In its 133rd Session, the Tribunal ruled on 51 cases among which 12 EPO cases. For the second time after the judgments on the unlawful strike regulations, the Tribunal ruled in Judgment 4482 that an EPO reform, “Social Democracy“, breached the fundamental right to freedom of association. Judgments 4488, 4489 and 4490 sanctioned the EPO’s institutional harassment of a former Principal Director and awarded above 250.000€ of damages in total. Judgment 4491 ordered the reinstatement of a single mother with babies (at the material time) unlawfully charged with fraud by the Investigative Unit which made an unfair and distorted analysis of the facts.

More details are provided in this report, read it here.

*The report is available in German and French.

SUEPO Central

**Note: The translations are without guarantee, these were produced using automated translation.

In its 132^nd session the Tribunal delivered a total of 43 judgments, of which 25 concern the EPO (many of which were in favor of the complainants).

The encouraging news from this session is that the following cases were ruled in favor of the complainants:

• Judgments 4433 and 4435 on strike deductions;

• Judgments 4430, 4432 and 4434 on Circular 347.

A more detailed overview of all judgments of the 132^nd session can be found here.

A detailed analysis of the most significant cases involving the EPO will be published at a later date.

SUEPO

Summary
In its 126^th session the Tribunal delivered a total of 75 judgments, of which 17 concern the EPO. The good news of this session is that the Tribunal ordered Ion Brumme and Malika Weaver - who had been unlawfully disciplined for their work as staff representatives - to be fully restored in their previous positions. The same happened to a colleague in Berlin who had been dismissed. Two further disciplinary cases were remitted to the Organisation, which may count as a (very) partial win. But all other cases were lost. This paper presents the key cases and the problems, mainly: a lack of normative control and a clear bias in favour of the Organisation - to the detriment of staff.

Read more, here.

126th Session of the ILOAT

THE ATILO SETS ASIDE THE DISCIPLINARY MEASURES WHICH BATTISTELLI INFLICTED ON ELS HARDON, ION BRUMME & MALIKA WEAVER

Read more here.

Position of ECHR President Guido Raimondi on the case law of the European Court of Human Rights on international Civil Service law.

• The originally written French-language text of the speech is available here.

• The English translation of the speech is available here.

The originally written French text as well as the English translation are both in .pdf format.

English version

Version française

Conseil de l'Europe - Rapport final: Immunité de juridiction des organisations internationales et droits des personnels
Lire en particulier page 3 paragraphes 4 à 9 (et suivants)

For more information, view the video of the debate at the Council of Europe here.

For more information, read here.
More information for public readers, click here.

Dear colleagues,
 
In an exceptional session today the Tribunal delivered Judgments 3958 and 3960 in which it ordered the immediate reinstatement of the suspended Board of Appeal member to his former post.
 
It further ordered the EPO to allow him access to the premises, return any EPO property it had requested him to hand over and immediately unblock his EPO User ID. 
 
The Tribunal further ordered the EPO to pay a sum in costs as well as compensation for moral injury.
 
SUEPO central

In its 124^th session the Tribunal delivered a total of 80 judgments, of which only nine (!) concern the EPO. Of those only two cases were fully reasoned. Both concerned disciplinary sanctions. Six cases, of which 5 coming from the EPO, were summarily dismissed. This paper discusses the latest cases that illustrate the on-going changes in the jurisprudence the Tribunal. We also informs about changes in the composition of the Tribunal and the recent developments in the Appeals Committee.

Summary
On 5 May 2017 the Tribunal held a symposium to mark its 90^th anniversary.  The program can be found at the Tribunal’s website^[1].  As can be expected from such an event there was much praise for the Tribunal. While some of it is merited, not all of it is: the Tribunal is showing its age. It needs to catch up with the current legal and practical developments. The present paper explains the reasons.