Bonum Certa Men Certa

The EPO's NO-Career System Will be Scrutinised by a Tribunal, the ILOAT, 3 Weeks From Now

Video download link | md5sum 6e6b6b17f5c1bef3c93e2527bbb20998 The GCC Report of EPO Staff Reps Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: The Central Staff Committee at the EPO protests proposals from António Campinos and his cronies; it asserts that "the [management of the] Office does not want to question the New Career System [a NO-Career System now, as the ILOAT will deliver in public the judgments of its 136th session on Friday 7 July 2023, including three important cases relating to the EPO’s New Career System." As a reminder, sometimes it takes ILOAT nearly a decade to strike down illegal regulations (more than 3 years -- not 3 weeks -- after the culprit, Benoît Battistelli, had already left the Office)

THERE will be some interesting news in a few weeks because the EPO, which grants European software patents (illegally) and then passes such patents for a kangaroo 'court' to judge (an illegal 'court' where 3 judges resigned before it even started!), will be judged by a court that it does not quite control, the ILOAT, but a court that sometimes take a decade to issue much-needed rulings.



"Sure, the EPO's management has a long history of disregarding or not obeying judges' decisions (or only pretending to a long time later), but that's a scandal in its own right."The latest document is half a dozen pages long. It's discussed in passing in the video above,

The Central Staff Committee's report on the GCC meeting of 1 June 2023 with annexes [PDF] was summarised as follows in a message to colleagues who had elected the Committee:

Dear colleagues,

The GCC agenda was as follows:

Periodical Review of the Service Regulations GCC/DOC 11/2023

Public Holidays 2024 GCC/DOC 12/2023

Introduction of a strategic bonus to reward achievement during current year GCC/DOC 13/2023

Healthcare Insurance figures 2022 GCC/DOC 14/2023

The first three documents were “for consultation”, the last one “for information”. We wrote reasoned opinions on the first three documents. They are appended to this full report.

Document GCC/DOC 13/2023 introducing yet another type of non-pensionable bonus is problematic:
  • It signals the Office's focus on short-term contributions to management projects rather than on fulfilling the long-term core mission of the Office (which must be rewarded with pensionable promotions and step advancements).


  • It looks very much like improvising a new rule in the middle of the game, in addition to the rules announced in the Guidelines on Rewards for 2023.


  • In future, it will give staff opportunities twice a year to wonder why they (did not) receive a bonus, or yet another bonus. We doubt that this will contribute to social and legal peace.
We understand that the Office does not want to question the New Career System now, as the ILOAT will deliver in public the judgments of its 136th session on Friday 7 July 2023, including three important cases relating to the EPO’s New Career System. However, we expect a system in the future that shows that the Office is willing to invest in the long-term careers of its staff.

The Central Staff Committee - CSC


So some time next month we'll be able to write about the outcome from Geneva regarding the EPO's NO-Career System. We don't suppose the media will mention this (in the video I mention one blog that might mention it because of a pair of people in it), but rulings from a tribunal cannot be easily brushed aside. Sure, the EPO's management has a long history of disregarding or not obeying judges' decisions (or only pretending to a long time later), but that's a scandal in its own right.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Writing and Coding Isn't Always Enough
Last year we had to assume a role we didn't have before: litigants
Autumn Has Come
Autumn should be exciting in all sorts of ways; it'll also mark our anniversary
 
Gemini Links 01/09/2025: News Corp. WSJ and A Month With NixOS
Links for the day
Slopfarms Already Peaked, They Will Die When Slop Companies Run Out of Money to Borrow
slopfarms will lack an actual "engine"
“Sideloading” Never Killed Anybody
There are many online discussions this week about the misnomer "sideloading"
Slopwatch: Google News as FUD Vector Against Linux and Plagiarism Enhancer, Serial Slopper (SS) Uses LLMs to Googlebomb "Linux"
Slop destroys the Web not just by screwing with search engines and helping plagiarists. It's also responsible for de facto DDoS attacks...
Links 01/09/2025: "Attacks on Science" and China's "Soft Power" Grows
Links for the day
Links 01/09/2025: Fresh Backlash Against Slop and "Norway’s Electricity Crisis is About to Hit Britain"
Links for the day
Links 01/09/2025: Catching Up (Mostly via Deutsche Welle), "Windows TCO" Effect in UK
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/09/2025: Linguistic Barriers and "Web 1.0 Hosting"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 31, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, August 31, 2025
The UEFI 9/11 - Part IV - External Interference
They all seem to be playing a role in crushing Software Freedom and self-determination for users
Links 31/08/2025: Baggage Claim Scams, an Insurrectionist’s War on Culture, and a Sudden Robotics Hype
Links for the day
Gemini Links 31/08/2025: Reviewing Netsurf and Slightly Less Historic Ada Design
Links for the day
IBM Has Taken Control of GNOME
Don't expect a successor to be found any time soon
Links 31/08/2025: Google Gmail Data Breach and LF Puff Pieces for Pay
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, August 30, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, August 30, 2025
This is What Google News Has Become
Moments ago
The Slopfarm WebProNews Has Turned Google News Into a Laughing Stock Full of Plagiarism by Slop
If Google News dies of neglect, that's one thing. It's starting to seem like active neglect by Google is a form of participation.
Do What is Moral, as What's Legal Isn't Always Moral
Do what's objectively moral, no matter the costs and the risks
Slopwatch: Google News Assisting Plagiarism and Anti-Linux FUD, Serial Slopper Rips Off Linux-Centric Journalists
This makes the Web a much worse place and lessens the incentive to do journalism
Links 30/08/2025: NVIDIA Fakes Results to Hide a Bubble Already in Implosion Phase, Data Breaches Galore, Important Win for Workers' Union in Canada
Links for the day
Representing and Speaking for Animals
If I ever choose to take this matter to tribunal with animals-centric NGOs on my side, it'll get some press coverage for sure
The UEFI 9/11 - Part II - Campaign of Censorship and Defamation Against Critics
In dictatorships, humour serves an important role. It's tragic.
In Kazakhstan, Yandex Estimated to be 20 Times Bigger Than Microsoft
Bing is measured as down this month
Shutterstock Not Enough? The Register MS Uses Slop Images in Articles (Seemingly More and More Over Time)
Cost-saving trajectory amid office shutdown?
Gemini Links 30/08/2025: Games, PostmarketOS, and Slop
Links for the day
Links 30/08/2025: Imgur Uproar and Many Ukraine Updates (Mediazona Reports Over 200,000 Russians Died for Putin)
Links for the day
How Not to Build Software
code forges that need a Web browser perhaps fill some 'niche' demand
GAFAM and "MATA"
The use of dark humour there hopefully helps illuminate what a lot of "modern" technology became like and how it interacts with human civilisation (to what ends and whose gain)
Birds Are Not "Pests and Vermin", Privacy is Not a Crime, and GNU/Linux is Not 'Hacking Platform'
I could not help but think of Free software analogies
The Sites Should Be Very Fast Again
That issue is now resolved
Flying in 2025
worse than ever before
Activists, Including Technical Activists, Need Not Pursue Affirmation
Techrights doesn't play or participate in a "popularity contest"
The UEFI 9/11 - Part III - Chaos is Scheduled to Happen Second Thursday of September (No Matter What the Microsofters Tell You)
The clock is ticking
Downplaying the Impact of "UEFI 9/11" is a Losing Strategy
we won't publish much whilst on holiday
Government Sites Should Run Free Software
Not proprietary bloatware with buzzwords
LLM Slopfarms Take No Breaks
When people run sites by bots they don't need to worry about "breaks"
GNOME Having a Meltdown Again
Thanks and farewell to Steven Deobald
Gemini Links 30/08/2025: Low Tech and Hunchbin 1.0.6
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, August 29, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, August 29, 2025