Bonum Certa Men Certa

EPO Central Staff Committee: 30 Percent of Staff Are in Principle Targetable as ‘Challenging People’

Actions speak louder than words

Rule of Law and respect for staff: more of the same



Summary: The Central Staff Committee (CSC) met Campinos more than a couple of months after he had started his job; the outcome is a mixed bag

THE EPO is in the process of staff cuts and many workers are worried. António Campinos very belatedly decided that he can actually face some staff representatives and there's a new report about it -- one that SUEPO links to. To quote:

Campinos and the CSC also discussed the HR policy ‘Challenging People’, which it said has “poisoned the working atmosphere at the office”.

“In our interpretation, about 30 percent of staff are in principle targetable as ‘Challenging People’”, the CSC said, “we reported that more and more colleagues asked us for advice, because they happened to fall into these example patterns and were suffering from doubtful procedures”.

“In practice, this translates into statutory and human rights (for example, the right to strike) being ignored and conduct actually compliant with the Service Regulations being interpreted as disloyalty when it displeases management.”

Campinos responded: “Staff should know what is expected from them and show engagement. In some special cases, managers might need to learn and improve the way they treat their staff, because nobody is perfect.”

“Professional incompetence should be dealt with according to a ‘recuperation plan 12’ and a clear procedure needs to be established.”

He added that the HR policy ‘Challenging People’ belonged to the history of the office, which could not be changed.

But Campinos “clarified that the support of the colleagues should now be key, not the stigmatisation of staff.”


This overlooks what he did at the start of this month and his history of controversial staff cuts.

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