Bonum Certa Men Certa

As Expected, Minimal Pseudo Compliance From EPO Management, Adding Insult to Injury

Earlier this month: Two Months of ILO-AT Non-Compliance at the EPO and a Decade of a Docile Administrative Council That Approves Illegal Proposals

Extension of strike judgments to all staff

Summary: SUEPO Central, the core of the staff union of EPO staff (almost 7,000 workers at the EPO, most of whom are SUEPO members), has strong words about the EPO's attitude and stance, which is perhaps unsurprising but still extremely disappointing

MORE than two months after the historic judgements of ILO-AT the EPO's President, António Campinos, writes internally to staff about Benoît Battistelli's strike regulations being ruled unlawful. Almost a decade too late!



The staff union is rightly upset and understandably circulates another publication among members. We've decided to reproduce it below, in full, as HTML:

23 September 2021 su21024cp – 0.2.1/5.1/5.2

Extension of strike judgments to all staff “No moral damages. No apology.” What next?



In his Communiqué of 14 September, Mr Campinos finally detailed the Office’s approach regarding the strike judgments of the 132nd session of the ILOAT. The Office intends to apply the outcome of the judgments to all staff on strike since July 2013 only insofar as they concern excessive strike deductions or for unauthorised absence on 2 and 3 July 2013. No moral damages will be awarded to those who neither filed a complaint in front of the Tribunal nor an application to intervene1. In a meeting with the Central Staff Committee (CSC) on 15 September, Mr Campinos even strongly excluded any form of apology from the Organisation to its staff.

The Office intends to conclude all payments by the end of the year. For the time being, we strongly recommend that you maintain your pending complaints and applications to intervene. This paper provides more details.

Meeting with the President: Lessons (not) learnt On 15 September, the staff representation could address for the first time directly with Mr Campinos

the ILOAT strike judgments of 7 July. The staff representation argued that all EPO staff had been adversely prejudiced by the violation of their fundamental right to strike and by abuses of power. An International Organisation cannot take a fundamental right from its staff, give it back more than 8 years later and pretend that nothing happened. In his reply, Mr Campinos threatened to reduce cash injections into the pension reserve funds if he were to grant moral damages to all staff. Mr Campinos added that we should understand that in our Organisation, it’s just about moving money from one place to another. One could expect that upper management could be held accountable for designing HR policies violating fundamental rights, but Mr Campinos preemptively warned anyone who could point the finger at his services which he fully entrusts with further reforms.

The staff representation then suggested that the Organisation takes responsibility for mistakes of the past by at least apologizing to its staff. Mr Campinos bursted out in anger and shouted that he would not apologize and that we would never get an apology from him. With this statement, Mr Campinos confirms that he not only takes full responsibility for the continued policies during the first 3 years of his mandate, but also fully endorses the Battistelli administration. Mr Campinos reproached the staff representation to be not constructive when willing to discuss events that happened ages ago and added that we may have won this one but we don’t win 8 out of 10 of our

_____________ 1 According to Laurent Germond, Director Employment Law, the Office identified 38 complaints still pending in front of the Tribunal, some of them being joined by interveners.




cases. Here, Mr Campinos confused quality and production: in terms of legal procedures, some are more fundamental than others.

In the meeting, Laurent Germond, Director Employment Law, recalled that the Tribunal’s statute does not foresee any class action procedure and that complaints will remain of an individual nature. The Office intends to apply the outcome of the judgments to all staff on strike since July 2013 only insofar as they concern excessive strike deductions or for unauthorised absence on 2 and 3 July 2013.

SUEPO expresses its solidarity to all staff in the HR Department who are now striving to conclude all payments by the end of year and have to repair the damages caused by their upper management.

What next?

Concerning the still running procedures against the strike regulations, we recommend the following:

I. Case AT-5 5167: Mr Battistelli abused his power by not organising the UNITY ballot

In his Communiqué of 14 September and as confirmed in front of the staff representation, Mr Campinos excludes the award of moral damages to all staff who were deprived of their right to vote in the ballot for the strike of the “UNITY initative” of 16 May 2014.

SUEPO recommends that complainants and those who file applications to intervene (see instructions here) maintain their procedures.

II. Case AT-5 5179: the SUEPO called strike of 2 July 2013 was lawful

In his Communiqué of 14 September and as confirmed in front of the staff representation, Mr Campinos intends to apply the outcome of Judgment 4433, but only partially, to all those employees who participated in the industrial action of 2 and 3 July 2013. The unlawful deductions for unauthorised absence will be reimbursed, the threatening letter from Principal Director Human Resources (Ms Bergot at the material time) will be removed from the personal file, but no moral damages will be awarded.

SUEPO recommends that complainants and those who file applications to intervene (see instructions here) maintain their procedures.

III. Management review MR/2021-0025
Excessive strike deductions of the January 2021 for the December 2020 strike


Mr Campinos had rejected the management review in a decision dated 21 June 2021.

In his Communiqué of 14 September, Mr Campinos announces that the outcome of Judgment No. 4435 will be applied to all those employees who went on strike since the introduction of CA/D 5/13. This concerns as well the deductions made on the January 2021 salary slip which are now expected to be reimbursed with interests at 5% per annum, less the amounts which could have been deducted on the basis of 1/30th (as applicable prior to the introduction of CA/D 5/13).

SUEPO considers it not necessary that all concerned staff file a mass appeal against the rejection decision for MR/2021-0025 dated 21 June 2021.




IV. Case AT-5 5244: Excessive strike deductions of 1/20th are unlawful and punitive

The extension of the outcome of Judgment No. 4435 concerns the strike deductions during the period of October 2013 until April 2016 covered by this case and which are now expected to be reimbursed with interests at 5% per annum, less the amounts which could have been deducted on the basis of 1/30th (as applicable prior to the introduction of CA/D 5/13).

As long as the payments are not concluded, SUEPO recommends that complainants and those who file applications to intervene (see instructions here) maintain their procedures.

Conclusion The still pending complaints and the filing of hundreds of applications to intervene since the announcement of the strike judgments on 7 July may have been one of the reasons for Mr Campinos to extend the outcome of some of the judgments to all staff.

We regret that Mr Campinos only decided to opt for a partial extension of the outcome excluding noticeably moral damages. This shows once again that in order to fully safeguard their rights, EPO staff must go to litigation.

SUEPO Central


As a side note, I was having a very productive today. Had a long (and long-distance) call with political entities willing to do something about EPO abuses. Tons of time and energy has been poured into it (research and talking/communicating), but it needs to be done and we hope to have some breakthrough soon. We'll refrain from sharing any more details as they can jeopardise the process at this relatively early stage.

Recent Techrights' Posts

The "Alicante Mafia" - Part XIII - Is EPO Vice-President Steve Rowan in Cahoots With the "Alicante Mafia"?
that deserves much media attention, political intervention, and condemnation
Some Slopfarms and Some Real News Sites Cover Richard Stallman’s (RMS) Talk
If his message about Software Freedom spreads, then we're all better off
Richard Stallman's Experiences With 'Cancel Brigades' Ought to Educate Linus Torvalds
Now they talk about "if Linus dies" scenarios
 
“Wikilaundering” Explained
"London PR firm rewrites Wikipedia for governments and billionaires"
IBM Reports 'Results' Tomorrow, Expect More "RAs" (Mass Layoffs)
they use words like "efficiency", "optimisation", "AI", "pivot", "modernisation" and so on
Earlier This Month Microsoft Lunduke Said in Public It Was Good That Renee Good Was Murdered, Now He Mocks or Demonises People for Saying the US is Unsafe
Don't be easily conned by demagogues
Google News and "Linux" Slop
Why won't Google be interested in tackling this issue? Instead Google has been trying to participate in this issue.
IBM Kills Red Hat in the Darkness
What IBM does to Red Hat is malicious
IBM Red Hat's Goal Is Not Real Security (It Probably Never Was)
Spies and trolls are very malicious people and sometimes they're the same thing
With Absurd Lies About Slop, Which Lacks Intelligence or Financial Potential, GAFAM and IBM Will Twist Mass Layoffs as 'Efficiency Drive' or 'AI Pivot'
More layoffs are on the way
Animal Advocacy Works
All it takes is effort and determination
EPO Strike This Week
What has happened to Europe?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, January 26, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, January 26, 2026
For the EPO to Survive, António Campinos and the "Alicante Mafia" Must Fall on Their Sword
There are EPO insiders who are convinced Campinos too is (or was) a cocaine addict
Gemini Links 26/01/2026: Pocket Power Pack, Batteries, and Breaks
Links for the day
"Microsoft Vista 11 Emergency Update" as Windows Fails to Boot (Again)
Microsoft is desperately trying to find some new business model as the debt soars
4 Hours Ago The Register MS Published Paid-for Spam About "AI" (Slop, Buzzwords)
"AI" mentioned 13 times in the page
IBM 'Results' Due Wednesday Evening, Expect Clues About Mass Layoffs
Don't expect IBM to say anything about "layoffs" or "RAs"
The Fall of the EPO (or the "Alicante Mafia" at EPO) Will be Due to This Reckless Lawyer Who Does Cocaine in Public While Speaking for the EPO
The longer European politicians (and media) turn a blind eye to this corruption, the worse it'll get
Why RMS is Scary to GAFAM 'Engineers' and the GAFAM Apologists (or Addicts)
especially because of his ideas and his way of life
Firefox 'Market Share' Down to All-Time Low in 2026, Adding to It User-Hostile 'Features' Only Worsens Things
What is the goal of Mozilla at this point?
Links 26/01/2026: Windows Back Doors, American Winter Storm, and Report Says Iran's "Protest Death Toll May Exceed 30,000"
Links for the day
Life Got Simpler and Therefore Also Healthier and Happier
Some people envy not wealth but happiness (which they're unable to attain, even with hoarding and accumulation)
Links 26/01/2026: Financial Stress in German Farms and Germany Wants to Take Its Gold Reserves Out of the US
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/01/2026: "Lack of Meaningful Things" and Getting Back to Programming
Links for the day
Strong Correlation Between the Slop Ponzi Scheme (or Bubble) and Major Disasters
BitCoin ruins the planet; so does slop
We Will Never Allow the "Alicante Mafia" to Hide "Cocainegate"
transparency typically scares malicious actors
Fewer Involuntary Interruptions This Year
This year we're doing much better
Prisons Are for Dangerous People Who Pose a Threat to the Public, Not People Who Inform the Public
At the end of the week EPO workers go on strike
Microsoft Loses Grip on Indian Ocean
Many countries, including in older allies of the US (such as Canada and the US), look for ways to get out of Microsoft dependence urgently
XBox Consoles Nearly Dead by Now, the 'XBox' (ex-Box) Brand Now Stands for Something Full of Slop, Spam, Filler, and Chaff
We're seeing the last day (maybe year) of "XBox"
The Great "AI" CON Explained by Dr. Andy Farnell
LLMs are basically advertisers of sorts
Links 26/01/2026: "Journalists Detained", in Germany "Unjustly Jailed Man Gets €1.3 Million Compensation"
Links for the day
Red Hat Quietly Going Extinct After Bluewashing in 2026
At this point it would be rather foolish to assume that IBM will let Red Hat just "do its own thing" or maintain its corporate culture, identity, projects etc.
The "Alicante Mafia" - Part XII - Kris De Neef and Roberta Romano-Götsch, Who Stepped in for the Cokehead, Have No Comment on His Cocaine Usage (and the EPO's Cover-up)
Sh-t floats to the top.
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, January 25, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, January 25, 2026
Gemini Links 26/01/2026: Cold Perception, Software Patches in NixOS, and Sunk Cost Fallacy
Links for the day
Fake IBM Retirements (IBM Gives Older Workers Ultimatums, Deadlines, and Carrots on Sticks)
As they point out, IBM is desperate to lower costs
Linuxiac is Basically a Fake News Site, But It's Being Fed by Google News
Because Google News is run by Google, a slop pusher
Links 25/01/2026: Slop "Tribalism", Nike Apparently Cracked
Links for the day
Claims That PIPs Are Abused for Silent Mass Layoffs at IBM (Without Severance) or Forced Retirements
Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs) "clearly bogus as everyone on my team who has been on one has been fired"
WebM Version of Richard Stallman's Latest Talk (Georgia Tech Talk)
The file size is smaller
After Half a Decade Vista 11 is Still a Giant Failure
Don't expect Microsoft to gain a foothold
Details on IBM Layoffs in the EU Last Week, Same Allegedly Coming to the US Shortly
"Around 50 people affected in Belgium."
Technology Trends Driven by DRM Giants, Planned Obsolescence, Not the Needs of the Buyers
The "pushers" think of customers as "users"; and they encourage passivity, Stockholm Syndrome
Links 25/01/2026: Microsoft BitLocker Backdoored for Decades Already, Microsoft-Backed ICE Still Murders Civilians
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/01/2026: "Expert in a Dying Field" and Global Commands
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, January 24, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, January 24, 2026
After the Slop Bubble
At the end, looking back, we'll all generally understand that the net effort of slop was environmental destruction
IBM CEO Says IBM is Just Reliant on Buzzwords That Are Overhyped
IBM has nothing to show anymore and telling fairytales to shareholders is a temporary 'fix'
The "Alicante Mafia" - Part XI - No Comment From Steve Rowan, Niloofar Simon, and Christoph Ernst About Cocaine Inside EPO
What kind of patent office is this?