Bonum Certa Men Certa

Federation of International Civil Servants’ Associations Bemoans EPO Climate of “Fear, Threats, Intimidation or Retaliation”

Summary: The Federation of International Civil Servants’ Associations (FICSA) is “calling on the delegations of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation to intercede with EPO Management”

THERE is plenty to write (and unveil) today about the EPO, so we shall start with the easy stuff.



Last night (I stayed up until after 4) a request was made to transcribe this document [PDF] which is shown below as images:

FICSA letter



FICSA letter page 2



One person sent us a manual transcription:



FICSA Ref: 69th Council EPO Geneva, 12 February 2016

Dear Sir/Madam, I have the honour to share with you FICSA Resolution 69/4 calling on the delegations of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation to intercede with EPO Management in order to ensure that all staff representatives may defend the interests of staff without fear, threats, intimidation or retaliation and that the recently dismissed staff representatives and SUEPO officials be reinstated without delay. This Resolution was unanimously adopted by the members of the Federation of International Civil Servants’ Associations (FICSA) attending the 69th session of the Council at the headquarters of the ICAO in Montreal from 25 to 29 January 2016. The FICSA Council therefore requests your full support in ensuring that the above issue is properly addressed and that normal staff/management relations are restored at the European Patent Organisation. The Federation places high importance on healthy relations between management and staff representatives and as such looks forward to hearing from you in due course. Yours sincerely, Diab El Tabari President To: Ms. Elzbieta Bienkowska, EU Commissioner Mr. Battistelli, President of the EPO Council Secretariat SUEPO Central FICSA Executive Committee

Resolution 69/4 THE STATUS OF STAFF/MANAGEMENT RELATIONS AT THE EUROPEAN PATENT OFFICE (EPO) The Council of the Federation of International Civil Servants’ Associations (FICSA) at its 69th Session (ICAO Montreal, 25 to 29 January 2016), Noting that in the course of 2014, 2015 and 2016, the basic principles of freedom of speech and right of association were severely undermined at the European Patent Office (EPO), Noting further that the President of the EPO went beyond the recommendations of the disciplinary committees and punished arbitrarily and disproportionally Ms. Elizabeth Hardon, Chair of the Local Staff Committee in Munich and Chair of the Staff Union of the EPO (SUEPO) Munich by dismissing her with a 20% cut of her pension rights and Mr. Ion Brumme, Member of the Central Staff Committee Munich and former chair or SUEPO Munich by dismissing him and Ms. Malika Weaver, Member of the Central Staff Committee in Munich and Treasurer of SUEPO Munich, by downgrading her 8 steps, Noting further that the recent deterioration in the working relations between EPO Management and the Staff Committee members has recently led to unfounded investigations and allegations which may lead to further retaliation, Calls upon the delegations of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation, in the interest of restoring effective staff/management relations and mutual respect, to intercede directly with the EPO Management in order to ensure that the dismissed staff representatives and SUEPO officials are reinstated without delay and that all staff representatives can defend the legitimate interests of staff without fear, threats, intimidation or retaliation in keeping with the basic principles of freedom of speech and right of association.



Another person wrote to us this morning: "Here's the requested OCR, that's easier than a translation [of a French article]. Practically zero polishing required, the source material is perfect."



Ref.: 69th Council EPO Geneva, 12 February 2016

FICSA Federation of International Civil Servants’ Associations

Fédération des associations de fonctionnaires internationaux

GENEVA FICSA Secretariat Room Dep.201 Palais des Nations CH-1211 Geneva 10 Switzerland

Telephone: (41 22) 917 3150 Facsimile: (41 22) 917 0660 Email: ficsa@unog.ch http://ficsa.org

Dear Sir/Madam,

I have the honour to share with you FICSA Resolution 69/4 calling on the delegations of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation to intercede with EPO Management in order to ensure that all staff representatives may defend the interests of staff without fear, threats, intimidation or retaliation and that the recently dismissed staff representatives and SUEPO officials be reinstated without delay. This Resolution was unanimously adopted by the members of the Federation of International Civil Servants’ Associations (FICSA) attending the 69th session of the Council at the headquarters of the ICAO in Montreal from 25 to 29 January 2016.

The FICSA Council therefore requests your full support in ensuring that the above issue is properly addressed and that normal staff/management relations are restored at the European Patent Organisation.

The Federation places high importance on healthy relations between management and staff representatives and as such looks forward to hearing from you in due course.

Yours sincerely,

Diab El Tabari President

To: Heads of Delegation to the European Patent Organisation Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation

Encl. cc. Ms. Elzbieta Biehkowska, EU Commissioner Mr. Battistelli, President of the EPO Council Secretariat SUEPO Central FICSA Executive Committee

Bioversity ● BIPM ● CERN ● CSSA ● CTBT0 ● ECB ● ES0 ● FA0 ● Global Fund ● IAEA ● IARC ● ICAO ● ICC0 ● ICO ● IFAD ● IL0/ITC Turin ● IM0 ● IOC ● I0M ● IPU ● ITER ● ITU ● 0PCW ● PAH0 ● SCBD ● UNAIDS ● UNESCO ● UNFCCC ● UNGSC ● UNRWA ● UNWT0 ● UPU ● WHO ● WIP0 ● WM0 ● WT0/0MC




Resolution 69/4

THE STATUS OF STAFF/MANAGEMENT RELATIONS AT THE EUROPEAN PATENT OFFICE (EPO)

The Council of the Federation of International Civil Servants' Associations (FICSA) at its 69th Session (ICAO Montreal, 25 to 29 January 2016),

Noting that in the course of 2014, 2015 and 2016, the basic principles of freedom of speech and right of association were severely undermined at the European Patent Office (EPO),

Noting further that the President of the EPO went beyond the recommendations of the disciplinary committees and punished arbitrarily and disproportionally Ms. Elizabeth Hardon, Chair of the Local Staff Committee in Munich and Chair of the Staff Union of the EPO (SUEPO) Munich by dismissing her with a 20% cut of her pension rights and Mr. Ion Brumme, Member of the Central Staff Committee Munich and former chair of SUEPO Munich by dismissing him and Ms. Malika Weaver, Member of the Central Staff Committee in Munich and Treasurer of SUEPO Munich, by downgrading her 8 steps,

Noting further that the recent deterioration in the working relations between EPO Management and the Staff Committee members has recently led to unfounded investigations and allegations which may lead to further retaliation,

Calls upon the delegations of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation, in the interest of restoring effective staff/management relations and mutual respect, to intercede directly with the EPO Management in order to ensure that the dismissed staff representatives and SUEPO officials are reinstated without delay and that all staff representatives can defend the legitimate interests of staff without fear, threats, intimidation or retaliation in keeping with the basic principles of freedom of speech and right of association.



If someone starts writing an English translation of the article from France, please let us know so that we can reduce the chance of duplicate (simultaneous) efforts.

Recent Techrights' Posts

IBM Culling Workers or Pushing Them Out (So That It's Not Framed as Layoffs), Red Hat Mentioned Repeatedly Only Hours Ago
We all know what "reorg" means in the C-suite
 
Jonathan Carter & Debian: fascism hiding in broad daylight
Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
Gunnar Wolf & Debian: fascism, anti-semitism and crucifixion
Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
Links 01/05/2024: Take-Two Interactive Layoffs and Post Office (Horizon System, Proprietary) Scandal Not Over
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, May 01, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, May 01, 2024
Embrace, Extend, Replace the Original (Or Just Hijack the Word 'Sudo')
First comment? A Microsoft employee
Gemini Links 02/05/2024: Firewall Rules Etiquette and Self Host All The Things
Links for the day
Red Hat/IBM Crybullies, GNOME Foundation Bankruptcy, and Microsoft Moles (Operatives) Inside Debian
reminder of the dangers of Microsoft moles inside Debian
PsyOps 007: Paul Tagliamonte wanted Debian Press Team to have license to kill
Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
IBM Raleigh Layoffs (Home of Red Hat)
The former CEO left the company exactly a month ago
Paul R. Tagliamonte, the Pentagon and backstabbing Jacob Appelbaum, part B
Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
Links 01/05/2024: Surveillance and Hadopi, Russia Clones Wikipedia
Links for the day
Links 01/05/2024: FCC Takes on Illegal Data Sharing, Google Layoffs Expand
Links for the day
Links 01/05/2024: Calendaring, Spring Idleness, and Ads
Links for the day
Paul Tagliamonte & Debian: White House, Pentagon, USDS and anti-RMS mob ringleader
Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
Jacob Appelbaum character assassination was pushed from the White House
Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
Why We Revisit the Jacob Appelbaum Story (Demonised and Punished Behind the Scenes by Pentagon Contractor Inside Debian)
If people who got raped are reporting to Twitter instead of reporting to cops, then there's something deeply flawed
Free Software Foundation Subpoenaed by Serial GPL Infringers
These attacks on software freedom are subsidised by serial GPL infringers
Red Hat's Official Web Site is Promoting Microsoft
we're seeing similar things at Canonical's Ubuntu.com
Enrico Zini & Debian: falsified harassment claims
Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
European Parliament Elections 2024: Daniel Pocock Running as an Independent Candidate
I became aware that Daniel Pocock had decided to enter politics
Publicly Posting in Social Control Media About Oneself Makes It Public Information
sheer hypocrisy on privacy is evident in the Debian mailing lists
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, April 30, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, April 30, 2024
[Meme] Sometimes Torvalds and RMS Agree on Things
hype around chatbots
[Video] Linus Torvalds on 'Hilarious' AI Hype: "I Hate the Hype" and "I Don't Want to be Part of the Hype", "You Need to Be a Bit Cynical About This Whole Hype Cycle"
Linus Torvalds on LLMs
Colin Watson, Steve McIntyre & Debian, Ubuntu cover-up mission after Frans Pop suicide
Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
Links 30/04/2024: Wireless Carriers Selling Customer Location Data, Facebook Posts Causing Trouble
Links for the day
Frans Pop suicide and Ubuntu grievances
Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
Links 30/04/2024: More Google Layoffs (Wide-Ranging)
Links for the day
Fresh Rumours of Impending Mass Layoffs at IBM Red Hat
"IBM filed a W.A.R.N with the state of North Carolina. That only means one thing."
Workers' Right to Disconnect Won't Matter If Such a Right Isn't Properly Enforced
I was always "on-call" and my main role or function was being "on-call" in case of incidents
Mark Shuttleworth's (MS's) Canonical is Promoting Microsoft This Week (Surveillance Slanted as 'Confidential')
Who runs Canonical these days? Why does Canonical help sell Windows?
A Discussion About Suicides in Science and Technology (Including Debian and the European Patent Office)
In Debian, there is a long history of deaths, suicides, and mysterious disappearances
Federal News Network is Corrupt, It Runs Propaganda Pieces for Microsoft
Federal News Network used to be OK some years ago
What Mark Shuttleworth and Canonical Can to Remedy the Damage Done to Frans Pop's Family
Mr. Shuttleworth and Canonical as a company can at the very least apologise for putting undue pressure
Amnesty International & Debian Day suicides comparison
Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
[Meme] A Way to Get No Real Work Done
Walter White looking at phone: Your changes could not be saved to device
Modern Measures of 'Productivity' Boil Down to Time Wasting and Misguided Measurements/Yardsticks
People are forgetting the value of nature and other human beings
Countries That Beat the United States at RSF's World Press Freedom Index (After US Plunged Some More)
The United States (US) was 17 when these rankings started in 2002
Record Productivity and Preserving People's Past on the Net
We're very productive these days, partly owing to online news slowing down (less time spent on curating Daily Links)
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, April 29, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, April 29, 2024
Links 30/04/2024: Malaysian and Russian Governments Crack Down on Journalists
Links for the day
Frans Pop Debian Day suicide, Ubuntu, Google and the DEP-5 machine-readable copyright file
Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
Axel Beckert (ETH Zurich), the mentality of sexual violence on campus
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
[Meme] Russian Reversal
Mark Shuttleworth: In Soviet Russia's spacecraft... Man exploits peasants
Frans Pop & Debian suicide denial
Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
Hard Evidence Reinforces Suspicion That Mark Shuttleworth May Have Worked Volunteers to Death
Today we start re-publishing articles that contain unaltered E-mails