On 26 June 2013, staff in Munich have been demonstrating in Munich before the Administrative Council of the EPOrg for Access to Justice, Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Association.
The media coverage (in German) includes the Süddeutsche Zeitung (archive), Stern (archive),the Abendzeitung München(archive), the Berliner Kurier(archive) and many others (to be added soon).

The Central Executive Committee of SUEPO has sent a letter to the French governement on 13 June drawing the attention of the French governement of the situation in the EPO.The letter (in French) can be consulted.

Between the 17 and 24 June 2013, the local SUEPO committees in Munich, The Hague, Berlin and Vienna have organised ballots to decide on the the continuation of the industrial actions.Here is the result of these four ballots.The continuation of the industrial actions has been massively decided by SUEPO membership in all four duty stations.

The Global Union federation - Public Services International -lobbiesthe ILO Governing Body to address serious problemswith the Legal Protection of international civil servants

On 27 June 2013, the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation has approved document CA/57/13. With it, the European Patent Organisation has joined the ranks of the countries in which the employer decides whether employees are allowed to go on strike.
Lawyer Ulf Weber has assessed the conformity of these dispositions with respect to fundamental rights (in German).

On 27 June 2013, the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation has approved document CA 56/13. Lawyer ?enay Okyay has assessed the conformity of these dispositions with respect to the German law (in German).

In its June meeting the Administrative Council of the EPO decided to abolish its only recently created Audit Committee(see below). Mr. Paul Ernst, Member of the Audit Committee, comments in a SUEPO interview

With an annual operation budget of close to 1.5 billion Euros the EuropeanPatent Organisation needs a strong governance mechanism to guarantee goodpractice and transparency.  This is particularly important since due to itsimmunity the EPO is not subject to the checks and balances common in most national systems. 

In order to improve the existing governance, the previous President, Ms Brimelow, proposed the introduction of an Audit Committee (seeCA/140/08). 

The Administrative Council, at the time chaired by Mr Battistelli, approvedthe proposal (seeCA/D 9/09).

As President of the EPO, Mr Battistelli recentlyproposed to abolish the Audit Committee (CA/55/11).

The Council, once again, approved.

The Staff Union of the EPO considers the abolition of the Audit Committeepremature and instead argues that further measures to strengthen goodgovernance such as the introduction of a whistle-blower policy and a Code ofConduct are necessary before removing existing mechanisms. 

During the last decade the EPO has increasingly hired contract staff.This practice has been criticizedby the staff representation ofthe EPO for circumventing its statutory rights for consultation andfor putting the staff concerned in a legal vacuum. Following an internal appeal,the ILO Tribunal has instructedthe Office in July 2010 to submit itsout-sourcing policy for statutory consultation within 60 days. This has not yet happened.

In the mean time two external staff members whose contracts were not prolongedfiled a complaint against the intermediary (MBA) at a German court.Further information can be found in articles that appeared inSpiegel andSZ.

A hearing at the second instance, the Landesarbeitsgericht München, took place on 18 May.The hearing lasted less than an hour. The presiding judge, Mr. Taubert, exerted extremepressure on the complainants to settle the dispute rather than pursue their complaints.When this was refused the judge dismissed one of the complaints without giving any reasonsand without hearing the complainant. Judge Taubert then turned to the second complainantand repeated his question whether the complainant would not rather settle. Visibly irritatedby the continued refusal, he then stated that in this case her actual employment relationwhen working in the EPO could have been dependent and would require further investigation.A second hearing is to be scheduled to which two key witnesses from the EPO will be invited.

Another complaint concerning the employment practices of the EPO is pendingat the European Court of Human Rights (see FTP).

The Administrative Council met on 29th & 30th March in The Hague.

The agenda can be found here.

The discussions of the first day centered around the (confidential) DeloitteFinance Study commissioned by the President of the EPO, Mr. Battistelli.

A topic of interest on the second day was CA/24/11,the first report of the newly established Audit Committee. In a shortintervention (English version,German version), the staff representation expressed its appreciationfor the work done by the Audit Committee and the positions expressed in the report,in particular concerning the necessity of a Code of Conduct and an anti-fraud policysupported by an effective whistle-blowing policy.