23 January 2002

FICSA Update No. 6 2002

    ICTY: Solidarity Pays Off!

  • Suppose you are a staff member whose contract is about to be terminated for some reason that may not hold in proceedings before an Appeal Board and, eventually, an Administrative Tribunal.
  • Suppose you can count on an active and diligent Association: you support it and it supports you. You contact your Staff Association...
  • In this particular case, the Staff Council of the International Criminal Tribunal sought advice from FICSA. It so happened that the advice could be provided fairly easily for the case was a simple one that fell into a string of similar ones.
  • The Staff Association then made representations with Management in support of their colleague. "Well, within two days the staff member was interviewed, moved to another working area and her contract was extended", Rick Cottam wrote to us. "This was a great success for us", he added, "and on behalf of the Legal and Executive of the ICTY Staff Council many thanks to all at FICSA", he added.
  • For our part, we extend our congratulations and thanks to the ICTY Staff Council for its speedy and energetic action. Similarly, we extend our congratulations to the ICTY Management: this was good governance.
  • There is, however, a sad addendum to this story: our ICTY colleagues could use an extract from a brief prepared by FICSA for a colleague from another organization who fell victim to interference by a government in the staffing of the country office in which he was employed and to that organization’s faint-heartedness. His appeal is withering because nobody cares. "There are many pending cases and Mr. ... will have to wait for his turn", we were told.

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    "While the measure of power here was intended to be left completely within the discretion of the Secretary-General, this would not authorize an arbitrary or capricious exercise of the power of termination, nor the assignment of specious or untruthful reasons for the action taken, such as would connote a lack of good faith or due consideration for the rights of the staff member involved." (UNAT Judgement No. 54 (Mauch) [1954])