Your support makes the Astronaut Database and Launch Tracker possible, and keeps all Supercluster content free. Instead they've been spending their time studying the legal frameworks of intergovernmental organizations and investing money left to them by their deceased son Phillipe into reversing the diplomatic immunity of the European Space Agency, whose staff managers allegedly harassed Phillipe until he died by suicide 12 years ago.
Specifically, the immunity of the ESA's alleged harassers. The battle, however, is not yet won as the taxpayer-funded agency, with an annual budget of more than 7 billion euro, has appealed against the decision in the Paris Supreme Court. A claim that puts the agency outside of any national jurisdiction, granted to the ESA by its founding document, the Convention.
Three of those ex-workers agreed to speak with Supercluster publicly, detailing their exhausting legal battles with the agency they once considered the manifestation of their childhood dreams. The testimonies follow leaks of documents and anonymous allegations made to Ars Technica last year, which described widespread and ongoing problems with managerial harassment at the agency. Biondi was employed at ESA not as a direct staff member but as a contractor hired through a third-party company, which he requested not to be named due to concerns of legal retaliation.
Formerly a research fellow at the University of Perugia who has since gone on to have a successful career in his field, Biondi fell out of favor of his managers at the contracting company and his ESA superiors after having taken part in a strike to support contractor colleagues whose jobs had been cut. He describes a campaign of mobbing and moral harassment that continued for weeks and months after the strike, and eventually led to him to seek opportunities elsewhere.
Instead of doing science, Biondi was asked to copy hundreds of old tapes with satellite data and, using just his wheeled chair instead of a trolley, to transport these tapes from one office to another. But just as he was about to sign the new contract, the vacancy was scrapped, he said. He handed his notice to the Italian contracting company anyway but was told he could not leave before his contract ends despite a two-month notice period included in the terms of this employment agreement.
