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The Tribunal concludes that the Applicant’s application for the three P-3 posts was not fully and fairly considered, since the Hiring Manager did not personally evaluate her candidacy based on the information included in the PHP and e-PAS reports, while formally endorsing the decision of the CSS/OSU not to shortlist the Applicant. The Applicant’s e-PAS reports contained essential information regarding the Applicant’s fulfilment of the highly desirable requirements for the job opening. The Tribunal concludes that it has no competence to order the Secretary-General to assess the way the...

The Tribunal is of the view that in light of the oral evidence presented to the factfinding panel by the FRO and SRO, instead of them following the recommendations of the second rebuttal panel to initiate and provide real support to the Applicant at every stage of the process, they continued their negative behavior towards the Applicant and they did not temporarily rotate/assign him to another position in a different Unit for the following six months (up to one year starting from 19 March 2014), and to allow for the continuation of his third probationary year. The Tribunal concludes that the...

The Tribunal held that the Respondent had made more than a minimal showing that the decision not to select the Applicant for the position of D-1, Chief of Service, Humanitarian Affairs, was not tainted by improper consideations. The Applicant failed to show that he was denied a fair chance of promotion. Accordingly, the application was dismissed.

Nowhere in the UNHCR Policy is using interviews or written test to appraise the competencies and/or qualification of job candidates prohibited or even as much as discouraged. Rather, interviews are mandatory when “the appointment of an external candidate is being considered” as it is stated that in such circumstances “the applicants (external and internal) selected by the manager will be interviewed” (emphasis added). It is further stated that a “[w]ritten test may be required” (see sec. 71). The fact that the UNHCR policies make no specific stipulations about whether skills, competencies and...

The Tribunal found that the main issues for determination in this matter were 1) whether a temporary job opening limited to “local recruitment only” is lawful, and 2) if the Applicant’s candidature was given full and fair consideration. On the first issue, the Tribunal found that the Respondent’s argument that pursuant to section 1.1 of ST/AI/2010/4 Rev.1 (Administration of temporary appointments) the Organization may limit temporary job openings to local recruitment cannot stand. It also found that there were no legal grounds for the Respondent’s assertion that limiting temporary recruitments...

Upon establishing an assessment panel and conducting competency-based interviews, the general rules and directives pertaining thereto must also be followed, even if the selection exercise is limited to rostered candidates. This must be particularly so where an election is made to follow such process, as in the current circumstances, pursuant to specific instructions from the USG/DM, and where the initial selection exercise appeared marred with irregularity so as to be set aside by the Administration. It goes without saying that a hiring manager and/or panel member should not be, or even be...

The Respondent has appropriately established the rationale for canceling a JO and readvertising it in response to the Secretary-General’s Gender Strategy issued on 12 Sep September 2017, namely to attract more female candidates. The re-advertisement lawfully fell within the Organization’s discretion. The Respondent has not appropriately established that the role of the Human Resources official was to be that of an assessor within the meaning of the Hiring Manager’s Manual and that he was therefore authorised to ask probing questions to the Applicant during the interview. The only irregularity...

The investigation complied with the requirements set out in ST/SGB/2008/5 and the Applicant was afforded proper due process. The provisions of ST/SGB/2008/5 do not grant a right to staff members who bring complaints of prohibited conduct given to interview certain witnesses in order to confront his accusersand therefore finds no merit to this claim of an irregularity. The Fact-Finding Panel fully considered all relevant and material aspects of the Applicant’s complaint. In smaller entities in the Organization, a head of office may also be required to act as a Second Reporting Officer (“SRO”)...

The Tribunal dismissed the application in its entirety. It held that the impugned decision was lawful because there was nothing on the record to suggest that the Respondent had acted outside the scope of lawful discretion in designing and conducting the selection process. In addition, the Applicant had not demonstrated that in his evaluation relevant material had not been taken into consideration.

Having reviewed the record, the Tribunal concluded that proper procedures were followed during the selection exercise and that the Applicant received full and fair consideration for the TJO# 136259. The record showed that the Applicant was shortlisted and invited for the interview and was subsequently recommended by the hiring manager to the Head of Mission for selection. However, the hiring manager proposed another candidate for selection as the most suitable candidate because that other candidate had received a higher rating for the competencies of Planning and Organizing and Client...