A Major Victory Before the African Development Bank Tribunal

In Application No. 2017/01, Judgment No. 103 of 26 January 2018, ROSS LAW, led by Felix Ross, represented a senior employee of the African Development Bank in a substantial challenge concerning performance assessment, employment rights and the treatment of the applicant by the Bank.

The case arose from a series of disputes concerning the applicant’s performance evaluations and the consequences that followed from them. The applicant challenged, among other things, the way his performance had been assessed and the fairness of the process applied by the Bank.

The Administrative Tribunal of the African Development Bank found significant shortcomings in the Bank’s treatment of the applicant.

The judgment resulted in an exceptional package of remedies. The Tribunal awarded the applicant 12 months’ salary in respect of the breaches relating to his performance evaluation and a further 12 months’ salary for mental stress, pain and suffering. It also ordered the restoration of performance-related salary increases for a three-year period and awarded £10,000 in legal costs.

The judgment is significant because it demonstrates that an international organisation’s managerial and administrative discretion is not unfettered. Performance management must comply with the applicable rules and with fundamental principles of fairness and due process.

For ROSS LAW, this was far more than an ordinary employment dispute. The case resulted in substantial financial compensation, restoration of lost remuneration and recognition of the serious personal consequences suffered by the applicant.

It remains one of ROSS LAW’s biggest successes before an international administrative tribunal, and an important illustration of the protections available to international civil servants when organisational discretion crosses the line into unlawful treatment.

Felix Ross acted as counsel for the Applicant before the Administrative Tribunal of the African Development Bank.