Bonum Certa Men Certa

Tomorrow is the First Anniversary of Strike Against President Campinos at the European Patent Office

'Team UPC' is now doing to European patent courts what it has already done to Europe's largest patent office, the EPO (the comments below are only hours old)

UPC

Summary: The science-hostile Team Battistelli/Campinos is likely to see industrial action some time soon; as workers put it last year, "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH"

As we noted here yesterday, we're fast approaching the one-year anniversary of the EPO's strike that saw nearly half of the workers in Austria refusing to work for the whole day. Now that Team UPC is scheming to undermine the law through Austria and Slovenia (see the 15 comments here) we thought it would be worthwhile reproducing here reasons that are still valid to protest or strike. They're not been tackled and we didn't publish this two-page publication last year. The following text is as relevant as ever:



02.12.2020 su20015mp – 0.2.1/0.3.2

SUEPO CALL FOR STRIKE



Defending our working conditions from permanent erosion. Defend your future.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Attacks on staff working conditions

Dear colleagues,

During this year of pandemic our management has not hesitated to carry out far-reaching reforms negatively impacting our work package, our lives and our futures while completely ignoring most of staff representations input: salary adjustment procedure (SAP), preposterous distribution of cash injections1 into the SSP disproportionately benefiting higher management, and no fix to the broken career, or the uncertain fate of our colleagues on fixed-term contracts.

The cut in adjustment of our salaries and pensions through the application of an imposed salary adjustment procedure (SAP)1 is the latest and most brutal attack on all of us. Instead of an adjustment of about 3.8 % in July 2020, EPO staff and pensioners will get 0.5% in January 2021 (in The Netherlands and in Germany). This is equivalent to a pay cut of about one step and causes a loss of purchasing power (-0.3% below German inflation) in its first year of the application. For next year, a result of 0% adjustment is expected and already announced by the administration. If not fixed, the SAP will year by year decimate our salaries and pensions just for the sake of unnecessary savings.

The EPO is a rich Organisation Even in this year of pandemic the EPO will make hundreds of millions of euros in profit:

€380 M surpluses in 2020

The year-to-date performance of the EPO funds (EPOTIF and RFPSS) is €3 bn higher than forecasted in the Base 2 scenario of the Financial study chosen by Mr Campinos and thereby already proves today that even based on the flawed Financial Study, the cut in adjustment our salaries and pensions with the new SAP is unnecessary.

____________________________ 1 “16 for me and 1 for you” (sc20153cp) by the CSC (16-10-2020) 2 “Proposals for repairing the EPO new salary “adjustment” procedure” (sc20172cl) by the CSC (17-11-2020)




The current application of the SAP results into accumulated savings amounting to € 1 bn from 2021-2025. The money taken from our salaries will add a further huge pile of money to the one of the EPOTIF amounting to € 2.9 bn. The creation and governance of the EPOTIF constitutes an anomaly for a public institution such as the EPO and has even been brought to the attention of the European parliament3 4.

Contempt for staff and their representation Management seems to believe that the staff of the EPO are in a state of paralysis and will not react, no matter how hard they will be hit, as if the pandemic would have anesthetised our senses. This seems to be the only explanation for the current attacks after years of loyal and competent work. Indeed, year after year, Council meeting after Council meeting, managers and Heads of Delegations keep praising the results of our work, the great working atmosphere, the huge production with ever reducing working staff. Only to come some days later with new and inventive attacks on our working conditions. Changes are always imposed, making a mockery of the consultation with Staff Representatives.

SUEPO is determined to fight these attacks. The future of the Staff, the stability for our families, the respect of the engagements made (pensions, careers) are more important that the big pile of cash the president wishes to accumulate. Nobody should play with our salaries and our pensions.

We propose for staff to stand up and face these attacks. For the kick-off we propose to send a strong signal:

1 day of strike of all EPO staff during the plenum of the Administrative Council 15 December 2020

In the same manner we have shown that we can work during the pandemic we will now show that we can defend our future during the pandemic. Speak with your colleagues and invite them to join us even if they are not members of the Union. We will need all your support!

Let’s show together our strength!

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

_____________ 3 Question for written answer E-003298/2020 to the Commission 4 Answer given by Mr Breton on behalf of the European Commission


So tomorrow (or midnight when we publish The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXXV) is the one-year anniversary of the strike. More strikes might get the message across to the "anesthetised" (to borrow the above word) Administrative Council.

Abraham Lincoln quote

Recent Techrights' Posts

Misinformation is Not Intelligence
It's low-grade plagiarism and it fails to show any signs of intelligence
'Tech' Gimmicks Are for Advertising, Not for Usability
In the case of Microsoft, they latched onto slop
BetaNews Sacked Brian Fagioli and Deleted His Comments, But He Still Tries to Use the "BetaNews" Brand for Self-Affirmation
Fagioli takes the work of other people
[Meme] Hard to Be a Better Person?
Sooner or later they'll realise that for each pound I spend they need to spend about 1,000 times more
 
YouTube is a Spamfarm, Slopfarm, and Clickfarm (a Lot of Numbers There Are Fake)
Those who don't fake look unpopular and unimportant
We Don't Do JavaScript and Pages Are Small
Thankfully Gemini Protocol has nothing like JavaScript
'Tech' is Not Technology
Some people use terms like 'Old Tech'
IBM's Debt Rose by Almost 10 Billion Dollars in the Past 6 Months Alone
The "hey hi" circus is coming to an end
Yes, Master
Gaslighting by actual racists
Microsoft Bribes and Buys Politicians to Tell Europe What to Do About Free Software (Which It's Attacking)
Microsoft: we speak for the thing that we are attacking! Follow the money...
Making Backups Quickly and Reliably
Backups are imperative, more so in an age of uncertainty, unpredictable weather, and worsening standards (quality of products going down while prices go up)
Techrights Investigation: Estimating the Point in Time LinuxIac Turned Into LLM Slop (Part of the Time)
Bobby Borisov got lazy
10th Month, Ten Weeks From Now, at Ten AM
In Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 24, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, July 24, 2025
A Nadella Memo Distracts From Microsoft's Cheapening Of the Workforce
Right now the "MSM" (mainstream media) is flooded/overwhelmed by garbage pieces that relay lies for Nadella
Vanishing Faces of GNU/Linux
Free software projects do not depend on any one person or company to still exist
Microsoft Says It Lost 400 Million Windows Users, Now It's Waiting for GNU/Linux to Stop Booting on 'Old' PCs
When it comes to Windows, Microsoft is fully aware of the issue and statements it made earlier this summer suggest it lost 400 million Windows users
Slopwatch: LinuxTechLab, linuxsecurity.com, LinuxIac, and More
Also: The Register's Microsoft agenda (new editor)
Gemini Links 25/07/2025: Gemtext Aware Titan Editor and Gemini Protocol Comeback
Links for the day
Links 24/07/2025: Convicted Felon Quits UNESCO, "Vibe Coding Goes Wrong", and Signalgate Gets Worse
Links for the day
Gemini Links 24/07/2025: Forgejo Woes and Smolnet Directory Week
Links for the day
Links 24/07/2025: Storage Tapes Still Kicking, Windows TCO 'on Steroids' (Microsoft-Induced Catastrophes)
Links for the day
Bobby Borisov (LinuxIac) Has Apparently Begun Experimenting With LLM Slop, So We Cannot Trust LinuxIac Anymore
So did LinuxIac become a slopfarm? Maybe not yet, but it's getting there
Informa TechTarget's ITProToday is Becoming a Slopfarm Generated by Microsoft Chatbots
Busted.
The LLM Con Artists Are Highly Destructive
Who will ever be held accountable for this scam?
Too Bribed by Microsoft to Move to Free Software?
Microsoft lies and Microsoft bribery (in politics)
New US Editor for The Register is a Microsoft Booster
"Avram Piltch has served as US editor for The Register since July 2025."
Microsoft Hiring European Politicians is Another Form of Bribery; There Should be a European Investigation
When Microsoft bribed people in Europe for OOXML (there's no denying this!) a European government delegate said that Microsoft operated like a cult
Reda Demanded That FSF Removes Its Founder, Now Reda Works Directly for Microsoft
A sellout and a traitor, first working for GAFAM, now Microsoft
PCLinuxOS is Raising Money to Support Development After Fire Incident at the Host
PCLinuxOS has not had announcements lately
Speed of the Site Should be Better Now
The "bot attacks" impact the speed of the sister site too
Getting More From AnalogNowhere
Recently we used many images from AnalogNowhere
Microsoft, Microsofters and 'Secure' Boot Shills Already Storming the LWN Report About Expiring Certificate, Shooting the Messenger
LWN has clearly stuck a nerve
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 23, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, July 23, 2025
Disable "Secure" Boot Today (the Only Better Time to Do So Was Yesterday)
Don't trust anything Red Hat tells you about security
Links 23/07/2025: Windows Killed Company After 150+ Years, US Government Mimics Russia's Attacks on the Media
Links for the day
Freedom Generally Wins at the End, History Shows (But It's Constantly Attacked, Too)
At the moment people realise "Linux" (e.g. Android) isn't enough to guarantee any freedoms
Over 3 Months Later Brett Wilson LLP Still Unable to Recruit a Media Lawyer?
"Immediate start", but not found... still unfilled
“Inhumane” and “Disgusting” Mass Layoff Execution, According to Microsoft Staff
The workers are looking for other places to work
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has a New Slogan for Its 40th Anniversary
The freedoms are what's most important
Microsoft is Trying to "Pull a Nokia" on GNU/Linux as Desktop/Laptop Platform
We all remember that rather well, don't we?
LLM Slopfarms gbhackers.com, "Cyber Press" and CyberSecurityNews Are Drowning Google News (and Shame on Google for Feeding and Facilitating Them)
All are run by the same people
Links 23/07/2025: Droplets GUI Patent Monopoly Challenge, Nokia Leverages Illegal Patent Court Against Rivals
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/07/2025: Community in Geminispace and Challenges With Old Computers
Links for the day
Links 23/07/2025: Slop Patents Tackled, Slop Copyright Misuses Tackled by Politicians
Links for the day
Our Three Lawsuits Against Microsofters Are About to Become a Lot More Relevant to GNU/Linux
The Master will easily understand why Garrett has been attacking me since 2012
Links 23/07/2025: Retreating From Transparency on Jeffrey Epstein, We No Longer Have Press Freedom
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/07/2025: Piano and Food
Links for the day
New and Old
On Ageism in Tech
Slop Is Not Intelligence and It Does Not Enhance Productivity
Like voice dictation, which cannot tell the difference between "sheet" and "shit"
EPO Crimes Are Spreading to the British Court System
Society is now paying the price for failing to tackle crimes at the EPO
It's Time to Dump SharePoint and Here's What to Use Instead
Nextcloud, ownCloud, Bookstack, MediaWiki, and MediaGoblin
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 22, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Brett Wilson LLP Has Gone Silent
Sometimes silence says more than nothing at all
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Planet Ubuntu, and LinuxTechLab
some slopfarms show no remorse and they don't value their reputation at all
Links 23/07/2025: Book Bans, Storms, and Kangaroo Court for Patents Commits More Unlawful Acts of Overreach
Links for the day