CF/AI/2009-005

UNAT considered an appeal by the Secretary-General. UNAT held that UNDT made an error of law when it applied UNICEF Administrative Instruction CF/AI/2011-001 retroactively to review the non-renewal decision. UNAT held that UNDT erred in law in concluding that it was the duty of the Administration to take measures to remedy failings in performance. UNAT held that UNDT’s conclusion that the non-renewal decision was vitiated by UNICEF’s failure to take remedial measures to improve Mr Assale’s performance was without legal basis. UNAT held that UNDT erroneously concluded that both the Chad Country...

UNAT considered appeals by both Mr Said, limited to the amount of damages awarded, and by the Secretary-General. UNAT held that UNDT made several errors of law when it found UNICEF’s decision not to renew Mr Said’s contract for poor performance was not supported by his Performance Evaluation Report (PER) and was unlawful. UNAT held that UNDT did not accord any deference to UNICEF’s conclusion that Mr Said’s performance was poor and, instead, UNDT placed itself in the role of the decision-maker and determined whether it would have renewed the contract, based on the PER. UNAT held that UNDT made...

Due process: The Tribunal held that there were two serious procedural flaws that violated the Applicant’s due process rights: (i) the UNICEF Handbook unduly restricted the grounds on which the Applicant could rebut her performance appraisal in a way not envisaged by ST/AI/2002/3; and (ii) By misinforming the Applicant and effectively causing her to abandon the other legitimate grounds of rebuttal she had intended to rely on, the Director of Human Resources flawed the whole rebuttal process. Rebuttal process: The Tribunal held that the rebuttal process was also flawed because the Rebuttal Panel...

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...

Reason for non-renewal; It is commonplace that once the Respondent gives a staff member a reason for the nonrenewal of contract, such a reason must be supported by facts (Islam 2011-UNAT-115); The fact that the Respondent conceded that he could not demonstrate the lack of funds leading to the non-renewal of the Applicant’s contract leads the Tribunal to draw the negative inference that UNICEF PCO had decided not to renew the Applicant’s contract based on other reasons that were disclosed neither to the Applicant nor to this Tribunal.; Furthermore, the Tribunal does not find that the fact that...