06.28.18
Gemini version available ♊︎President Benoît Battistelli is Finished, But the Huge Mess He Has Created is Not
Summary: Benoît Battistelli is leaving the EPO after another ruinous and disastrous week in which he lost all of his cases against staff representatives (more than 2 years after his union-busting crusade resulted in sackings and culminated in a climate of unprecedented terror inside the Office)
IT’S OVER. He’s done breaking things. Will the EPO survive this breakage? Time will tell.
Benoît Battistelli has just published (warning: epo.org link) his “Farewell Message” and it was promoted in Twitter almost immediately.
“Justice can be notoriously slow, as many EPO insiders are abundantly aware, and laws are selectively applied, typically to protect those in positions of power.”Many serious abuses under his belt. Many people think (or hope) he might get arrested in the future, just like Nicolas Sarkozy. Justice can be notoriously slow, as many EPO insiders are abundantly aware, and laws are selectively applied, typically to protect those in positions of power.
The EPO refuses to talk about justice. Still not a word about ILO/ILO-AT. Still publishing yet more Battistelli photo ops in a construction site which was a failed project (massive losses). They have also just retweeted nighttime pictures from an angle that hides how crude and unfinished this project really is.
“The EPO refuses to talk about justice. Still not a word about ILO/ILO-AT.”Battistelli’s blog post is the same old nonsense which requires a bag within reach (in case of vomiting). It remains to be seen whether António Campinos will carry on with the same stained (full of lies) blog.
We’re still trying to find more coverage about yesterday’s protest.There are tweets in Dutch [1, 2, 3, 4] about the protest at the EPO but barely any press coverage (i.e. the usual). There’s the photo shown above (no faces). SUEPO now links to an article about it — the sole one we saw (so far). One more article about ILO-AT has just been published by WIPR, two days after the historic rulings. To quote some bits:
The International Labour Organization’s Administrative Tribunal (ILOAT) reversed the downgrading of one staff member of the European Patent Office (EPO) and reinstated another in decisions handed down earlier this week.
In case 4042, the ILOAT ordered the reinstatement of Malika Weaver, who had challenged the EPO’s decision to downgrade her for misconduct.
[...]
The SUEPO Munich committee chairman was accused of having actively incited Weaver to unduly pressure C and of forwarding the confidential letter to the Munich committee.
While the disciplinary committee found there was insufficient evidence of Brumme’s active involvement in the exercise of undue pressure, it did find that he had disclosed confidential information.
The committee recommended downgrading, but Battistelli dismissed him.
Earlier this week, the ILOAT set aside the EPO’s decision and ordered the organisation to reinstate Brumme. He was awarded moral damages of €30,000 and costs of €8,000.
In case 4047, another complainant challenged the EPO’s decision to dismiss her for serious misconduct.
The ILOAT found that the disciplinary committee and president hadn’t correctly applied the appropriate standard of proof and remitted the case to be “considered afresh”.
The tribunal backed the EPO in another case, dismissing a complaint against relegation in case 4050.
Out of 75 Judgments, 17 concerned the EPO. Of those 17, the ILOAT ruled against the complainants in 10 cases.
Don’t forget Judge Corcoran, whose case demonstrates that the EPO still refuses to obey ILO and implement resolutions. Will Campinos give any jobs back, reinstating fired workers? Time will tell. The EPO has just said: “This year’s conference will update participants on the reform of the structure of the Boards of Appeal and of the Boards’ Rules of Procedure.”
“But worry not, as a former banker who is loyal to Battistelli (since many years ago) Campinos won’t dare investigate.”“They totally lost their independence when Battistelli repeatedly did illegal things,” I told them. “He should be put on trial.”
But the EPO’s PR people, even after Battistelli says “farewell” (technically his last day is tomorrow), are still bossed by Team Battistelli and they push the same toxic agenda, suppressing particular facts while pushing lies. Their account also retweets UPC pushers from CIPA today. What does the future hold? Campinos is indebted to Battistelli, so it doesn’t look bright. Maybe Battistelli will still be around in Munich next week, sharing alcoholic drinks like very expensive wines at the pub he built for himself (and now Campinos). It’s alleged that he misused money dedicated for the building in the Netherlands to secretly build that 'penthouse' of his. But worry not, as a former banker who is loyal to Battistelli (since many years ago) Campinos won’t dare investigate. Besides, he benefits from this ‘inheritance’. █
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