the plea of breach of equal treatment fails because the exception was made to safeguard those officials' minimum livelihood.
Keywords:
adjustment; equal treatment; exception; reduction of salary; salary;
Summary
Extract:
The complainants seek the quashing of a 1.53 per cent "reduction" applied to their pay in pursuance of a decision which Eurocontrol's Permanent Commission took on 12 November 1987 to bring in a 5 per cent differential between pay in the European Communities and within the organisation. In Judgment 1012 the Tribunal confined itself to setting aside the decision to lower pay by 0.7 per cent before that date. So the complainants may not rely on res judicata in respect of that judgment. None of their other pleas having succeeded, in particular for the reasons set out in Judgments 1118 and 1123, the complaints are dismissed.
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 1012, 1118, 1123
Keywords:
adjustment; reduction of salary; res judicata; salary;
Judgment 1120
71st Session, 1991
European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Summary
Extract:
The complainants seek the quashing of a 1.53 per cent "reduction" applied to their pay in pursuance of a decision by Eurocontrol's Permanent Commission to bring in a 5 per cent differential between pay in the European Communities and within the organisation. None of their pleas having succeeded, in particular for the reasons set out in Judgments 1118 and 1123, the complaints are dismissed.
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 1118, 1123
Keywords:
adjustment; reduction of salary; salary;
Consideration 5
Extract:
See Judgment 1121, consideration 6.
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 1121
Keywords:
adjustment; equal treatment; exception; reduction of salary; salary;
Judgment 1119
71st Session, 1991
European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Summary
Extract:
See Judgment 1121, summary.
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 1012, 1118, 1123
Keywords:
adjustment; reduction of salary; res judicata; salary;
Consideration 6
Extract:
See Judgment 1121, consideration 6.
Keywords:
adjustment; equal treatment; exception; reduction of salary; salary;
Judgment 1118
71st Session, 1991
European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Considerations 18-19
Extract:
The complainants seek the quashing of a 1.25 per cent "reduction" in the repayment of education expenses in keeping with a decision taken by Eurocontrol's Permanent Commission to bring in a 5 per cent differential between net pay at Eurocontrol and net pay in the European Communities. The Tribunal holds that "the objection that there has been no statement of the reasons is unsound: the staff have known all along the reasons for the adjustments, which have been fully discussed in the context of the cases. There was therefore no need to state reasons for the individual decisions [...]. The Tribunal may [not] review the reasons of policy underlying the general decision." Besides, the reasons fall within the ambit of Article 65.
Reference(s)
Organization rules reference: ARTICLE 65 OF THE EUROCONTROL STAFF REGULATIONS
Keywords:
adjustment; competence of tribunal; duty to substantiate decision; education expenses; general decision; grounds; individual decision; judicial review; reduction of salary; refund; salary;
Judgment 1107
71st Session, 1991
European Organization for Nuclear Research
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 3
Extract:
The complainant, who joined CERN as a fireman, was transferred from a night-shift post to one confined to day work. The offer of the new post said that staff who gave up shift work could be compensated for loss of the shift allowance at digressive rates over three years. The Director- General decided to grant him compensation over a period of only one year. The Tribunal sets the decision aside on the grounds that "an offer of appointment holds good until it is withdrawn or accepted in good faith and without qualification, when it amounts to a contract."
Keywords:
acceptance; appointment; binding character; compensatory allowance; compensatory measure; contract; elements; good faith; offer; reduction of salary; salary; transfer;
Judgment 1096
70th Session, 1991
European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Summary
Extract:
In Judgment 963 the Tribunal set aside in part an initial reduction in the rate of refund of educational expenses at Eurocontrol insofar as the reduction was given retroactive effect. The present complaints challenge the second reduction. Recalling a recurring principle in the case law (see Judgments 726 and 825) that "a reduction in pay may not be so great as to disrupt the structure of the terms of appointment and that there must be sound reasons for it", the Tribunal orders further submissions in which the defendant organisation shall explain in greater detail the favourable effects of the measure.
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 726, 825, 963
Keywords:
duty to substantiate decision; education expenses; further submissions; interlocutory order; reduction of salary; refund; salary;
Judgment 1093
70th Session, 1991
International Telecommunication Union
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Summary
Extract:
The ITU's policy is to guarantee, for staff promoted from the general service to the professional category, that the salary differential resulting from the promotion and during the year following it, as calculated in local currency, will be equivalent to at least one step in the new grade. For that purpose the Union carries out a review of the official's pay on the first anniversary of promotion, known as the "anniversary calculation". The complainant was promoted from grade G.5 to P.2. The difference between his earnings during the year after his promotion to P.2 and the amount he would have earned during the same period at G.5 being greater than a P.2 increment, there was no breach of the material rule.
Keywords:
consequence; general service category; professional category; promotion; reduction of salary; salary;
Judgment 1081
70th Session, 1991
European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 4
Extract:
The complainants want to have the revised weighings with retroactive force from 1 January 1981 taken into account for determination of the "Eurocontrol reduction" imposed on their salaries. The impugned decision does not "put figures on the entitlements of each of the complainants it applies to. [...] In the circumstances the complainants may not now challenge the validity of the general decision they are objecting to. Before they come to the Tribunal they must be able to cite individual decisions."
Keywords:
adjustment; cost-of-living weighting; general decision; individual decision; receivability of the complaint; reckoning; reduction of salary; salary;
