Bonum Certa Men Certa

Administrative Council “Openly Showed Disapproval of Battistelli’s Behaviour” at the EPO

Another slap on the wrist, but will they have the courage to sack him?

Wrist/hand



Summary: Even those who are capable of bossing (including firing) the President of the Office at the European Patent Organisation are unhappy with his performance and no longer afraid to openly express their views

Christian Kirsch's article from a day before the strike at the EPO was noted here before. We had sought a translation from a native German speaker, but never got any.



Here is SUEPO's English translation [PDF] with highlights where new or important information crept in:

European Patent Office: Strike against dismissal of staff union members



A one-day walkout by staff members was aimed at having disciplinary measures against their representatives being revoked, as well as ensuring that a mediator would oversee future negotiations with the management.

In a poll taken at the beginning of March 2016, 91 percent of those involved voted for a strike at the European Patent Office (EPO), and the next day, Thursday, it happened, The staff union Suepo, which organized the one-day protest, is demanding as a priority the immediate suspension (PDF document) of the disciplinary measures against three staff representatives. Two of them were suspended in January 2016, and a third demoted. Measures which the beleaguered President of the Office, Benoît Battistelli, took above and beyond the proposal by the Disciplinary Committee.

A further demand is for a truly independent institution to investigate the three cases. Up to now, disputes between EPO management and staff have been the prerogative of a disciplinary committee, with the President deciding alone on disciplinary measures. Because the Office is an inter-state institution, the employees are unable to have these decisions examined by any national courts. Their only means of recourse is the International Labour Organization (ILO), where proceedings drag on for years. The ILO had already registered its unease in 2015 about the flood of complaints being received from the EPO (PDF document) and demanded that the work situation in the Office be improved.

Even the Administrative Council is calling for improvement

These demands came at the most recent meeting of the EPO Administrative Council (AC), which, as the highest executive body, is intended, among other things, to oversee the President. For the first time, the Council openly showed disapproval of Battistelli’s behaviour and called for changes to the staff regulations, in particular with regard to the EPO’s internal investigation unit. This unit gathers evidence against staff members who are suspected of some shortcomings, which has already resulted in the installation of key loggers on publicly-accessible EPO computers.

Like the Administrative Council, the union is demanding fair dealings with the EPO management, under the observation of an internationally recognized moderator. Back in 2015 the AC was already insisting that Battistelli should come to an agreement with the union. Shortly before the last meeting in mid-March 2016, the Council presented the President with a "Memorandum of understanding". But the contracting party was not Suepo, which represents 3400 of the 6000 employees; instead, it was the FFPE-EPO union, with fewer than 100 members. This PR trick did not fool the AC, though, and didn’t satisfy it either. (ck)


There is another article, also from German media, titled “Der Streit im Europäischen Patentamt eskaliert”. SUEPO says it was published by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 4 days days after the strike but "only in paper version." Well, can anyone send a scam/photo of it for our record? The more is known, the more can be done to shed light on the terrible situation.

It turns out that there is a lawsuit coming next. One source told us that lawsuits were even being considered against the pertinent national patent offices (or their representatives) for failing to act amid lawlessness at the EPO. For the sake of their own careers, members of the Administrative Council should be more proactive. At times of great injustice a hands-off approach should be off the table.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Nat Friedman Had Left Microsoft GitHub Exactly One Week Before Matthew Garrett Sent His First SLAPP (Which Was an Empty Threat, He Was Abusing the Legal System of Another Continent to Terrorise Critics Who Had Just Unearthed Major Microsoft Scandals)
And it was likely talked about by his lawyers around the exact same time Nat Friedman was packing up
 
We're in 6/6 Now, Almost Halfway in 2025
2025 was probably the best year for us
South Americans Are Saying Goodbye to Microsoft
We're hardly even "Cherry-Picking" or conveniently singling out one South American nation
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part III: Data Protection Failures, Just Like at the European Patent Office (EPO)
Just less than a decade ago we showed that the EPO had illegally shared staff data with third parties
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 05, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, June 05, 2025
Pushing Microsoft's Proprietary Trash/Trap as "Open" and "Linux" (Windows is 'Linux' Now?)
Maybe it's time to just stop saying "FOSS". The people who use that term are promoting Microsoft.
Slopwatch: Comparing Linux to Vermin, Attacking BSD With LLM Slop, and Helping Microsoft Demonise Linux/OpenBSD/SSH Over Weak User Passwords
Microsoft must be laughing its arse off, seeing how a bunch of Serial Sloppers (no skills, no comprehension, no integrity, no creativity) and slopfarms use Microsoft LLM to flood the Web with anti-Linux FUD
Links 05/06/2025: US Poised for Another $2.4 Trillion to Debt, Cops Want GAFAM Kill Switches
Links for the day
Links 05/06/2025: First US Spacewalk 60 Years Ago, GNU Octave 10.2.0 is Out
Links for the day
Scandinavia Saying Goodbye to Microsoft
The Danes have had enough of Microsoft
GNU/Linux Measured at 6% in Bangladesh, According to statCounter
Windows isn't growing, it's going away
Gemini Links 05/06/2025: Loop Earplugs Review and ANS Forth
Links for the day
Armenian Adoption of GNU/Linux
Russian influence in Armenian must be worrying to Microsoft
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part II: Turning a Once-Respected Patent Office Into a Circus and Laughing Stock
It's not legal, but administrators who don't care about the law and don't fear the law would just go ahead and turn things to junk
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 04, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, June 04, 2025
Slopwatch: Mindless Slop Pieces, Fake Images and Text, Linux FUD on the Cheap
spewed out by Microsoft-controlled LLMs
Links 04/06/2025: Workers' Strikes, Sudan Exodus
Links for the day
Links 04/06/2025: Linux Foundation PR Spam and Lee Jae-myung Wins Election
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/06/2025: Future Leaders of the World and Platforming Jordan Peterson
Links for the day
Links 04/06/2025: WSL Backfiring on Microsoft and "Disney, Microsoft Announce Massive Layoffs"
Links for the day
Our Case is a Very Easy Win, the SLAPPs From Microsofters Were a Grave Error, and Censoring Information Won't Work (It'll Only Ever Backfire)
Censoring is what people do when they lose the argument
Say the Truth, the Rest Will Follow
There's no guarantee that writing the truth will result in an audience (or readership), but over time - in the long run - people generally gravitate towards what they know or feel to be crude truth, not just what's comforting (albeit false or self-deluding, usually groupthink dictated from above)
How to Expose High-Level Corruption Without Getting in (Too Much) Trouble
Democracy depends on free press and freedom of the press depends on being able to safely publish (and keep available) material that bad people don't want to be known to anybody
In-Depth EPO Coverage at Techrights Turns Eleven
11 years is a very long time
Windows Measured Below 10% in Afghanistan, GNU/Linux Gaining a Lot
about 80% are Android (Linux) users, compared to only about 10% for Windows
Poland's Political Predicament and Social Control Media
Democracy and fake "tech" don't mix well; the latter tends to interfere with the former and that's why we get more "Putins" out there
EPO: Taking Away From the Staff to Give More to the Rich
The Central Staff Committee (CSC) wrote to EPO staff earlier this week
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 03, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, June 03, 2025
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part I: It's a Lot Like the EPO
we can commence a series soon
Gemini Links 04/06/2025: Inescapable Questions and Quitting All "Oligarch Tech"
Links for the day