Summary: The Central Staff Committee member resignation had virtually nothing to do with Laurent Prunier, the latest victim of Battistelli's war on the staff union of the EPO (SUEPO)

In his Communiqué 9/2016, Battistelli alleges that the “apparent forced resignation” of a Central Staff Committee (CSC) member on 1 December 2014 had been the result of an “active participation of the subject in a campaign of harassment“ which included “exclusion, isolation and intimidation.”

This public defamation of Laurent is as unfair as the decision to dismiss him.

"To my knowledge, the proceedings against Laurent were launched by a protégé of Mr Battistelli, with the obvious goal to dismiss Laurent."Here is some background about what happened:

During a consultative “GCC” meeting of the CSC and management, the CSC member who later resigned had not voted against the new career system, but had abstained. By doing so, he did not respect a democratic majority decision previously taken within the CSC. And he had not told the other CSC members before the meeting that he would not vote against the career proposal. The result of the vote in the GCC was 10:9 in favour of the new career system, which then entered into force in 2015. The CSC member was then heavily criticised for his behaviour by many disappointed staff members. As a consequence, he declared his resignation from the CSC with his announcement “Behind the GCC” of 25 November 2014. At the same time, he accepted that he had made a mistake and he apologised to staff from all sites for having abstained from his vote. When taking this into account, it seems to be unlikely that he later launched disciplinary proceedings against any one of his colleagues. Had he felt being harassed, he could have done so. But he did not. To my knowledge, the proceedings against Laurent were launched by a protégé of Mr Battistelli, with the obvious goal to dismiss Laurent. ⬆