Bonum Certa Men Certa

Correspondence With Dražen Petrović Reveals That ILO-AT is Indeed an Employer's Court, Favouring EPO Management Over EPO Staff

Not a labourers' court but a labourers' foe, which drains their money under the assumption that fair trials are possible and employers would comply with an unfavourable outcome (some don't, without facing any consequences)

Cicero's Use of Judicial Theater
Reference: Cicero's Use of Judicial Theater



Summary: What's publicly advertised as access to justice for aggrieved employees in international institutions seems to boil down to injustice perpetuated and rubber-stamped, or unfavourable rulings (against employers) not being followed

THE face-saving tactic/strategy of the EPO, namely hiding behind the face of António Campinos, doesn't impress us because we more or less understand what goes on behind the scenes. 12 days ago, for example, we showed the EPO's management fighting to just 'intercept' or underline/thwart (for lack of a better word) the ILO cases. Justice isn't the goal; they just waste stakeholders' money on lawyers, trying to 'win' cases at all costs, draining complainants' savings using legal bills. This is pure evil. This is known as legal bullying and staff should go public with this kind of stuff. It appears to be part of a pattern and a trend, which we assume SUEPO is well aware of already.



We've managed to obtain recent correspondence which sheds light on human rights aspects of all this, starting with the following from ILO-AT:

Dear ⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆

Complaint No. ⬆⬆⬆⬆

Further to my email of 12 July 2018 concerning your 13th complaint please be advised that the President of the Tribunal has approved your request to reply to the EPO’s comments.

I therefore ask you to send me six copies of your reply to the EPO’s comments by Monday, 20 August 2018.

The procedural requests mentioned in your emails of 12 and 16 July 2018 have no legal basis.

Yours sincerely,

Dražen Petrović Greffier/Registrar 4, route des Morillons 1211 Genève 22 Suisse


Here's the response:

Dear Sir or Madam,

With regard to your e-mail here below I respectfully request to extend my term for reply to 120 days from now and to stay the proceedings in my ⬆⬆ case no. ⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆ during the procedural term for reply in case no. ⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆

Reasons:

1. My chronic illness, see letter by OH physician,

2. Recent pain in my right wrist under examination/treatment (since my last procedural term, see recent e-mail by my GP which I feel unable to translate currently*

3. Frequent stomach pain due to severe nervous stress caused by the EPO's procedural conduct, slight gastritis recently diagnosed, see recent gastroenterologist's report*

4. The EPO's two(!) professional(!) lawyers had 90 days for their reply. In view of the principle of equal treatment of the parties I should normally be granted a term double as long as that granted to them, as I am just one(!) former employee, not a professional lawyer and also ill.

Please confirm receipt for this e-mail.

Sincerely yours,

⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆


The ILO-AT set another 30-days term for reply after the EPO had a term of 90 days for their last submissions. This isn't the first time they do this to this complainant and they probably do the same thing to other complainants.

Extension requested by the complainant resulted in this:

Dear ⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆

Complaints Nos ⬆⬆⬆⬆ and ⬆⬆⬆⬆

I acknowledge receipt of your email of 20 July 2018.

I shall consult the President of the Tribunal on your request to extend the time limit for sending me your reply to the EPO’s comments to your further submissions on your ⬆⬆⬆⬆ complaint (AT ⬆⬆⬆⬆).

If the President grants the above request for extension, we shall then seek the views of the EPO’s counsel on your application to stay the proceedings on your ⬆⬆⬆⬆ complaint (AT ⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆) for the duration of that extension. The President will decide on that application inlight of the views of both parties.

Yours sincerely,

Dražen Petrović Greffier/Registrar 4, route des Morillons 1211 Genève 22 Suisse


This is the latest:

Complaints no. ⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆ and ⬆⬆⬆⬆

Dear Sir or Madam,

With regard to your e-mail of 24 July 2018: The procedure indicated by you here below is much too slow, given that you set me a term of 30 days only, until 20 August 2018, for my reply in re AT ⬆⬆⬆⬆. This way I cannot make use of my rights under Article 5.1 of the Tribunal's Rules to plead my own case. On ⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆ 2017 you swiftly extended my term of reply the following day. In view of my chronic illness with proven recent aggravation (see attachments of this year to my e-mail of ⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆) I respectfully request a prompt extension of my term of reply also now.

In view of the Tribunal's generally presumed independence it is not to the EPO to determine or even influence the Tribunal's procedural decisions in my cases.

Sincerely yours,

⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆


There seems to be some 'circulation' for this case, as it's one of many that became more famous (or notorious). Quite a few people became familiar with this case, so ILO-AT can no longer keep it secret/confidential. In the above, the compliant is being implicitly refused an extension once more. This happened repeatedly at an earlier stage in various cases. Thereby staff rights under Article 6 ECHR as well as under Article 5.1 of the Tribunal's Rules were violated.

"What good is a ruling without actual enforcement of it? Is an ILO-AT decision legally-binding only when employers win and mere judicial theatre when employees win a case?"No matter what they do, EPO complainants are being thrown around, compelled to spend a lot of time and money on cases that would likely go nowhere because, as SUEPO puts is, ILO-AT is an "employer's court". SUEPO and some SUEPO members are obviously keeping abreast of all this; in fact, that's how the information gets leaked to us. It is being passed around and unless ILO (Guy Ryder, Dražen Petrović and the rest of them) care about their reputation, things will only exacerbate over time. This is, inadvertedly, becoming a case of ILO scandals, not just EPO scandals. Many nowadays feel as though ILO merely protects EPO management. It isn't even enforcing rulings against EPO management, e.g. Judge Corcoran, SUEPO leaders and so on. What good is a ruling without actual enforcement of it? Is an ILO-AT decision legally-binding only when employers win and mere judicial theatre when employees win a case? This sort of judicial deficit can't really be reported to anyone because ILO (UN) is itself immune, hence in a certain sense beyond and above the law.

Recent Techrights' Posts

August 2026 Microsoft Layoffs Are "Secret Layoffs" or "Silent Layoffs"
It's all about secrecy, isn't it?
Newer Not Better: Treadmill Updates Cause Problems
after 2 years the un-updated machines still fine
SLAPP Censorship - Part 136 Out of 200: Lawyers That Get Paid to Mess About
They were already outnumbered and understaffed
 
Sharing and Empathy
Be more like Stallman, not Linus
Fedora 'Community' Became 100% IBM Staff, Drawing Up Policies Like CoC and CoI (Where the IBM is Excepted From Conflict of Interest Policies)
IBM has in effect killed Fedora
Gemini Links 01/08/2026: Planner Season is Upon Us, Slop "Apocalypse", and USENET
Links for the day
Cuts at IBM, Allegedly More Shutdowns to Come, CEO Visits Complicit Media to Promote Lies and Products That Will Never Exist (Misleading Shareholders)
IBM is collapsing
Links 01/08/2026: GAFAM Falling Deep Into Trillion in (Secret) Debt to Keep the Slop Bubble From Popping Already, Anger Over "FIFA’s World Cup Privatisation Plan"
Links for the day
The Cyber Show on the Slop Bubble
new article about the implosion of the slop bubble
Links 01/08/2026: New York Times Trying to Inflate the Slop Pyramid Scheme (at Cost to Its Own Reputation) and "Iran Appears to Be Blasting Amazon Data Centers Off the Map"
Links for the day
Positive Political Momentum
Daniel Pocock is taken seriously by many people who contact us privately
Google "AI" is Plagiarism, the Case of Richard Stallman (RMS)
Why would anyone choose LLM slop over the originals, curated and fact-checked by domain experts?
Explaining That Software Patents Are Neither Legal Nor Desirable
Many of our readers work in the legal sector
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 31, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, July 31, 2026
Gemini Links 01/08/2026: Retirement, Bike Trips, Quake Stuff, Usenet Reborn
Links for the day
Links 31/07/2026: Microsoft Now Says Slop is Bad (LinkedIn Cracks Down on It), LinkedIn Narrows Down Size (No Expansion)
Links for the day
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: From Alicante to Munich: Another Smooth Ride
Campinos is intent on transforming what was originally envisaged as a temporary public office into his own permanent personal feather-bed
Daniel Pocock and the Important Observation About Threats of Cult-Like Behaviours (No Rationality, No Reason, Just "Mob Rule")
It's a threat to Europe's sovereignty
The "PIP Parade" of IBM's Lousy Management, Which Said "Blockchain" Was the Future
In a healthy company such a CEO would be punished for utterly wrong visions and predictions. Not at IBM...
SLAPP Censorship - Part 135 Out of 200: Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) That Does Not Disclose Financial Activities Before August
It certainly looks like they keep losing the remaining women that still exist in the firm
Links 31/07/2026: "Climate Cover-Up Continues" and Pesticides "Cook the Planet"
Links for the day
Datacentre 'Boom' Sceptics Aren't Luddites, They Recognise a Threat to Human Survival (Not Limited to Climate Change)
Archaeologists very well know that no species will survive forever
Microsoft's Claims Are Based on a Big Lie
the bubble is coming to its hard limits
Don't Lose Sight of the Impact of "End of 10" (Vista 10)
GNU/Linux has taken off fast
Microsoft's Debt Continues to Steadily Increase, Not Counting Hundreds of Billions in Secret/Hidden Debt
The mass layoffs will carry on, maybe labelled LITE
IBM is Circling Down the Drain, the 'Growth' Comes From Beancounting Tricks and Salary Cuts
IBM was down 2.17% yesterday
Microsoft's "Headcount" Distracts From How Big a Cull It Had This Month
It also speaks of numbers "[a]s of June 30" though the "buyouts" were effective July 1 and since then well over 10,000 workers have vanished
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 30, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, July 30, 2026
Gemini Links 31/07/2026: Music, Journaling, and Longing
Links for the day
More Fake News From (and for) IBM, Nobody Ever Held Accountable for Fraud
Companies that turn a blind eye to their own corruption end up recruiting more corrupt people and sacking those who object to the corruption
Links 30/07/2026: Smol Document Server and More PalmOS-ing
Links for the day
Links 30/07/2026: Microsoft Refuting Its Own Slop Hype and "Amazon Is Gutting Its Hey Hi (AI) Division" (GAFAM Bubble)
Links for the day
Today The Register MS Published "AI" Spam and Fake Article by "Senior Technical Marketing Engineer"
unethical practices
Cult inquiry parliament leak fallout
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Techrights Will Always Protect Sources
Our #1 priority is sources
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: Legal Concerns and Suspicions of Irregularities
complaints submitted to OLAF
The Era of Silence
So stay silent, remain hidden
GAFAM and IBM Dying in Massive Debt, Hence the Mass Layoffs (Increasingly Silent Layoffs That the Media Fails to Mention)
the integrity of this economy is only as good as its leaders or those who govern the market
TheLayoff.com Deletes Comment That Called IBM's Previous CEO, Ginni Rometty, "Gin 'n Tonic"
It is hard to believe the comment was deleted for being a duplicate (in another thread)
The Mainstream Media Continues to Overlook or Intentionally Ignore Hundreds of Billions in Hidden/Secret Microsoft Debt
the issue is that Microsoft's crisis is a lot greater and broader than this
SLAPP Censorship - Part 134 Out of 200: What "Majority Rules" Tell Us About the Litigant
we press on with this series
Overshoot Day Sites That Contribute to the Problem
Some of these are not even accessible (at all) without JavaScript
Microsoft May Have Gotten Rid of 8% of Its Workforce This Month
It's hard to know what's really going on because there's no transparency due to NDAs
Links 30/07/2026: "Age of Irrationality", Google Losing Money, and "House of Ellison is on the Brink"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/07/2026: Homeworlds Notes and Manuscript Submitted
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 29, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, July 29, 2026