Keywords

Summary



Keywords

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1. Officials ° Actions ° Act adversely affecting an official ° Determination of entitlement to invalidity benefit ° Intervention of the Medical Committee ° Decision adopted in the light of the medical opinion ° Starting point for time-limits for complaint and appeal ° Notification to the person concerned

(Staff Regulations, Arts 73(2), 90 and 91; Rules on Insurance against the Risk of Accidents and of Occupational Disease, Art. 26)

2. Officials ° Social security ° Insurance against accidents and occupational disease ° Invalidity benefit for occupational disease ° Method of calculation ° Date to be taken into account ° Review by the Court ° Limits

(Staff Regulations, Art. 73(2)(b) and (c))

Summary

1. In a procedure concerning the award of the invalidity benefit provided for by Article 73(2) of the Staff Regulations, an official is entitled to submit his objections to the draft decision of the administration establishing the amount of the benefit. Where, in order to do so, he takes the initiative in asking for the matter to be referred to the Medical Committee, the latter is competent to deliver an opinion on all the factors in the draft decision which come within the scope of a medical assessment. Consequently, only the decision adopted by the administration on the basis of the medical opinion may be regarded as definitive, even in relation to the factors already set out in the draft decision which were not disputed by the official concerned in his request for consultation of the Medical Committee. Where, after such opinion, the person concerned is not notified of a decision clearly and expressly showing the essential factors which the administration proposes to use as the basis for calculating his invalidity benefit, the breakdown of the settlement of the pecuniary rights of the person concerned constitutes the decision adversely affecting him against which the complaint must be directed. Time begins to run for the purposes of lodging a complaint and an appeal pursuant to Articles 90 and 91 of the Staff Regulations only from the notification of such a breakdown.

2. While Article 73(1) of the Staff Regulations expressly provides that an official is insured, from the date of his entering the service, against the risk of occupational disease and of accident, it generally lays down the rules for calculating invalidity benefit by reference to the date of the "accident", without specifying the date to be taken into account for determining the basis for calculating such benefit when an occupational disease contracted by the person concerned in the performance of his duties is the cause of a continuous deterioration in his health. That date must therefore be determined in accordance with the arrangements for insurance against the risk of accident and of occupational disease laid down by the Staff Regulations, particularly the fact that the benefits referred to by Article 73 of the Staff Regulations are flat-rate social security benefits which are assessed on the basis of the lasting effects of the harmful event. Consequently, in the case of occupational disease, the date of the "accident" within the meaning of Article 73(2)(b) and (c) of the Staff Regulations must be interpreted as referring to the date of the occupational circumstances which gave rise to the deterioration in the official' s health attributable to his work.

Since the determination of that date is a matter for medical assessment, the Court' s review is confined to ascertaining whether the report of the Medical Committee establishes a comprehensible link between its findings and the conclusions which it reaches.