Keywords

Summary



Keywords

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1. Officials ° Invalidity ° Invalidity Committee ° Deliberations ° Keeping of minutes ° Not an essential condition

(Staff Regulations, Annex II, Arts 7 and 9)

2. Officials ° Actions ° Act adversely affecting an official ° Concept ° Letter communicating the conclusions of the Invalidity Committee ° Excluded

(Staff Regulations, Arts 90 and 91; Annex II, Art. 9, second para.)

3. Officials ° Sick leave ° Justification of illness ° Presentation of medical certificate not stating reasons ° Rejection ° Not permissible ° Medical examination ° Findings differing from those on the medical certificate ° Sick leave unauthorized as from the date of the examination

(Staff Regulations, Art. 59)

4. Officials ° Member of the temporary staff ° Dismissal ° Termination of a contract for an indefinite period in the case of an employee who is the subject of an invalidity procedure ° Whether permissible

(Conditions of Employment of Other Servants, Art. 47)

Summary

1. Although the absence of minutes relating to the work of an Invalidity Committee is regrettable, its existence is not an essential condition for the validity of the committee' s deliberations. The Court of First Instance was therefore correct in holding that the absence of minutes did not make the procedure for establishing invalidity unlawful.

2. It is for the Invalidity Committee to establish the invalidity of a member of the temporary staff. Accordingly, since the appointing authority has no discretion in the matter, the communication of the conclusions of the Invalidity Committee to the person concerned, referred to in the second paragraph of Article 9 of Annex II to the Staff Regulations, cannot be described as a decision of the appointing authority capable of being the subject of an action for annulment. Moreover, should the said committee conclude that there is no invalidity, the communication of its conclusions to the person concerned may reasonably be regarded as terminating the invalidity procedure.

3. Although Article 59 of the Staff Regulations empowers the administration to require an official who presents a medical certificate as evidence of incapacity to perform his duties to undergo a medical examination, it does not empower the administration to refuse to take account of that medical certificate even though it does not mention the reasons for the incapacity for work. Hence a refusal by the administration to accept as valid a medical certificate not stating reasons, without availing itself of the power to require the official concerned to undergo a medical examination, is contrary to Article 59 of the Staff Regulations.

Where the findings of the medical examination differ from those on the medical certificate presented by the person concerned, the administrative effects of the examination start to run only from the time at which the examination is carried out, since any retroactive effect in this respect would undermine the credibility and the presumption of the legality of the medical certificate.

Thus, in stating that the administration was entitled, on the one hand, to reject a medical certificate not stating reasons and, on the other hand, to regard as having retroactive effect the findings of the medical examination, according to which the person concerned had not established that at any time during her absence she was entitled to sick leave, the Court of First Instance made an error of law which it is for the Court of Justice to correct by declaring void the decision of the administration rejecting the medical certificate and finding that the applicant' s sick leave was not justified before the date on which the medical examination took place.

4. The justification for the unilateral termination of a contract for an indefinite period of a member of the temporary staff, which is expressly provided for by Article 47 of the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants, lies in the contract of employment and there is no need therefore for a statement of reasons since the contract of employment constitutes the basis of the relationship between that person and the institution concerned.

There is no provision to prevent the institution concerned from terminating the contract of employment of a member of the temporary staff who is the subject of an invalidity procedure, since the termination of the contract cannot jeopardize the completion of the Invalidity Committee' s work or the possible recognition, by the Committee, of invalidity arising before such termination and cannot affect the rights of the employee concerned once the procedure in question has been concluded.