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UNAT held that as allegations of improper motive, bias, or prejudice as reasons for the unlawfulness of the non-renewal were not raised before UNDT for its consideration, UNAT should not consider them. UNAT held that the exceptional circumstances that were required to allow additional pleadings to be considered, were not present. UNAT held that UNDT erred in finding that the Organisation properly exercised its discretion in not renewing the Appellant’s fixed-term appointment. UNAT held that, in situations of a staff member being declared persona non grata by a host country, it was the duty of...

The Secretary-General appealed arguing that the Organization had no obligation to make all reasonable efforts to place the staff member in available suitable posts, as he only had an FTA and that such obligation was meant only for those who had continuing or permanent appointments. UNAT disagreed and found that staff members should be “retained” in an order of priority favouring, first, those with continuing appointments; second, holders of FTAs of more than two years’ duration who were recruited competitively; and third and finally, other FTA holders. In the instant case, UNAT found because...

Two types of interim measures - with different functions, preconditions, restrictions and scope - have to be clearly distinguished. Art. 13 RoP has to be applied exclusively during the pendency of the management evaluation, whereas art. 14 RoP is appropriate only during judicial review in terms of art. 2 and 8 Statute; in short: it is either 13 or 14 – never both. Orders based on art. 13 RoP become ineffective with the end of management evaluation. The present application had to be considered under art. 13 RoP since the contested decision of 12 October 2009 was released under new conditions...

Fixed-term appointments of short and long duration: The distinction made by UNHCR between fixed-term appointments of long duration—i.e., fixed-term appointments of one year or more granted further to a competitive selection process, based on the advice of an Appointments, Postings and Promotions body—and fixed-term appointments of short duration—i.e., fixed-term appointments of less than a year granted without a competitive selection process and not endorsed by an Appointments, Postings and Promotions body—has its legal foundation in staff regulation 4.3 and staff rule 4.15 (and former staff...

Reasons for non-renewal: A staff member has a right to ask the administration to provide for reasons of non-renewal of his/her contract; if he/she does not ask, then he/she cannot claim not to have been given reasons for the decision and seek to infer negative inference. Fraught working relationship: If a staff member’s work relationship with his/her superiors has deteriorated to the extent that there is no possibility of salvaging such a relationship, it is within the Administration’s discretion not to renew such a contract.

The Tribunal found that after a first positive evaluation in 2012, the Applicant’s first reporting officer had put the Applicant on notice in respect of what she perceived as shortcomings in the Applicant’s performance, at the beginning of the performance cycle 2013/14. It found, however, that the Rebuttal process was marked by serious procedural flaws and ruled that the final decision on the rebuttal, confirming the Applicant’s PAS rating for the cycle 2013, was illegal and could not stand. Therefore, and since the decision not to extend the Applicant’s appointment beyond 30 June 2014 was...

The decision not to renew a fixed-term appointment is often closely linked to the Organization’s broader discretion on how to organize its services. In that respect, the Tribunal notes that in times of scare resources, managers bear particular responsibilities for making sound management decisions, which implies making an assessment of services needed at a given time in a given department, and to avoid to unnecessary expenditure of public money with which they are effectively entrusted. Any post facto assessment of these matters is only relevant to the extent that it is able to demonstrate...

Case No. UNDT/GVA/2015/129

Contingency of the Applicant’s FTA: return of Mr. C. to post No. 501057

Under sec. 6.7 of ST/AI/2010/3, in cases of secondment, a lien against a specific post shall only be granted for up to two years, after which it shall be surrendered. No discretion is granted to the Administration for extending the lien beyond the two years. Quite distinctly, para. 7 of ST/AI/404 allows the Administration to extend the mission assignment beyond the two years period, and continue blocking a specific post in the parent department, provided there is a specific written agreement to...

The Tribunal concluded that, based on the inconsistencies identified in the complainant’s statement during the investigation, together with the absence of his testimony during the appeal, as the only direct witness apart from the Applicant, the complainant’s version of facts did not corroborate the other witnesses’ statements, except for one witness, who had only an indirect knowledge of the alleged incident. The Tribunal concluded that there was no reasonable link between the alleged physical assault and the existing injury. The Tribunal further concluded that the procedure followed was...

As a staff member on an FTA, the Applicant had no right in law to have his contract renewed. The decision to abolish the post encumbered by the Applicant was taken for legitimate business needs in that it was within the discretion of the decision makers within OCHA to conclude that the functions being performed by the Applicant at the time were part of OCHA’s core mandate and that there was not the need to have a dedicated unit to carry them out. Having arrived at this decision and having regard to the need to streamline services and effect the required cost savings it was legitimate for OCHA...