These comments appear to indicate the EPO as being unusual in the number of complaints received. Reference is made by IPKat to an ILOAT document that contains interesting statistics, but not necessarily useful statistics.
ILOAT has an interesting case law database.
Looking on the ILOAT database to the organisations with over 100 decisions against
them [not necessarily representative of all organisations but a good proxy], and looking at the proportion where the phrase "case is
dismissed" appears in the judgement, the following ranking is found:-
|
|
Decisions
|
Complaint dismissed
|
% dismissed
|
|
UNIDO
|
105
|
99
|
94.3%
|
|
ILO
|
324
|
293
|
90.4%
|
|
EPO
|
725
|
645
|
89.0%
|
|
FAO
|
323
|
287
|
88.9%
|
|
ITU
|
155
|
136
|
87.7%
|
|
Eurocontrol
|
234
|
205
|
87.6%
|
|
WHO
|
446
|
380
|
85.2%
|
|
IAEA
|
105
|
89
|
84.8%
|
|
PAHO
|
109
|
92
|
84.4%
|
|
UNESCO
|
209
|
176
|
84.2%
|
|
WIPO
|
101
|
83
|
82.2%
|
|
CERN
|
103
|
83
|
80.6%
|
If working in IP where would you rather work? Somewhere
where an independent body finds only 11% of complaints justified enough to not
merit dismissal; or somewhere where the same independent body finds about 18%
of complaints justified enough to not merit dismissal?
Looking closer, one can consider the number of staff for
each justified complaint [counting “justified” as synonymous with “not
dismissed”, not placing any value judgement on the severity of the complaint].
|
|
Complaint not dismissed
|
Number of staff
|
Number of staff for each complaint
not dismissed
|
|
FAO
|
36
|
5779
|
160.5
|
|
CERN
|
20
|
3100
|
155.0
|
|
UNIDO
|
6
|
866
|
144.3
|
|
WHO
|
66
|
8265
|
125.2
|
|
IAEA
|
16
|
1832
|
114.5
|
|
EPO
|
80
|
8820
|
110.3
|
|
ILO
|
31
|
2983
|
96.2
|
|
Eurocontrol
|
29
|
1957
|
67.5
|
|
WIPO
|
18
|
1214
|
67.4
|
|
UNESCO
|
33
|
2156
|
65.3
|
|
PAHO
|
17
|
919
|
54.1
|
|
ITU
|
19
|
773
|
40.7
|
This shows that fewer than one in a hundred EPO staff files
a complaint that is found justified, whereas for WIPO there is a much higher
chance of a justified complaint being made.
Of course, the numbers are just numbers and do not
necessarily reflect other factors at work, but:-
- appearing third in the list of percent of complaints dismissed would on the face of it appear either a commendation of the EPO or a comment on the nature of complaints filed;
- appearing average in the number of complaints not dismissed per member of staff appears to show the EPO not out of the ordinary;
- on either measure EPO appears to be a better workplace than WIPO.
Of course, simply pointing to the number of complaints and
judgements does not tell the whole story, and certainly does not capture aspects of "culture".
A more detailed analysis from ILOAT would appear
appropriate.
It might also be appropriate for ILOAT to have some form of
case management in the form of an initial filter to weed out cases where there
appears little prospect of success, perhaps with a cost penalty if the case is
continued.
Time spent on time wasters is damaging to those who have
real and justified grievances.
