Bonum Certa Men Certa

Censored EPO Publication: Evidence That the Censorship of EPO Staff Representation (Central Staff Committee) Started Months After António Campinos Started His Term

EPO Central Staff Committee paper



Summary: Central Staff Committee representatives explained in very clear terms how Team Campinos (soon 2.5 years in the role) was -- and still is -- censoring representatives in an attempt to keep staff ignorant, misinformed, and afraid

THIS week we focus on suppressed and censored EPO documents -- censored even internally at the EPO. This one refers to Benoît Battistelli's union-busting activities and it shows that António Campinos continued covering these up as early as months after getting the job from Battistelli. With an Office basically infiltrated by an arse-covering cabal (averting accountability) public access -- or transparency -- becomes imperative.



"...it seems increasingly possible that this 'nicer' and 'better' president won't even finish his term."The document's full text was already published here two years ago. We did not, however, share the message from the staff representation, which went as follows:

[CSC] Disciplinary Cases resulting from a political campaign against SR - not cleared (CSC paper currently censored by the Office)



Ms Bergot (PD43) is currently preventing the publication of a CSC paper on the Intranet. Following a request from the CSC we hereby provide you with the CSC publication and CSC comments on PD43’s email.

CSC publication

In June 2018, the ILO Administrative Tribunal, with a series of judgments, set aside disciplinary measures inflicted on EPO staff representatives / SUEPO officials, and on one former staff member now employed by SUEPO. It is clear to even the inattentive observer that the cases resulted from a political campaign launched by the previous President and his Administration, aimed at weakening any opposition to their plans. In the meantime the new President, Mr. Campinos, has concluded the two cases concerning Malika Weaver and Ion Brumme. However, this does not clean the slate.

Disciplinary cases against further SR / SUEPO officials are still ongoing - We cannot see that the Office has learnt from the other cases. ILO further requested that the President “shall take into account the instruction to the President contained in Administrative Council Resolution CA/26/16 dated 16 March 2016.” In that Resolution, the Council requested the President to consider the possibility of involvement of an external reviewer for arbitration or mediation. We do not see this happening either.

The Judgments have preserved the President’s dispositive powers. We, for our part, consider that amnesty would be a fair execution of the Judgments. In all cases, it would also serve social peace and justice.

[...]

CSC comments

PD43 makes the upload on the Intranet of the CSC paper conditional to providing the Office with “explicit and unreserved consent” from staff members named in the CSC paper.

The CSC acts responsibly and sees no need for it as:

● The names of the persons cited in the document “Staff Representation Disciplinary Cases – Urgent action needed” intended for Intranet publication have already been made public e.g. in EPO FLIER No.42 published outside the Office.

● Their case has been made public in their respective ILOAT judgment.

● The CSC remains well within the bounds set in Judgments Nos. 911, 2227 and 3156, where it is repeated that interference with the broad freedom of expression a staff association enjoys must be confined to cases where there is a gross abuse or lack of protection of the persons affected by remarks that are ill-intentioned, defamatory or which concern their private life.


Remember this was only a few months after the supposedly 'nicer' and 'better' president had started his term. Clearly, based on the above, not much changed. Fast-forward two years and staff has lost all patience, only 3% of staff can trust the 'nicer' and 'better' president, and it seems increasingly possible that this 'nicer' and 'better' president won't even finish his term.

How does the Central Staff Committee still keep staff informed? Through the union, SUEPO, as well as by peer. So in a sense, as we explained the day before yesterday, censorship attempts sort of backfire; one way or another the Central Staff Committee can get through to staff and if people want to know something, they'll find a way, regardless of some lousy and repressive policies imposed by people who dodge accountability. All these people can do is make the information less accessible or more difficult to access. But people freely share documents among one another (outside the workplace, too) and this is how we typically receive copies. An information war is a losing battle when facts just aren't on your side. How long for can EPO management bribe and blackmail the media; and at what cost? Whose cost?

Recent Techrights' Posts

Slopwatch: Brian Fagioli, Google News, and Other LLM Slopfarms
Why does Google News keep promoting these fake articles?
Links 29/10/2025: Amazon Kept "Data Center Water Use Secret", "Abuse of Power" Against Media
Links for the day
Gemini Links 29/10/2025: "My Hardware Specs" and "Goodbye Debian…"
Links for the day
EPO Cocainegate: Feedback and Clarifications
Part III will come out soon
Links 29/10/2025: "US Military Is Destroying the Planet Beyond Imagination" and Boat Strikes Deemed Unlawful
Links for the day
Quality Comes First (Techrights Search)
It's generally working already, but we wish to polish it some more
Techrights Party Countdown
Late next week we'll be holding a party near our home
European Parliament and Council Directive on Privacy is Vanishing
"edited / censored some time more recently"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 28, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 28, 2025
Slopwatch: The March of Slopfarms, From UbuntuPIT to Linux Journal and to Various Fake Sites Still Promoted by Google News
It's so worrying to see what the Web has become
Links 29/10/2025: CISA, Ukraine, and Amazon Problems
Links for the day
[Teaser] The EPO's Spokesperson, a Cocaine User, Fancies Young Women
How's that for "optics" in the EU and Europe's second-largest institution?
How Will António Campinos Respond to the EPO's 'Cocainegate'?
That's the same thing we saw and still see when the press deals with enablers and partners of Jeffrey Epstein
Join Us Now and Share the News - Part IV: There Cannot be Free Software Without Free Press and Free Information
One day, one can hope, more people will recognise that for Software Freedom we need free press and free thinkers
Join Us Now and Share the News - Part III: Principled Stance Is Never Cheap
Protecting the truth and insisting that the general public is made aware of things that really happened isn't cheap
Join Us Now and Share the News - Part II: Because Scarcity of Accurate Information Breeds Collective Ignorance
we too will strive to share information that's aggressively suppressed
Gemini Links 28/10/2025: More New Arrivals at Geminispace, xkcd on "Document Forgery"
Links for the day
Join Us Now and Share the News - Part I: Defence of the Truth
This year we make a very strong, firm statement for truth, even if that means explaining our work to the top media judge in the country
Links 28/10/2025: Meta and Fentanylware (CheeTok) Age-Restricted Down Under, "Britain Needs China’s Money"
Links for the day
Links 28/10/2025: Mass Layoffs at Amazon and Charter to Cut 1,200 Jobs
Links for the day
The Cocaine Patent Office - Part II: The Person Who Planted Paid-for Fake News for the European Patent Office (EPO) is a Cocaine User, Friend of António Campinos, Now on Record as Having Been Arrested
Background: High-level manager at the European Patent Office caught in public with cocaine, arrested
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, October 27, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, October 27, 2025
Google News Drowning in Slop (and Slopfarms That Hijack About Half the Results)
Google News seems to be drowning in this stuff
Gemini Links 28/10/2025: "How to Maximize Your Positive Impact" and ASCII Art and Artist Attribution
Links for the day
PETA and Activism
Being staff or volunteer in PETA isn't easy
Big Blue, Huge Debt
debt will soar again
Links 27/10/2025: Mass Surveillance Sold as "AI", People Reluctant to Lose Physical Media
Links for the day
Parties and Milestones Again
we've begun putting up about 40 balloons
Techrights' 19th Anniversary: Bronze
Time to go back to preparing for this anniversary
Our Latest European Patent Office (EPO) Series Will Last Several Weeks, Will Ask the EPO Management and the European Union (EU) Very Difficult Questions
If nobody loses a job (or jobs) over this, then the EU basically became no better than Colombia or Nicaragua
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, UbuntuPIT, Brian Fagioli, and Google News
We focus on stories that are fake or LLM slop that disguises itself as "news" about Linux
Links 27/10/2025: Wikipedia Vandalism, Bruce Perens Opens up on Childhood
Links for the day
This Site Could Not be Done by LLMs Even If It Wanted to (Because It's Not a Parrot of What Other Sites Say)
LLMs have no knowledge or deep understanding
Microsoft is Disloyal Towards Its Most Loyal Employees
Against its most faithful enablers
19 Years, No Censorship
No factual information is ever going to be removed, more so if it is in the public interest
We Are Not a Conventional Site, That's Why They Hate (or Love) Us
Throughout the week this week we'll be focusing on the EPO
Following the Line of Cocaine All the Way to the Top
Even a million denials and spin-doctoring won't distract from the core issue
The Cocaine Patent Office - Part I: António Campinos Brought Corruption and Nepotism to the EPO, Then Came the Cocaine
High-level manager at the European Patent Office (EPO) caught in public with cocaine, the Office has some answering to do
Purchasing/Possessing Computers Isn't the Same as Controlling Computers
Let's strive to put computers back under the control of their users, no matter who purchased these (usually the users)
Gemini Links 27/10/2025: Alhena 5.4.3 and Fixing Bash
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, October 26, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, October 26, 2025
Thankfully We've Made Copies of More Interesting Data From statCounter
If statCounter (the Web site or the 'webapp') vanished overnight, we'd still have something left of it
More Silent Layoffs at IBM/Red Hat
when the media counts such layoffs or presents tallies the numbers are very incomplete