Serial harassers of staff at the EPO

Summary: "Correct application of double standards," as anonymous workers put it, would help us understand the injustice at the EPO and would have had the management fired a long time ago

THE EPO€­FLIER (or EPO Flier) team has just released the following text, which someone was kind enough to leak to us. We have decided to republish that as it helps capture the way EPO staff feels about the management, as well as justifications for such feelings.

The EPO€­FLIER wants to provide staff with uncensored, independent information at times of social conflict

Correct application of double standards

Some pearls in Communiqué 9/2016

In an organisation that does not set and live proper standards, double standards prevail - everywhere.

Staff representation is not for the faint-hearted. It is a truly political activity with battles about the interpretation of a perceived electoral mandate. It is a constant struggle for majorities in the Committee. The staff representative allegedly "forced to resign" had not stood for election for the first time, so was able to anticipate the realistic, albeit not ideal, working conditions of a committee member.

Communiqué 9¹ defines "... active participation ... in a campaign of harassment ... by exclusion, isolation and intimidation" as misconduct. In the past we have repeatedly been able to observe such behaviour by the now Principal Director Human Resources, who should lead by example. In her case it resulted in rapid, extraordinary and unprecedented double promotion to the level of respective incompetence (Peter principle ²).

The President, together with the Disciplinary Committee, now brings some clarity to the proportionality of standards to be applied by the Office. The "... severity of the breaches and the absence of any regrets or commitment by the subject not to repeat them" apparently justifies dismissal as the appropriate measure.

The President appears to have seen the light as he now publicly affirms that "The freedom of thoughts and expression and diversity of opinion are highly respected and valued rights at the EPO."

So we may now claim consistent application of standards. If lived standards come to bear, Laurent gets re-instated and promoted. For the decreed standards, the cascade of events is now clearly laid out:

1. Staff claims misconduct on the side of at least Principal Director Human Resources for repeated and protracted "harassment ... by exclusion, isolation and intimidation" in multiple cases, and of Vice President Administration and the President for collusion in nepotism and supporting harassment



2. For the President, the misconduct extends to not following clear, unambiguous requests by the Administrative Council³



3. The Investigation Unit does its work in an uninhibited manner, submitting its reports to the respective appointing authority



4. The appointing authority (President in the case of PD 4.3, Administrative Council for VP4 and President) analyses the reports and then will presumably initiate proceedings by the respective Disciplinary Committee



5. The Disciplinary Committee will apply the newly established and confirmed principles uniformly and forward their recommendations to dismiss to the respective Appointing Authority



6. The President will dismiss PD 4.3, to be subsequently dismissed by the Administrative Council, together with VP4

Luckily, there are enough double standards for everybody. Time for staff to claim dismissal of those who have contributed most to the erosion of standards in the Office, namely Mr Battistelli, Mr Topić and Ms Bergot.

The EPO Flier Team

Please help to distribute this flyer to your colleagues. You can find more EPO-FLIER publications at www.epostaff4rights.org _________ ¹ http://techrights.org/2016/11/04/battistelli-marches-hague/ ² https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle ³ http://www.hipo.gov.hu/en/news/sztnh-hirek/hirek-esemenyek/147th-meeting-of-the-administrative -council-of-the-european-patent

Techrights intends to escalate the publication style because Battistelli has escalated his union-busting activity and he more severely punishes innocent people. The EPO is Europe's most shameful institution in our view, but secrecy and meddling in the media (including soft bribes to very large publications) prevent the media from discussing it as much as it ought to.

We fear that if there are no disciplinary actions against the top-level management (culminating in firings), there will be no EPO left. ⬆