UN agency exonerates EPO staff members
The International Labour Organization’s Administrative Tribunal (ILOAT) reversed the downgrading of one staff member of the European Patent Office (EPO) and reinstated another in decisions handed down earlier this week.
In case 4042, the ILOAT ordered the reinstatement of Malika Weaver, who had challenged the EPO’s decision to downgrade her for misconduct.
In June 2015, another staff member (known as ‘C’), who had been involved in internal proceedings against the EPO, informed the administration that Weaver was putting pressure on him to continue the case to seek reimbursement of costs.
C had signed an agreement with the Staff Union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO) in 2012, which provided that SUEPO would cover the costs incurred in legal proceedings against the EPO but, if C breached any part of the agreement, SUEPO could withdraw its financial support.
Under the agreement, the staff member agreed not to communicate directly with the EPO without approval from SUEPO’s lawyer and that he would reimburse SUEPO.
The EPO then sent a letter to Weaver, who was treasurer of the executive committee of the Munich section of SUEPO, accusing her of having exercised undue pressure.
Although the EPO indicated that the letter couldn’t be disclosed to any third parties, the complainant forwarded the letter to SUEPO, which published a partially redacted version on its website.
In December 2015, the committee found that Weaver had failed to comply with the standards expected of permanent employees and the duty to exercise the “greatest discretion with respect to confidential matters”.
While the EPO’s disciplinary committee recommended the determent of advancement for three years, EPO’s president Benoît Battistelli decided to downgrade Weaver for serious misconduct based on exercising undue pressure and breaching confidentiality.
After finding that the complainant hadn’t breached confidentiality by forwarding the letter to SUEPO, the tribunal concluded that Weaver’s actions couldn’t reasonably have been characterised as the application of “undue pressure”.
“Her conduct was, in the circumstances, reasonable conduct for a staff union representative seeking to protect the resources of SUEPO that were to be used, in part, to fund the legal assistance given to C. It did not and could not constitute misconduct, let alone serious misconduct,” said the ILOAT.
The tribunal set aside the EPO’s decision and ordered the organisation to restore Weaver to her position before the disciplinary sanction. It also ordered the EPO to pay moral damages of €25,000 ($29,161) and costs of €8,000.
In a separate decision (case 4043), the ILOAT ordered that Ion Brumme, who previously served as chairman of the executive committee of SUEPO Munich, be reinstated.
Brumme was involved with C’s proceedings, having signed the agreement with him.
The SUEPO Munich committee chairman was accused of having actively incited Weaver to unduly pressure C and of forwarding the confidential letter to the Munich committee.
While the disciplinary committee found there was insufficient evidence of Brumme’s active involvement in the exercise of undue pressure, it did find that he had disclosed confidential information.
The committee recommended downgrading, but Battistelli dismissed him.
Earlier this week, the ILOAT set aside the EPO’s decision and ordered the organisation to reinstate Brumme. He was awarded moral damages of €30,000 and costs of €8,000.
In case 4047, another complainant challenged the EPO’s decision to dismiss her for serious misconduct.
The ILOAT found that the disciplinary committee and president hadn’t correctly applied the appropriate standard of proof and remitted the case to be “considered afresh”.
The tribunal backed the EPO in another case, dismissing a complaint against relegation in case 4050.
Out of 75 Judgments, 17 concerned the EPO. Of those 17, the ILOAT ruled against the complainants in 10 cases.
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