Video download link | md5sum a4e7c1a4da93016a8edcd90c3108d0bb ILOAT Still Failing EPO Staff Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: The International Labour Organisation's Administrative Tribunal (ILOAT) is trying to find ways to close European Patent Office complaints without even dealing with them, basically by tricking complainants into a state of surrender or defeatism (much like Action Fraud in my case)

THE European Patent Office's (EPO) high load on ILOAT is being handled en mass by Dražen Petrović. Perhaps like a dishonest cop he's looking for a way to "solve" many crimes by just closing lots of cases, without resolution. The video above explains the outcome of three cases and according to a new publication from SUEPO, the EPO's staff union, ILOAT is now attempting to do for António Campinos what it did for Benoît Battistelli. To make matters worse, ILOAT is failing to actually enforce its rulings. Campinos basically makes a mockery of ILOAT judges by treating their rulings as mere "suggestions from Geneva".

Here is what the EPO's union said in yesterday's publication (I recorded this last night, but then processed 6 videos in tandem, so it took time to publish)

INTERNATIONALE GEWERKSCHAFT IM EUROPÄISCHEN PATENTAMT STAFF UNION OF THE EUROPEAN PATENT OFFICE UNION SYNDICALE DE L'OFFICE EUROPEEN DES BREVETS

26 July 2023 su23033cp 0.2.1 – 5.1

Challenging the New Career System

Still pending complaints

Dear Colleagues,

On 7 July 2023, the Tribunal delivered three judgments dismissing complaints against the EPO career system¹ (CA/D 10/14):

− Judgment 4710 rules on a complaint challenging the general decision CA/D 10/14 insofar it abolishes the seniority based step advancement; − Judgment 4711 rules on a complaint challenging the implementing decisions to abolish the seniority based step advancement; − Judgment 4712 rules on a complaint challenging the transposition of the complainant into the New Career System.

As of 19 July 2023, the Tribunal has sent emails to other complainants as follows:

Dear complainant, Judgments 4710, 4711 and 4712

As you may be aware, at its 136th Session, the Tribunal ruled on three complaints in which an EPO employee challenged various aspects of the new career system resulting from the Administrative Council’s decision CA/D 10/14, including the decision to transpose him into a new job group and the abolition of automatic step advancement. These three complaints were dismissed in their entirety for the reasons set out in Judgments 4710, 4711 and 4712.

Given that the subject complaint filed by you in December 2021 is largely based on pleas that are similar if not identical to those that were rejected by the Tribunal in the aforementioned judgments, it appears highly unlikely that the outcome for your complaint could be different.

I therefore ask you to give careful consideration to the Tribunal’s reasoning in Judgments 4710, 4711 and 4712, which are available on the Tribunal’s website, and to let me know by Friday, 15 September 2023 whether you wish to withdraw your complaint in light of the Tribunal’s recent rulings.

Your cooperation in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Yours sincerely, Dražen Petrović

_______________ ¹ see €« ILOAT Judgments on the EPO Career System: Complaints dismissed €», CSC paper of 21 July 2023 (sc23101cp)

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SUEPO is in the process of analysing the judgments together with the legal counsels (e.g. the pleas of former A4(2) colleagues differ from the ones of the above complaints).

For the time being, we advise all complainants NOT to reply to the email from the Tribunal yet.

We will come back to you with detailed instructions at the beginning of September.

SUEPO Central

We'll have a lot more to say about this soon. First, a meme... (due shortly)

Aside from joking and a bunch of parables we'll probably see, after employment-centric lawyers get consulted, how ILOAT will be confronted. Based upon laws, not ridicule. As pointed out in the video, ILO is the sole recourse to justice for EPO staff (outside the EPO, due to immunity) and at the same time the EPO's membership in ILO/AT means that politicians are mislead into thinking everything is OK and staff can access a tribunal in case of employment dispute/s. The above shows that there's a rather farcical element to it, as we saw with the previous administrator of this Geneva-based Tribunal (he left after failing a lot of workers). That the EPO is not even obeying the rulings simply means that it's toothless. Sometimes the EPO merely pretends to obey the rulings. Nobody is enforcing the rulings and the people who flout court rulings/orders face no consequences.

As a side note, it's curious that ILOAT is outsourcing its decisions/proceedings to Google (USA/NSA). Seems like a severe policy issue. ⬆