Bonum Certa Men Certa

The EPO's Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part I: Let the Sunshine In!

Series parts:

  1. YOU ARE HERE ☞ Let the Sunshine In!


Collage for EPO scandal
A rogues' gallery showing members of the Administrative Council and the EPO's senior management who share responsibility for the adoption of the EPO's strike regulations in June 2013.



Summary: Benoît Battistelli's unlawful strike regulations, which are protected by António Campinos, will be explained in a new series about perpetrators, including the facilitators of these human rights and labour rights abuses in Europe's second-largest institution (the German government never really minded such abuses)

Earlier this year, on the 8th of July, Techrights reported that the Administrative Tribunal of the ILO (ILOAT) had finally overturned the notorious "Strike Regulations" which had been proposed by EPO President Benoît Battistelli and adopted by the Administrative Council back in June 2013.



Shortly afterwards, the Kluwer Patent Blog followed suit with its coverage of the story. Amongst other things, Kluwer commented on the massive delays with which EPO staff are confronted in their efforts to obtain justice:

The cases show, in the first place, how slow the means for redress are if you are an EPO staff member and get in conflict with management. Most of them date back to the period of deep social conflicts at the EPO under Battistelli’s leadership, during which several leaders of the trade union SUEPO or staff committees were fired or demoted on dubious grounds (see for instance here, here and here), and many controversial measures were implemented (see here and here). If it takes eight to thirteen years (case 4427) to get to a final decision in cases which directly affect the daily life of people, that is very worrying.


It's no secret that the means of legal redress which are available to EPO staff are seriously deficient and not fit for purpose. And it's also a matter of common knowledge that Battistelli and his cronies ruthlessly exploited the weaknesses in the system for their own nefarious purposes.

The report on the 136th meeting of the Administrative Council [PDF] which was published in the EPO's Official Journal refers to the adoption of the "Strike Regulations" in the following anodyne terms:

On staff matters, the Council noted the social report for 2012, and also approved a set of amendments to the Service Regulations aiming first at improving working conditions and well-being at the EPO and second at establishing a clear legal framework for strikes and unauthorised absence.


With hindsight, it would have been more accurate to describe the adoption of these regulations as the establishment of "a clearly illegal framework for undermining the right to strike".

But the members of Team Battistelli were masters of deception who were adept at concealing their audacious assault on the fundamental rights of EPO staff under a smoke-screen of bureaucratic double-speak.

Nevertheless, it seems that some chickens may finally - albeit belatedly - be coming home to roost for the powers-that-be at the EPO.

"...the members of Team Battistelli were masters of deception who were adept at concealing their audacious assault on the fundamental rights of EPO staff under a smoke-screen of bureaucratic double-speak."It's outrageous that the governing body of an international organisation such as the EPO could rubber-stamp regulations which breached the fundamental rights of its staff in this manner.

But what is even more outrageous is that such manifestly flawed regulations were permitted to remain in force without any effective internal review during a period of eight years before they were finally overturned by an independent external judicial review.

Following the delivery of the recent ground-breaking ILOAT judgments on 7 July 2021, it seems like a good time to have a closer look at the events of 2013 which led to this scandalous state of affairs.

Luckily, the EPO is a public service organisation which means that there are enough official records available that allow us to find out who exactly was responsible for this deplorable state of affairs.

"Luckily, the EPO is a public service organisation which means that there are enough official records available that allow us to find out who exactly was responsible for this deplorable state of affairs."Thanks to the available records we are in a position to identify the members of the Administrative Council and the Office's senior management team who were complicit in the adoption of the unlawful "Strike Regulations".

And so we invite readers to join us on a "deep dive" into the inner workings of the EPO and its Administrative Council in June 2013.

In the course of this "muck-raking" expedition it is intended to "name and shame" the culprits who facilitated Battistelli's infamous "reign of terror".

Some of those responsible have long since sailed off into the sunset of retirement, or advanced to new positions in the national administrations of their home countries.

Others have been obliged to depart due to becoming implicated in "irregularities" on their home patches, and the rest are still in their former positions on the EPO's Administrative Council.

"Others have been obliged to depart due to becoming implicated in "irregularities" on their home patches, and the rest are still in their former positions on the EPO's Administrative Council."It goes without saying that all of those responsible are able to shelter behind the cloak of "immunity" and need not fear having to face any consequences for their part in this inglorious affair.

But that does not prevent the identities of those involved from being revealed in order to ensure that their misdeeds are finally exposed to scrutiny in the court of public opinion.

Louis Brandeis quote
US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis recommended sunlight as "the best of disinfectants".



As US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once put it, "sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants".

It remains to be seen how effective it will turn out to be in the case of the EPO but as the poet once said "hope springs eternal in the human breast"...

Recent Techrights' Posts

"What Comes After Free Software?" Wrongly Insinuates We've Reached the Goal (Prison is Not the Goal)
The oil tycoons use similar tactics against environmentalists, giving them fake "wins"
Making More Work Space
I learned the hard way that less is more in circumstances where more means distraction
MAHA is a Lie, Public Officials Never Valued Citizens' Health (They Still Value Private Businesses, Their Sponsors)
Reject demagogues
New Techrights Turns 2
Today starts the third year of the SSG-based Techrights
What Scares Them the Most is Independent News Sites That They Cannot Control and Censor
Wikileaks was a good example of this
If You Don't Control Your Online Platform, Then Someone Else is Controlling You
be (or become) independent
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Has a Policy on Racism and Sexism
In then future we'll show the misogyny and racial slurs
Links 22/09/2025: Murdochs Might Join Fentanylware (TikTok) 'Investors' (Masters), United Kingdom Recognises Palestinian Statehood
Links for the day
 
Code of Censorship
Extortion is peace
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has Un-cancelled the Best People, Just in Time for the Big 4-0
Mr. Oliva should have been there all along (since 2019)
Most "Modern" Technology Makes You Slower and Dumber
Because proprietary software makes you worse off
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has a New Press Kit for the Weekend After Next Weekend (40th Anniversary)
miles better than social [sic] media [sic] quips, moderated by narcissists and oil tycoons.
Microsoft Had Two Waves of Mass Layoffs This Month (That We Know of) and It'll Get Worse for Microsoft Soon
Will the axe fall again by month's end?
Gemini Links 23/09/2025: Happy Equinox, Photronic Arts, and Perception Cognition
Links for the day
Lessons We've Learned After 17 Years of American Hosting
GAFAM is "all-in" with the "Trump agenda"
Back to Normal Now, We Plan to Do More In-Depth Series (or Multi-part Stories)
Articles (or series thereof) that contain philosophy are important to us
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 22, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, September 22, 2025
Microsoft Media is Panicking Amid Mass Layoffs Every Month, H-1B Fees, and "Seattle’s Tech Scene in Trouble"
In "late stage Microsoft", copyleft becomes proprietary
The Next Wave of IBM/Red Hat Layoffs Being Discussed Already
Red Hat is sort of disappearing the way Tivoli did
Oracle Started This Year With Slop. Then It Stopped.
Passing fads are like this
Distros That Run on PCs Made 20 Years Ago and Don't Use Systemd
Betas for now
The Complaint About Brett Wilson LLP - Part I - Abusing British Women on Behalf of American Men Who Abuse American Women
Transparency is important to us, so we've decided to make this series
Slopwatch: Google News and the Evident Slopfarm Infestation
This is what people get about Linux when they query Google for Linux
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Esperanto Music History and Apps For Android
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: More American 'Censorship' (Retaliation for Journalism), Cheeto "Might Be Losing His Race Against Time"
Links for the day
The Blob Slop
Give me more words, give me some text
The 50-Pound Note Experiment and the "War on Cash"
Britain is actually seeing a rebound in cash payments, and it's not a temporary phenomenon
Slopwatch: Blaming the Victims for Microsoft's Failures and Plagiarising Phoronix
That's what Google has been reduced to: slop and slopfarms
Links 22/09/2025: Breaches, Windows TCO, and Arrests
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Rabbit Hole and DeGoogling Fairphone
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: Russian War Planes Invade NATO Airspace While Dihydroxyacetone Man Escalates Attack on Free Speech Because of Critics
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, September 21, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, September 21, 2025
Links 21/09/2025: "Hey Hi" (Hype) Under Fire, Fakes Identified; Tesla Burns Family
Links for the day
Google's Software is Malware and Malware in Mobile Devices
Originally posted by Rob Musial
Links 20/09/2025: Hegemony Coming to a Close, Luigi Mangione Ruled Not Terrorist
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/09/2025: "Charlie Kirk Was a Hateful Piece of Shit" and Slop Code Attempted by Microsofter
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 20, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, September 20, 2025