11.27.20
The Time Coronavirus Helped EPO Management Prevent Staff From Protesting and Going on Strike (March 26th)
The suspension of the right to demonstrate and to assemble has negatively affected many, even EPO workers
Elodie Bergot is still bullying EPO staff, sometimes in the name of “diversity” of course… (corporate surrogate or substitute for actual ethics)
Summary: “In view of the spreading of the New Corona Virus, the planned General Assemblies have to be cancelled,” the Staff Union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO) wrote in the wake of the crisis across Europe back in March (weeks ahead of a planned strike)
OVER the past three weeks we’ve published a number of articles based on internal EPO documents. We showed that a campaign is now underway (mass-mailing management) and that António Campinos dealt really poorly with risks and moreover exploited a crisis for the same oppressive measures we saw — and got accustomed to seeing — in the Benoît Battistelli era. In simple terms, Campinos puts workers at risk while at the same time crushing their rights, breaking countless laws, and taking their money away. He’s a vicious dictator like the ones his father proclaimed to have fought.
“The strike never materialised.”Today we’d like to share a document predating the lock-down by not so much (depending on which country). At the start of March SUEPO, the staff union, wanted to march (or protest by means of a general, office-wide strike). It said: “SUEPO is now proposing a common Action Plan for all sites. We had planned to put the Action Plan to the vote in SUEPO General Assemblies at all sites. In view of the spreading of the New Corona Virus, the planned General Assemblies have to be cancelled. SUEPO intends to organise an electronic ballot among its members on the common Action Plan. The local Executive Committees will inform SUEPO members accordingly in the coming days. Tomorrow Friday 6 March an important meeting will take place, where the future Salary Adjustment Procedure will be discussed with management. We will keep you posted.”
This was almost 9 months ago. The strike never materialised. But that did not alleviate staff anger, which only accumulated further.
With yellow highlights (ours), here’s what was circulated back then.
05 March 2020
su20009cp – 0.2.1Action Plan
The SUEPO members
Note that
- None of the issues listed in the SUEPO’s call for strike of 8 November 2019 (successfully balloted on 28 November 2019) have been solved, nor has substantial progress on these issues been made;
- Management, on the basis of a biased Financial Study, wants to erode the salaries and the pensions despite the very healthy financial position of the Office and irrespective of real future economic development; Management has failed to repair the NCS;
- The discussions in the WG on Financial Measures followed by the technical WG on Salary Adjustment Procedure (GCC Sub-Committee on SSRP) do not show any sign of evolution towards an acceptable compromise with respect to the Salary Adjustment Procedure.Decide
- To adapt their output/production in line with the (cumulated) losses endured as a result of the new Salary Adjustment Procedure (SAP), the NCS and the SSP financing.
Decide
- To go on a first day of strike on Thursday 26 March 2020, to draw the attention of the Administrative Council to the discontentment of Staff.
Mandate the Committee
- To inform management accordingly;
- To organize all other appropriate actions, including demonstrations;
- To consider, in cooperation with the SUEPO committees, submitting a new call for strike at the end of the period specified in Art. 4 of Circ. 347.Empower the Committees
- To liaise between the SUEPO committees to accelerate or suspend the above mentioned actions (including strikes) depending on the progress of the discussions with management.
The staff of the EPO isn’t too happy or complacent about being robbed by EPO management. COVID-19 has not only helped the rich get richer but also crush resistance. █
“There’s been class warfare for the last 20 years, and my class has won.”
–Warren Buffett
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