Judgments nº T-555/16 of Tribunal General de la Unión Europea, November 17, 2017

• Resolution Date: November 17, 2017
• Issuing Organization: Tribunal General de la Unión Europea
• Decision Number: T-555/16

In Case T-555/16,

Raivo Teeäär, former member of the staff of the European Central Bank, residing in Tallinn (Estonia), represented initially by L. Levi and M. Vandenbussche, and subsequently by L. Levi, lawyers,

applicant,

v

European Central Bank (ECB), represented by F. Malfrère and K. Kaiser, acting as Agents, and by B. Wägenbaur, lawyer

defendant,

APPLICATION based on Article 270 TFEU and seeking, first, annulment of the ECB’s decision of 18 August 2014 rejecting the applicant’s application for career transition support and, secondly, compensation in respect of the material and non-material harm allegedly suffered by the applicant,

THE GENERAL COURT (Seventh Chamber),

composed of V. Tomljenović, President, E. Bieliūnas and A. Kornezov (Rapporteur), Judges,

Registrar: P. Cullen, Administrator,

having regard to the written part of the procedure and further to the hearing on 19 January 2017,

gives the following

Judgment

Background to the dispute

1 The applicant, Mr Raivo Teeäär, was recruited on 1 July 2004 as Senior Production Expert in the European Central Bank (ECB) Banknotes Directorate. Upon his recruitment, and in accordance with the vacancy notice, he was allocated to the F/G salary band of the ECB salary structure. Within that salary band, he was placed at point 136, given the length, the level and the relevance of his previous professional experience.

2 Since his recruitment, the applicant has progressed steadily within his salary band and, in January 2011, he reached the salary cap, which corresponds to point 169 and beyond which no further advancement was possible.

3 The ECB salary structure consists of 12 single salary bands, designated by the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K and L, and two salary broadbands, designated by the letters E/F and F/G. Each salary band includes several points which go from a minimum to a maximum salary value. The salary broadbands, such as the F/G salary band, result from the integration of two single salary bands, in this case the F salary band and the G salary band, so that the start of the F/G salary broadband is the same, in terms of annual revenue, as that of the single salary band F, whereas its cap is the same as that of the single salary band G.

4 The allocation of staff members to a given salary band is determined on the basis of their job title, as is apparent from an ECB document entitled ‘Allocation of Positions to Bands - List of Generic Job Titles’. As a general rule, progression is possible only within the salary band thus determined, that is from one point to a higher point in the same salary band. Therefore, movement to another salary band is usually possible only following a recruitment procedure proper for a different position allocated to that other salary band or on being promoted exceptionally ‘ad personam’ or by a position upgrade.

5 On the basis of Article 36.1 of the Protocol on the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the ECB (ESCB) and the Rules of Procedure of the ECB, the Governing Council of the ECB adopted, by decision of 9 June 1998, amended on 31 March 1999 (OJ 1999 L 125, p. 32), the Conditions of Employment for Staff of the ECB (‘the Conditions of Employment’). Subsequently, the Conditions of Employment were amended several times. In the version applicable to the present proceedings, Article 11(e) of the Conditions of Employment, provides that staff members are entitled to support for a voluntary career transition to a career outside the ECB (‘CTS’) if they resign in the circumstances and in accordance with the procedure laid down by the ECB Staff Rules (‘the Staff Rules’).

6 Article 2.3.1 of the Staff Rules, implementing Article 11(e) of the Conditions of Employment, in the version applicable to the present proceedings, provides that staff members with permanent contracts who have remained for at least 8 consecutive years in the same single salary band, or at least 12 consecutive years in the same salary broadband, satisfy the conditions for entitlement to CTS.

7 On 12 August 2014, that is, after more than 10 consecutive years in the F/G salary broadband, the applicant applied for a newly-created programme at the ECB for the implementation of CTS (‘the CTS programme’). In connection with that application (‘the CTS application’), the applicant tendered his resignation from his position at the ECB as of 12 December 2014, subject to his CTS application being approved. In an annex to his CTS application, the applicant maintained that, while he did not formally satisfy the prerequisite of having at least 12 consecutive years of service in the F/G salary broadband, as required in Article 2.3.1 of the ECB Staff Rules, he found himself in the same situation as a staff member in the single salary band G and that, accordingly, the prerequisite of having at least eight consecutive years of service required for staff in that salary band should also be applied to him, failing which this would amount to a discriminatory and manifestly inappropriate differentiation in his regard.

8 By email of 18 August 2014, Ms D., a staff member belonging to the team responsible for the administration of the CTS programme within the ECB Directorate-General for Human Resources, Budget and Organisation (‘the CTS team’), sent notification, on behalf of the CTS team, of the rejection of the CTS application on the ground that the applicant did not meet the eligibility criteria because he had remained in the same F/G broadband for less than 12 years (‘the contested decision’).

9 On 14 October 2014, the applicant requested an administrative review of the contested decision.

10 His request was rejected by decision of the ECB Deputy Director-General for Human Resources, Budget and Organisation dated 9 December 2014.

11 On 9 February 2015, the applicant raised a complaint against that decision, which was rejected by decision of the ECB President of 2 April 2015.

Procedure and forms of order sought

12 By application lodged at the Registry of the Civil Service Tribunal on 9 June 2015, the applicant brought the present action. The case was registered as Case F-86/15.

13 By document lodged at the Registry of the Civil Service Tribunal on 30 June 2015, the applicant asked to be granted anonymity. On 17 September 2015, the Civil Service Tribunal informed the applicant that it had decided to refuse the application for his name to be left out of publications relating to the case concerned.

14 By decision of 22 June 2016, the Civil Service Tribunal assigned the Judge Rapporteur to explore the possibility of resolving the dispute by means of...