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With respect to the Secretary-General's appeal of the UNDT finding that misconduct under Count 2 was not established, the UNAT held that the UNDT did not err in fact, resulting in a manifestly unreasonable decision. Messages sent by the staff member to his neighbour were suggestions and statements to a person who was not a witness at the time. The staff member was not under and did not suspect he would likely be under an investigation at the time he sent the messages. The neighbour found them appropriate and did not feel “influenced” by them. 

The UNAT also denied the Secretary-General’s...

Whether the Applicant had a right of return A Human Resources Factsheet, issued for Umoja users, provides that at the end of a loan period, the staff member concerned is expected to return to the Secretariat unless he/she resigns his/her Secretariat position to transfer to the receiving organization. Such practice has been clearly confirmed by the Appeals Tribunal in Iskandar (see Iskandar 2012-UNAT-248). Accordingly, while the Applicant’s lien on his former post may have been surrendered in accordance with the Administration’s decision of 9 September 2009, he retained a return right to OCHA...

The Secretary-General appealed. UNAT held that UNDT erred in law when it found that there was a breach of Mr Elobaid’s due process rights, as Mr Elobaid was correctly apprised of the allegations against him, which could lead to administrative action, and was afforded the opportunity to make representations against the measure taken. UNAT held that UNDT erred in fact, resulting in a manifestly unreasonable decision, when it assumed that the reprimand originated from Mr Ward, of the Chief Programme Support and Management Services at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, who...

The non-disciplinary or administrative measure imposed against the Applicant is unlawful because, at the date of issuance of the contested decision, there was no longer an existing employment contract with the Applicant who was no longer a staff member. Accordingly, the Secretary-General had no longer the authority to impose such a measure.The entire complex process of launching an investigation into allegations of misconduct, instituting a disciplinary process and completing it by issuing the final decision, if any, to impose a disciplinary or non-disciplinary measure against a staff member...