UNDT/2016/070, Krioutchkov
The Tribunal found, on receivability, that this amounts to an appealable administrative decision, insofar as it had direct effects on the Applicant’s rights, and on the merits, that filling a vacancy by laterally transferring a staff member holding the same grade and within the department of the vacant post, without undergoing a full-fledged selection procedure under the staff selection system, does not per se violate the applicable legal framework. Direct legal effects: A decision to fill a given vacancy through a lateral movement has direct legal effects on the rights of potential candidates for the vacancy. First, it renders ineligible any potential candidate who is not within the same department/office and/or is not at the same level; second, it excludes the application of the set of rules that govern competitive recruitment procedures. Lateral transfer under sec. 2.5 of ST/AI/2010/3: Sec. 2.5 of ST/AI/2010/3, and for that matter, sec. 2.2 of ST/AI/2000/1 regarding the more specific scenario of language Professional staff in their first five years of service, explicitly provide for the possibility of transferring staff within their departments or offices to job openings at the same level without following the procedures laid down in the staff selection system. These provisions do not contradict art. 101.3 of the UN Charter or staff regulation 4.2, nor General Assembly resolutions requesting the Secretary-General to publish vacancies.
The Applicant contests the decision not to evaluate/select him for a position of P-3 Russian Translator with UNOG; the vacancy in question was in fact filled by lateral transfer instead of through a competitive selection process.
N/A