Bonum Certa Men Certa

Behind the Curtains of Cheap and Cheesy PR the EPO is a Machine of Oppression (Against Its Very Own Staff), Tribunal to Rule on Strike Busting

Union-busting behaviour started a couple of months back with sanctions against the Staff Union of the EPO (SUEPO)

You lie to it, you rob it. It finds out you break laws, it wants justice.



Summary: The laughable regime of Campinos is a naked emperor with nothing but diplomatic immunity (almost not a single member of staff trusts the President) and the PR strategic front is becoming worse than pathetic; it's like the place is run by infantile career-climbing sociopaths with no qualifications, trying to weaponise a sea of money against staff, inquisitive media, and states (by bribing them or hiring lawyers to intimidate/bankrupt them); while the EPO still swims in money its reputation drowns too quickly to ever resurface, recover

THE EPO should never have been granted immunity. Benoît Battistelli and António Campinos have both demonstrated that it's a recipe for "Mafia" (what EPO staff calls the management). It not only leads to illegal European software patents but also unlawful behaviour towards human beings. It's getting worse all the time, with salaries (of families) crushed, data outsourced, and media threatened/bribed.



"It's getting worse all the time, with salaries (of families) crushed, data outsourced, and media threatened/bribed."Just to make a point, earlier today the Office used greenwashing tactics and other meaningless fluff (warning: epo.org link), speaking of "environmental sustainability and diversity & inclusion." Well, "sustainability" is a notoriously meaningless buzzword. How about ending the crimes and the corruption? No? "Diversity & inclusion" can be name-dropped instead... not that the EPO has any real "diversity & inclusion."

Seriously, I'm not BattistelliHours apart the EPO's management used another puff piece/fluff, one might say "pure garbage" (warning: epo.org link), to distract from its behaviour towards everybody, including examiners, applicants, judges and so on.

For the second time in a week the EPO pretends to be some sort of an art gallery instead of a patent office. What on Earth is this?

"Wasn't Campinos put forth as a fig leaf by the Administrative Council, touted as better than Battistelli even though both fail at dialogue with their own staff and routinely break the law while rigging/stacking tribunals?"For real news one must look deeper than the so-called 'news' section of epo.org. Right about now the form about strike deductions being challenged [PDF] is being circulated, citing the employees' right to go on strike [PDF] as they did back in the middle of December. Campinos is trampling over things that even the Battistelli regime put in place; Campinos seems eager to prove he's even worse, as some staff nowadays feels or believes. Wasn't Campinos put forth as a fig leaf by the Administrative Council, touted as better than Battistelli even though both fail at dialogue with their own staff and routinely break the law while rigging/stacking tribunals? Here's a letter from Campinos:

European Patent Office | 80298 MUNICH | GERMANY

president@epo.org Date: 24.02.2021

To: the Chairman of SUEPO Central

By email: central@suepo.org

Extension of the application of the coming Tribunal judgements on salary deductions for strike participation

Dear Mr Chair,

Reference is made to your letter of 28 January 2021 in which you requested that the results of the currently pending cases before the Tribunal on the salary deduction for strike participation would be applied to all staff who went on strike since 1 July 2013.

As a preliminary remark, I wish to emphasise that the salary deductions for participation to the strike of 15 December 2020 were applied fully in accordance with the applicable rules (Art. 65 (1) (c) ServRegs jo. point 6 Circ. No. 347 on strikes). This means that, contrary to what is indicated in your letter, the deduction of 1/20th was only applied for strike participation of more than four hours. For fewer hours of strike participation, a salary deduction of 1/40th was applied.

Further, as you mention, the strike regulations – including the salary deductions for participation – have indeed been extensively challenged in the past and ultimately led to complaints before the Tribunal. Given that numerous past cases on this topic have already been dealt with by the Appeals Committee - and that its majority confirmed the lawfulness of the strike deductions, the Office considers it not opportune to make any commitment at this stage and prefers to await the Tribunal’s judgements on the pending cases.

Subsequently, based on a careful and thorough assessment of the judgements and the reasoning invoked by the Tribunal, the Office will decide on the appropriate next steps.

I hope the above clarifies the Office’s position.

Yours sincerely, António Campinos


Long story short, 'master negotiator' Campinos continues to attack the rights of his own staff, burying his own grave and proving to be the EPO's most disappointing president ever, maybe also the least honest. Suffice to say, the EPO has collected far too much cash, so the issue here isn't lack of money. Campinos is trying to intimidate staff and prevent future strikes using a 'reign of terror' -- a familiar tactic (shades of Battistelli). He's willing to attack staff's rights.

"Campinos is trying to intimidate staff and prevent future strikes using a 'reign of terror' -- a familiar tactic (shades of Battistelli). He's willing to attack staff's rights."In the remainder of this week staff will join the efforts of the union to get some sort of justice at ILO (or similar), knowing that the German and Dutch governments allow the EPO to act outside the rule of law. "Challenging excessive strike deductions in 2021," SUEPO writes, is the next step, and "in order to safeguard their rights, affected staff members must challenge the excessive strike deductions by filing a request for review..."

SUEPO also provided some background as follows:

On 15 December 2020, 1.448 employees representing 22,6% of all staff participated in a strike. It is the highest result of an industrial action since 2016 and a clear signal to the President that there is room for improvement in terms of social peace.

In the January 2021 salary slip, the Office deducted 1/20th of a monthly’s salary for a whole day of strike (instead of 1/30th) or 1/40th for half a day of strike (instead of 1/60th). The excessive strike deductions are already the subject of complaints which are pending in front of the Tribunal.

In an open letter to Mr Campinos on 28 January 2021, SUEPO has requested a confirmation that the outcome of the judgment will apply to all staff who went on strike since the new strike regulations were put in place, namely since 1 July 2013. In his reply of 24 February 2021, Mr Campinos wrote that “the Office considers it not opportune to make any commitment at this stage and prefers to await the Tribunal’s judgements on the pending cases”.

[...]

A decision from the President is then due two months after filing the request for review. In case of a rejection, you will then have three months to file an internal appeal.


Nice to see local SUEPO Committees working hard for justice; it gives some hope in an otherwise hopeless and despotic system.

EPO strike

Recent Techrights' Posts

IBM Layoff Rumours, Large-Scale Implementations Weeks Ahead (in March 2025)
There are some people corroborating
Microsoft Blasted for Adding Insult to Injury: Workers Laid Off Without Prior Notice, Without Severance Payment and Basic Coverage (Like Health), Then Stigmatised as Bad Performers So They Cannot Find a Job Elsewhere
Such stereotypes end entire careers
BetaNews is Still Publishing LLM Slop/SPAM About "Linux"
Assuming it is indeed LLM slop, it seems clear BetaNews has no intention of improving or is simply unable/unwilling to improve
 
Links 11/02/2025: Current state of the Internet and Smallnet Information Services (SIS)
Links for the day
Conservative Estimate: Over 10,000 IBM Workers to Be Laid Off in the Next Two Waves
The morale is low and layoffs are expected soon, with mass layoffs likely happening next month and then again later
Links 11/02/2025: Trade Wars and "Crisis for American Universities"
Links for the day
Parasitic LLM Slop Sites Destroy the Ability to Find "Linux" News in Google News
Remember that Google News laid off lots of its workers
Richard Stallman's English Talk in Italy Less Than 24 Hours Away (Torino) and Then Another Talk in Italy Scheduled (University of Bozen-Bolzano)
He's active and he travels a lot in spite of his medical condition
Links 11/02/2025: Nutritional Poverty, Closure of USAID, More Fictional 'Valuations' Around Buzzwords
Links for the day
Perl Programming Leftovers
recently in perl.org
Microsoft in Africa: From 98% to Less Than 10% in Just 16 Years
Microsoft being on less than 1 in 10 Web-connected devices in Africa is a very big deal
Almost as If MElon Reads Techrights
The joke we started appears to be spreading
Gemini Links 11/02/2025: NeoVim and Deploying Other People's Code
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, February 10, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, February 10, 2025
Scheduled Maintenance Tomorrow and on Valentines
If the site (or Gemini capsule) is offline for a bit, the maintenance windows are likely the root cause
If Matthias Kirschner Loves Free Software, He'll Change the Name of the Microsoft-Sponsored Organisation He Governs (in Order to Avoid Confusion)
The FSF-EEE does not really like Software Freedom, it just loves money (including Microsoft's)
Soylent News Lessens the Scope of Discussion Due to Persistent Trolling and Online Abuse
if they make it a lot harder for new people to participate, then they limit the "general appeal" and reach
EPO's Local Occupational Health, Safety and Ergonomics Committee (LOHSEC) in The Hague: Workers Are Getting Sicker, Conditions in Which to Assess Patent Applications Deteriorate
"According to the Office statistics the total number of days of absence has gone up from 12.4 to 13.1 total number of sick days per Full Time Equivalent (FTE) from 2023 to 2024."
The Standard Needs to Improve Its Standards for Fact-Checking, Aaron Swartz Had Nothing to Do With Reddit and He Detested the Company That Created It
The Web is already bad enough as it is
When the Livestream of Richard Stallman is Apparently Bury-Brigaded Offline You Finally Learn to Avoid Google/YouTube for Streaming
Please, people, stop uploading to Google/YouTube
New Paper From the EPO Highlights Large-Scale Discrimination at the Office, Where People Are Rewarded for Granting More and More Illegal Patents
Even the Kremlin is probably more competent than this
Links 10/02/2025: Ban on D.E.I. Language, Listeria Risk/Outbreak
Links for the day
Links 10/02/2025: Announcing "Stringless" and Mental Health Improvement
Links for the day
Links 10/02/2025: Facebook Mass Layoffs, "Meta" Did What Aaron Swartz Had Done But to the Tune of 81.7 Terabytes
Links for the day
Microsoft Tarnishing the Brand of Arch
Of course Arch can do whatever it wants, but being associated with Microsoft is a badge of shame
The Ultimate and Inevitable Fall of OpenAI (Even Brave is 'Bigger' Now)
"When you advertise at the Super Bowl, you’ve reached just about every consumer in America. It’s the last stop. If you’re not profitable yet, you never will be."
Adding Slop to Your Blog Only Makes One Assume All the Text is LLM Slop
Simon Coter from Oracle has turned to slop
Macao is Leaving Microsoft Behind
Windows is falling to new all-time lows
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, February 09, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, February 09, 2025
Microsoft's WSL (LSW) Shows That It Can Never Love Linux, Only Windows
that's just how Microsoft rolls
Activism in Times of War and a Coup
'Linux' Foundation works for fascism
What the Silencing of Neatnik Tells Us About Linus Torvalds Inside a Microsoft-Dominated 'Linux' Foundation
Is Linus Torvalds free to express his mind as he wishes about every topic, even just any technical topic?
Windows Down to 11.35% in Senegal, as Measured by statCounter
Another all-time low (Windows was at 99% in 2009)
"Latest Technology News" in BetaNews is LLM Slop Promoting OOXML and Proprietary Software at the Expense of LibreOffice and OpenDocument Format (ODF)
Remember that "open-source" and Open Source aren't the same; the former is fake
Links 09/02/2025: Coffee, Toxic Productivity, and Programming
Links for the day
Debian's Human Rights violations & Swiss women Nazi symbolism
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 09/02/2025: Software Patents on MP3 and Another Scam Dressed Up as "Crypto"
Links for the day
Links 09/02/2025: Russian Energy Cut Off, LLM Pushers Show Signs of Desperation
Links for the day
Richard Stallman (RMS) Does Not Have Media Companies and Lobbyists on His Side, But His Message Spreads Regardless
The message of RMS is spreading in spite of all the smears
GNU/Linux Rises to All-Time High in Chile
sharp rise for GNU/Linux in Chile
Links 09/02/2025: Hottest January on Record, Panama Blackmailed
Links for the day
Why We Still Love Gemini Protocol
Gemini Protocol may seem like something "old" (it's actually very new) and something "nobody would use", but many people use it
Gemini Links 09/02/2025: "Died as a Mineral" and Game Interface for a Non-Game
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, February 08, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, February 08, 2025