Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Deteriorating Working Conditions at the EPO Show Reluctance to Make Talented Staff (or Ill Staff) Happy

Potentially a contributing factor to staff suicides

Suicide danger



Summary: Critical remarks about the poor treatment that EPO management offers to staff, whereas the EPO's Central Staff Committee and the staff union -- the one that the EPO's management is frantically crushing -- try to be attentive and helpful

THE MANAGEMENT AT THE EPO, which chose to treat the staff like an enemy rather than a gift, already recognises its poor recruitment capabilities in the face of a notorious track record and negative publicity (bribed-for publicity does not count [1, 2]) and brain drain (poor staff retention and in many cases suicides). Rather than extend an olive branch to what remains of the talent pool, the EPO continues to crush the rights of staff, assuring that things won't change for the better.



"Rather than extend an olive branch to what remains of the talent, the EPO continues to crush the rights of staff, assuring that things won't change for the better."People who are tactlessly declared "invalids", which is a rather offensive term that's sometimes used to refer to people who have developed health problems, are also being pressured by the EPO's management. It seems like invalid are prevented from doing some benevolent community service. How is that for a strategy? Is causing despair and hopelessness going to help the reputation of the EPO? The premise is that this can mitigate or eliminate conflicts of interest, but in practice it is a lot worse. Crushing the basic rights of European workers and spinning that as a moral advantage is, quite frankly, offensive at best.

"How to make sure invalids remain invalid" is what SUEPO called it, noting that help is around the corner, not at EPO but at SUEPO. People who are already suffering have a safety net or a cushion not from the employer that really ought to value their skills but from their colleagues, who fight for the rights of their fellow men and women.

Until now invalidity meant “not being able to perform your duties or similar duties at least at a 50% part-time basis” (previous Art. 62(a) par. (2) ServRegs). For new invalidities the limit has now been lowered to 30%. Nevertheless: those who have been held invalid, either under the old or the new system, may have a residual work-capacity, or may be able to have other activities. Under the old system those concerned were obliged to inform the administration of any paid activities and their invalidity pension was reduced accordingly. The new regulations, however, on top of obliging invalid staff to remain at their place of employment for at least 10 years and until the age of 55, forbid any gainful activity or employment. We do not to see the purpose of these restrictions, other than punishing staff for falling ill. We have often objected to the “Residenzpflicht” meaning that colleagues are kept away from the support of their family and friends “at home” if that is elsewhere than their place of employment. Note that for every absence permission must be requested in advance. With the Personnel Department in disarray swift, fair treatment is not guaranteed. With the additional interdiction of such activities, invalids are pushed even further in social isolation. The unclear formulation of the new regulations further opens the doors to arbitrary allegations against colleagues. It could well be that the implementation goes even further than what one could expect when reading CA/D 2/15. A part of the new regulation will come into force on 01.01.2016. SUEPO will help those of its members who are concerned. Do not hesitate to contact us.


"Your new career," SUEPO claims, is not so promising in the Battistelli-managed EPO. All the benefits are fading away and the work environment becomes more militant over time. "Back to the 1950s," SUEPO calls it, alluding to very terrible workers' rights (after a devastating world war). Here's how they put it:

While the “new career system” was being designed, we predicted it would be a nightmare.

Some did not believe us; some hoped against all hope that it would not turn out to be so bad; some thought one would manage to survive the rat race. But now, already in the early implementation phase, the chickens are coming home to roost.

Are you a pregnant woman? Are you sick, requesting unpaid leave to refresh your mind, asking for a parental leave to take care of your children, asking for a family leave to take care of your old and sick parents? If you are in DG2, this absence will be held against you when assessing your contribution to your unit, and will have a negative consequence on your career prospects. In Patent Administration, a head of unit encouraged by this new "approach" that comes from the top even dared to state "Sick people should be happy to get paid while they are sick". No comment. Similar plans are being hatched in DG1.

The recently published President's guidelines on rewards for the "new career" further punish close to 40% of staff whose career is frozen (not step, no promotion).

A Brave New World is taking shape.


Let's not forget institutional harassment and menacing threats against people who merely 'dare' to exercise their rights.

Interesting links shared by SUEPO include this article in German. "While Mr Battistelli and Ms Bergot introduce sick leave control systems that go against staff well being," said SUEPO, "and are incompatible with national laws and medical ethics/secrecy, physicians form the university of Magdeburg plead for less sickness certification for employees in Germany."

It is followed by a joke about Volkswagen (VW), where management is almost as corrupt as in the EPO (Volkswagen is in headline for only one major scandal, unlike EPO): "Sharp decrease of the sickness figures in the EPO: is VW in charge of measuring?"

Another joke is an extract from Job Profiles of all Staff: “To be flexible and to adapt in a positive way, to sustain performance when the situation changes, workload increases, tensions rise, ambiguity mounts or priorities shift.”

The punch line? "And when all of that happens at the same time...?"

Working for the EPO isn't the 'fun' which in-progress propaganda tries to convince the public that it is. "PAX vicious spiral," as SUEPO called it, describes the China-esque measurements of staff output, which annuls or ignores any human factors. People are reduced to machines and are treated accordingly. To quote:

In the recent years, the PAX data related to the so-called "Reference Examiner" had become fairly stable. For instance the 2014 productivity P of the reference examiner had only marginally increased or decreased (depending on the Cluster) when compared to the productivity P of 2013. This reflected the normal stabilisation of the productivity in DG1 after years of improvement of DG1's performance, and was simply the proof that "sky is not the limit" if one wishes to keep a reasonable level of quality.

This was not enough for management. With the introduction of the "new career" Mr Minnoye (VP1) drastically changed the substance of the PAX Guidelines: fairness elements and safeguards have been removed but the calculation of the productivity of the Ref Examiner remains. This means that, to calculate the productivity P of the Ref Examiner for a year "n", the data of the previous 3 years (n-1, n-2, n-3) of all experienced examiners, i.e. with no learning curve, are used.

The production and the productivity in DG1 have made a quantum leap in 2015 with respectively +13% and +7% (Jan-August compared to the same period in 2014). As a consequence, the productivity P of the Ref Examiner will mechanically increase by an amount between 2% and 3% next year.

This can only reassure management that "putting a gun to the examiners head" works beyond their wildest dreams.

We can safely predict that targets will be even higher in 2016 than in 2015. The insane production pressure and the current "management" methods will remain. With their deleterious consequences on staff's health and the quality of the work performed at the EPO. But does management care?


Given the many EPO abuses (in the Wiki we have broken them all down to around a couple dozen), we humbly doubt these bureaucratic people care about how 'low level' staff (technical people, often with doctoral degrees) feels. They cannot actually care considering how they have been treating such 'low level' staff. We predict that unless some radical measures/steps like head-rolling are implemented (the current management is impossible to negotiate with), it won't be long before the EPO has more job openings than patents issued in a month. Patent examiners would not have a hard time finding employment elsewhere given their skills; it's just that their initial salary might -- at least initially -- be a lot lower. But what price can one put on happiness and health? It seems certain that managers at the EPO will need to compromise, apologise, reform, or simply resign, making room for new management that is not distrusted and at times literally loathed by the workers. A lot of damage has been done therein and in order to put an end to this distrust and loathing considerable changes are required. Battistelli, based on some claims, has already threatened to resign; maybe that's imperative at this stage.

Incidentally, this morning SUEPO posted the following message about "the social situation of the European Patent Office":

In the report of the 145th meeting of the Administrative Council (AC), the Council announced its decision to initiate a review of the social situation at the European Patent Offce and to continue the exercise aiming at union recognition talks.

In a letter to Mr Kongstad, Chairman of the AC, and Mr Battistelli, President of the Office, SUEPO reminds that the initial talks were interrupted because, at precisely the same time as the talks were starting, the Office Administration considered it appropriate to initiate an investigation with the help of Control Risks against staff representatives and/or union executives. The closure of this investigation and any other investigation or disciplinary procedure targeting staff representatives and/or union officials - without prejudice to the accused - is a condition sine qua non for recommencing the talks.

A copy of the letter can be found here.



This, in turn, links to a letter (in PDF form) which states:

Review of the social situation at the European Patent Office

Dear Mr Kongstad, Dear Mr Battistelli,

In the report of the 145th meeting of the Administrative Council that appeared on the external website of the EPO you informed the public that:

The Council decided to initiate a review of the social situation at the European Patent Office after five years of reform setting and implementation.

Several measures could contribute to a possible progress in this context:

- continuing the exercise aiming at staff union recognition, despite the difficulties met

- aiming at the elaboration of a negotiation strategy preserving all the results already obtained

- launching an independent external social study, in close co-operation with the President


SUEPO agrees that after five years of reform setting and implementation, a review would be appropriate. We also fully support the notion of an independent review. In view of the latter, a close co-operation not only with the President but also with the staff representation would seem necessary.

We are equally open to continue the union recognition talks. We remind you that the initial Union recognition talks were interrupted because, at precisely the same time as the talks were starting, the Office Administration considered it appropriate to accuse Staff Committee members and Union officials of harassing a colleague in the staff representation. These accusations of harassment, levied not by the alleged victims but by Ms Bergot, Principal Director Personnel, are clearly vexatious and entirely without merit. The closure of this investigation and any other investigation or disciplinary procedure targeting staff representatives and/or union officials - without prejudice to the accused - is a condition sine qua non for recommencing the talks.

Finally, we are somewhat surprised by the statement that the negotiation strategy should “preserve all the results already obtained”. If preservation of all the results is the aim, that would render both the review and the negotiations futile. We understand that you mean “all the positive results”. We can obviously agree with that aim but it may be judicious to point out that opinions may differ on what can be considered positive results. We are looking forward to discuss these points with you at the earliest possible opportunity.

Sincerely yours, SUEPO Central


To summarise, witch-hunting of staff representatives needs to stop and an independent review by an external entity is still desirable because instruments of power inside the EPO are assumed to be part of the conspiracy to defend the higher management, hence crush the union/s and cover up institutional abuses. There's something truly rotten at the EPO and we know -- at least roughly -- where it started.

A fish rots from the head down: "When an organization or state fails, it is the leadership that is the root cause."

Recent Techrights' Posts

Slopwatch: Brian Fagioli, Google News, and Other LLM Slopfarms
Why does Google News keep promoting these fake articles?
Links 29/10/2025: Amazon Kept "Data Center Water Use Secret", "Abuse of Power" Against Media
Links for the day
Gemini Links 29/10/2025: "My Hardware Specs" and "Goodbye Debian…"
Links for the day
EPO Cocainegate: Feedback and Clarifications
Part III will come out soon
Links 29/10/2025: "US Military Is Destroying the Planet Beyond Imagination" and Boat Strikes Deemed Unlawful
Links for the day
Quality Comes First (Techrights Search)
It's generally working already, but we wish to polish it some more
Techrights Party Countdown
Late next week we'll be holding a party near our home
European Parliament and Council Directive on Privacy is Vanishing
"edited / censored some time more recently"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 28, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 28, 2025
Slopwatch: The March of Slopfarms, From UbuntuPIT to Linux Journal and to Various Fake Sites Still Promoted by Google News
It's so worrying to see what the Web has become
Links 29/10/2025: CISA, Ukraine, and Amazon Problems
Links for the day
[Teaser] The EPO's Spokesperson, a Cocaine User, Fancies Young Women
How's that for "optics" in the EU and Europe's second-largest institution?
How Will António Campinos Respond to the EPO's 'Cocainegate'?
That's the same thing we saw and still see when the press deals with enablers and partners of Jeffrey Epstein
Join Us Now and Share the News - Part IV: There Cannot be Free Software Without Free Press and Free Information
One day, one can hope, more people will recognise that for Software Freedom we need free press and free thinkers
Join Us Now and Share the News - Part III: Principled Stance Is Never Cheap
Protecting the truth and insisting that the general public is made aware of things that really happened isn't cheap
Join Us Now and Share the News - Part II: Because Scarcity of Accurate Information Breeds Collective Ignorance
we too will strive to share information that's aggressively suppressed
Gemini Links 28/10/2025: More New Arrivals at Geminispace, xkcd on "Document Forgery"
Links for the day
Join Us Now and Share the News - Part I: Defence of the Truth
This year we make a very strong, firm statement for truth, even if that means explaining our work to the top media judge in the country
Links 28/10/2025: Meta and Fentanylware (CheeTok) Age-Restricted Down Under, "Britain Needs China’s Money"
Links for the day
Links 28/10/2025: Mass Layoffs at Amazon and Charter to Cut 1,200 Jobs
Links for the day
The Cocaine Patent Office - Part II: The Person Who Planted Paid-for Fake News for the European Patent Office (EPO) is a Cocaine User, Friend of António Campinos, Now on Record as Having Been Arrested
Background: High-level manager at the European Patent Office caught in public with cocaine, arrested
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, October 27, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, October 27, 2025
Google News Drowning in Slop (and Slopfarms That Hijack About Half the Results)
Google News seems to be drowning in this stuff
Gemini Links 28/10/2025: "How to Maximize Your Positive Impact" and ASCII Art and Artist Attribution
Links for the day
PETA and Activism
Being staff or volunteer in PETA isn't easy
Big Blue, Huge Debt
debt will soar again
Links 27/10/2025: Mass Surveillance Sold as "AI", People Reluctant to Lose Physical Media
Links for the day
Parties and Milestones Again
we've begun putting up about 40 balloons
Techrights' 19th Anniversary: Bronze
Time to go back to preparing for this anniversary
Our Latest European Patent Office (EPO) Series Will Last Several Weeks, Will Ask the EPO Management and the European Union (EU) Very Difficult Questions
If nobody loses a job (or jobs) over this, then the EU basically became no better than Colombia or Nicaragua
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, UbuntuPIT, Brian Fagioli, and Google News
We focus on stories that are fake or LLM slop that disguises itself as "news" about Linux
Links 27/10/2025: Wikipedia Vandalism, Bruce Perens Opens up on Childhood
Links for the day
This Site Could Not be Done by LLMs Even If It Wanted to (Because It's Not a Parrot of What Other Sites Say)
LLMs have no knowledge or deep understanding
Microsoft is Disloyal Towards Its Most Loyal Employees
Against its most faithful enablers
19 Years, No Censorship
No factual information is ever going to be removed, more so if it is in the public interest
We Are Not a Conventional Site, That's Why They Hate (or Love) Us
Throughout the week this week we'll be focusing on the EPO
Following the Line of Cocaine All the Way to the Top
Even a million denials and spin-doctoring won't distract from the core issue
The Cocaine Patent Office - Part I: António Campinos Brought Corruption and Nepotism to the EPO, Then Came the Cocaine
High-level manager at the European Patent Office (EPO) caught in public with cocaine, the Office has some answering to do
Purchasing/Possessing Computers Isn't the Same as Controlling Computers
Let's strive to put computers back under the control of their users, no matter who purchased these (usually the users)
Gemini Links 27/10/2025: Alhena 5.4.3 and Fixing Bash
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, October 26, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, October 26, 2025
Thankfully We've Made Copies of More Interesting Data From statCounter
If statCounter (the Web site or the 'webapp') vanished overnight, we'd still have something left of it
More Silent Layoffs at IBM/Red Hat
when the media counts such layoffs or presents tallies the numbers are very incomplete