UNDT/2019/055, Symeonides
The Tribunal’s Rules of Procedure provide in art. 9 that when there is no dispute as to the material facts and a party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law, “[t]he Tribunal may determine, on its own initiative, that summary judgment is appropriateâ€. The Tribunal found that the application raised a preliminary issue of receivability and determined it by way of summary judgment. The Applicant failed to identify any specific decision taken by the Administration in respect of his alleged overtime work. He did not refer either to any request that he would have made to be compensated for this work or to any evidence that he had in fact been requested to work beyond his normal working hours. Without such an identifiable decision, the application is not receivable ratione materiae. Allegations of harassment and abuse of authority are not separate grounds that may permit the Tribunal to consider a matter. A complaint of harassment and abuse of authority involves a separate process, as is provided for in ST/SGB/2008/5, with the formal procedures being set out in sec. 5.11. The Tribunal does not have jurisdiction to conduct an investigation into allegations of prohibited conduct under ST/SGB/2008/5. Therefore, insofar as the application refers to breaches of the provisions of ST/SGB/2008/5 as a separate cause of action, it is not receivable. Third, the Tribunal found that there had been no reviewable decision stemming from the Applicant’s performance appraisal identified in the application. Furthermore, the Applicant did not raise any issue related to his performance appraisal in his management evaluation of 7 June 2018. The requirement set forth in art. 8(1)(c) of the Tribunal’s Statute to submit a decision to management evaluation prior to seizing the Tribunal was therefore not met. Consequently, the Tribunal found that this part of the claim was also not receivable ratione materiae.
The Applicant filed an application seeking official acknowledgment of the additional hours of work he performed since 6 November 2000 and monetary compensation in respect thereof.
The Tribunal must ensure that there is an administrative decision that is alleged to be in non-compliance with the staff member’s terms of appointment or his or her contract of employment, as provided for in art. 2.1(a) of the Tribunal’s Statute. Such decision must be unilaterally taken by the Administration, be directed to the staff member and have direct legal consequences for the staff member (Lloret Alcaniz et al. 2018 UNAT-840).