Rebuttal Letter – WIPO Human Resources Report A “Whitewash”

Dear Editors:

Please be advised that I represent the duly elected members of the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s Staff Council.

On their behalf, I must respond to the inaccuracies contained in the article entitled:

“WIPO Human Resources: All Is Harmony, Secretariat Says”

published on the IP-Watch website on 29 August 2016 — http://www.ip-watch.org/2016/08/29/wipo-human-resources-all-is-harmony-secretariat-says/

The HRMD report from which this article is lifted presents a whitewashed and totally unrealistic picture of  the current situation at WIPO.

The International Federation of Civil Servants (FICSA) recently stated that « staff-management relations have deteriorated further as the WIPO Director General continues to push forward with his intended elections of a ‘new Staff Council’ even though members of the WIPO Staff Association recently (re)elected their representatives to serve on the Staff Council ».  FICSA also went on to say that the Director General’s « new interpretation»  of the relevant WIPO Staff Regulation allowing non-members to vote is « in total contradiction with the Organization’s interpretation and practice which has been in place since the conception of the Staff Association ».

Convinced that this intervention by the executive head of the Organization is a violation of freedom of assembly and free speech, the WIPO Staff Council has filed an internal appeal and intends to take the matter to the Administrative Tribunal of the International Labour Organization if necessary.  The WIPO Staff Association has the support of staff associations from all over the UN system.  A recently issued Labourstart petition entitled « Stop union-busting and stop retaliation against whistleblowers at WIPO », has already obtained more than 5,400 signatures in support.

Thank you for your courtesy and attention in this regard.

Sincerely,

EP Flaherty

Counsel to the duly elected WIPO Staff Council