IFAD ordered to pay damages to employees

IFAD HQ in southern Rome

ROME - At a hearing conducted by the International Labour Organization, the Rome-based UN agency IFAD was ordered to pay material damages amounting to a year’s salary, to complainants who had seen their jobs abolished without due notice.

 In the words of the ILO tribunal, on this occasion “IFAD violated its duty of care and did not respect the dignity of the complainants.” One of the employees in question, Mrs V. had her title changed from “Head of the Country Management Office” to “Resource Mobilization Officer.” The tribunal noted “the lack of consultation with regard to the changes made not only to her post but also to the Office of which she was the “Head” was unusual.

 During the concluding verdict at the tribunal it was announced that the complainants would also be awarded a sum totalling 7,000 euros on top of their annual salary, for moral damages. These damages were awarded due to a string of reasons, including a disregard for qualifications, which according to the tribunal “all point to the finding that IFAD did not act with respect for her (the complainant) dignity.”

 This particular case is by no means a one off however as in 2012, IFAD were ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of euros worth of damages to a senior executive who was wrongly dismissed, without suitable redundancy provisions after her job was also abolished. At the time IFAD claimed that she was not technically an employee of the Fund, but of a sub organisation, the Global Mechanism however this was rejected by the International Court of Justice, which ordered damages to be paid.

 The latest verdict has come at a time when scrutiny of IFAD’s management is at an all time high. Decisions at the agency have been increasingly criticised since its president Kanayo Nwanze, was forced to move out of his luxurious villa on the Appian Way because of a scandal that erupted when the Italian Insider disclosed his sky high spending. 

 Following the revelations in October 2010, senior U.N. officials expressed concern over the cost of Nwanze’s sprawling Roman mansion. The villa was set in substantial grounds and featured a swimming pool, gymnasium, football pitch and basketball court and garage housing the president’s two black BMWs, a jeep and a limousine, with diplomatic license plates. Senior officials at IFAD’s Office of Audit and Oversight estimated that the rental fees were as great as 400,000 euros per year. 

IFAD President Kanayo Nwanze (right)