Following my recent review of 12-year moral damages at the UNDT, I am sharing my second 12-year review of moral damages at the ILOAT.
Apart from the fact that words such as stress, harassment, institutional harassment, harm to Dignitas, humiliation, suffering, moral injury, severe distress, and retaliation are common denominators for the two lists, one element stands out:
Between 2009 and 2022, the ILO Administrative Tribunal issued 1809 judgments. The Tribunal ordered compensation for moral damages in 504 cases. The percentage of staff who obtained moral damages at the ILOAT was 30%. The total amount disbursed for moral damages is 8,489,800 USD.
During the same period, the UNDT issued 2368 judgments, of which 140 obtained moral damages. The UNDT percentage of moral damages awarded to staff stands at 5.91%. The total approximate amount disbursed was 2,177,000 USD.
The UNDT is quick to dismiss any request for moral damages unless you file dozens of confidential reports testifying to your delicate mental health, ironically rendering your mental health even more fragile and on a therapy-resistant mode.
What, then, is the point of moral damages, we ask?
I found the perfect answer quoting Mr. Yves Renouf, Legal Counsel for the Administration at the World Trade Organization:
“When an international official goes to court, he or she has already made one major step towards removing himself physically or mentally from the organisation for which he or she works. I’m talking for instance about the potential discomfort this official may feel when working with or simply seeing, even occasionally, colleagues whose deeds he/she described in the most unpleasant and sometimes colourful way during the appeal. Someone who has gone through the process of litigating against his/her employer actually changes, and I witnessed it on a number of occasions.
A disgruntled complainant may experience a lasting sentiment of injustice, become withdrawn, lose interest or pride in his/her work or experience difficulties in dealing effectively with colleagues.
Financial compensation has been, since Saxon and Frankish laws, a conventional way to make up for a situation that cannot be mended (such as the loss of a limb).However, society has evolved since the 16th century and the situation of a staff member in a 21st century international organisation is a complex mix of law, personal interaction and psychology.
The situation where the complainant has been – so to speak – “eating, drinking and breathing” his/her dispute for years is the most psychologically complex. “
Indeed, no amount of money will ever undo the emotional and psychological damage and the permanent scarring inflicted on the staff members.
There can be no justice without holding senior staff personally accountable for their unlawful acts and decisions.
Period.
