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).