In September, the Administrative Tribunal registered nine appeals. The following information is given to enable those who so wish to exercise their right to intervene under Article 10 of the Statute of the Administrative Tribunal.

On 5 September 2022, the Tribunal registered the appeal No. 722/2022 – Olga OREKHOVA v. Secretary General of the Council of Europe. The appellant is a Russian national who was employed until 31 August 2022 on a fixed-term contract as an assistant lawyer at the Registry of the European Court of Human Rights. She seeks the annulment of the decision not to renew her contract upon its expiry alleging that the contested decision is unlawful, arbitrary and discriminatory. 

The appeal No. 723/2022 – Natalia ZAYTSEVA v. Secretary General of the Council of Europe was registered on 7 September. The appellant is a Russian national who was employed until 31 May 2022 on a fixed-term contract. She seeks the annulment of the decision not to renew her contract upon its expiry, as well as the decision rejecting her prior request for an unpaid leave. By her appeal, she contends that the Organization violated the duty of care, discriminated her on account of her nationality, and she challenges the alleged inconsistency of the Council of Europe contractual policy. 

On 19 September, the Tribunal registered four appeals against the Secretary General: appeal No. 724/2022 – Tanja KLEINSORGE (II), appeal No. 725/2022 – Joanne HUNTING (II), appeal No. 726/2022 – Penelope DENU (V) and appeal No. 727/2022 – Lars NYCTELIUS (III). The appellants seek the annulment of the decision, reflected in their January 2022 pay statement, to partially apply the 2022 salary adjustment in application of the affordability clause in the salary adjustment method. They also challenge the decision of the Committee of Ministers concerning the application of this clause to the 2022 salary adjustment. These four appeals, for which the opinion of the Advisory Committee on Disputes was sought beforehand, follow on from the 41 appeals regarding the 2022 salary adjustment registered by the Tribunal from 19 April to 23 May 2022.

The Tribunal registered on 23 September the appeal No. 728/2022 – C (II) v. Governor of the Development Bank. The appellant contests the decision of the Council of Europe Development Bank by which the Bank allegedly refused to communicate the calculation of his/her days of leave. The appellant alleges that the author of the contested decision was not competent to adopt it and that the decision in question does not comply with the principle of sound administration.

On 26 September 2022, the Tribunal registered the appeal No. 729/2022 – Emiliya RAMAZANOVA v. Secretary General of the Council of Europe. The appellant is a national of Russia and Azerbaijan who is employed as an assistant lawyer at the Registry of the European Court of Human Rights. She seeks the annulment of the decision not to place her name on the reserve list which was drawn up following completion of the procedure under vacancy notice No. e22/2021 for the recruitment of Legal Analysts/Legal Advisors (Grade A1/A2). She claims that, as a candidate to this procedure, she was discriminated owing to the unjustifiable requirements that the Administration imposed upon her relating to her nationality.

Finally, the appeal No. 730/2022 – Olivia CONRAD (III) v. Secretary General of the Council of Europe was registered on 29 September 2022. The appellant is a staff member of the Organisation who applied for external competition No. e11/2022 for the recruitment of communication/media officers. She seeks the annulment of the Administration's decision not to invite her to the next stage of the selection procedure because of her results in the written test. She claims that there were irregularities in the competition conditions linked to the testing platform and argues that the selection procedure was neither transparent nor fair.