ORDER OF THE CIVIL SERVICE TRIBUNAL
(Second Chamber)

7 July 2011

Case F-57/10

Stefano Pedeferri and Others

v

European Commission

(Civil service – Officials – Actions – Persons claiming the status of official or staff of the European Union – Inadmissibility – Failure to respect the pre-litigation procedure)

Application:      under Article 270 TFEU, applicable to the EAEC Treaty by virtue of Article 106a, by which Mr Pedeferri and 13 other salaried employees of the Istituto Vigilanza Notturna Gallarate S.r.l. ask the Tribunal to recognise their status as members of the contract staff of the Commission and specifically of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) and, accordingly, to order the Commission to pay the remuneration and other financial benefits due to them in that capacity, and to pay damages for the loss they have suffered.

Held:      The action is dismissed as inadmissible. The applicants are ordered to bear their own costs and to pay the costs of the Commission.

Summary

Officials – Actions – Conditions for admissibility – Respect for the preliminary administrative procedure

(Staff Regulations, Arts 90 and 91)

Under the system of remedies established by Articles 90 and 91 of the Staff Regulations, first, an action before the Civil Service Tribunal must be brought against an act adversely affecting a person and consisting either in a decision of the appointing authority or of the authority empowered to conclude contracts of employment, or in the failure by one of those authorities to take a measure required by the Staff Regulations, and secondly, such an action is admissible only if the person concerned has previously submitted to the appointing authority or the authority empowered to conclude contracts of employment a complaint against the act adversely affecting him and if that complaint has been expressly or impliedly rejected. Furthermore, where an official or other member of staff, or even a person external to the institution, wishes the administration to take a decision concerning him, the preliminary administrative procedure must begin with a request by the person concerned pursuant to Article 90(1) of the Staff Regulations asking the appointing authority or the authority empowered to conclude contracts of employment to take the decision sought, and the rejection of that request may subsequently be the subject of a complaint.

(see para. 14)