Bonum Certa Men Certa

The EPO's Race to the Bottom — Part II — “Playing People Off Against Each Other is Not the Way We Want to Go Forward!”

Series parts:

  1. The EPO's Race to the Bottom — Part I — From Bad to Worse
  2. YOU ARE HERE ☞ “Playing People Off Against Each Other is Not the Way We Want to Go Forward!”


Conflict: Chess Knights
Dividing people along superficial lines such as colour (sectarian tactics)



Summary: The yellow unions and scabs at the EPO are part of a disturbing pattern that includes dog-eat-dog strategies; when a patent office is run by sociopathic politicians we can expect provocation and underhanded tactics, not science and policies based upon evidence

AFTER the so-called "first wave" of COVID-19 (when kids were returning to schools) "the Central Staff Committee (CSC) [said it had] requested from the administration an impact study [on Childcare, Education, Payment of School fees], as the Office used to do in the past each time the scheme was amended."



"Europeans deserve to know what is done in their name (and at their expense)."The language used in the publication was remarkably polite and diplomatic, but the concluding words express growing dissatisfaction, seeing that António Campinos had the same objectives as Benoît Battistelli, albeit with a slight attitudinal difference (at least on the shallow surface). Battistelli had already done a lot of the 'dirty work' for Campinos (e.g. "Strike Regulations" which Campinos was happy to exploit for 3 years despite their illegality), so Campinos just carried on with the aforementioned 'demolition' job, turning a once-attractive patent office with high-calibre scientists into a notorious employer with low-skilled recruits (in relative terms, even compared to the USPTO).

Today we publish one among several papers that belong in the public domain. Europeans deserve to know what is done in their name (and at their expense).



Munich 18.09.2020 sc20016mp – 0.2.1/4.2.2

Education and Childcare Reform

Where do we stand?



The proposal for a reform of the Childcare, Education, Payment of School fees, and Expatriation (supplement) allowances, presented to us by the Administration, has been deemed by the President himself to “not constitute an adequate overview of the subject” and to be “a collection of working level background documents that provide fragmented information and which may in themselves only cause confusion”[1].

We note that, if the Administration decided to include the Staff Representation at much earlier stage into the development of this proposal, precious time could have been saved and the reform could have been already prepared in a way which protects the interests of all colleagues concerned.

However, in confirmation to what we told the Administration during the first meeting of the Working Group, their proposal[2] provoked a massive resistance amongst staff who will be on the losing side, expressed with numerous mails to us and to the Administration.

During this meeting we also raised the issue about the too short time of only few days we had for analysing and responding to the proposal and for elaborating on the terms of a transitional period. Following our complaint and the feedback received from colleagues in all places of employment, only six days after the first Intranet publication from the administration on the proposed reform, the President unilaterally decided to increase the timeline by one additional year[3].

Inevitably, the postponement attracted the attention of staff who would benefit from their inclusion into the discussed allowances, such as staff who are nationals at their respective places of employment, some of whom immediately reacted and requested the reform to be implemented as soon as possible.

Obviously, the proposal of the Administration artificially divides staff by trying to redistribute the money from the ones who benefit from the current situation (as this was stipulated in the ServRegs when they joined the EPO) and giving it to staff who have been excluded for years because of their non-expat status. Playing people off against each other is not the way we want to go forward!

______ [1] Letter from the President to the LSCTH, 30.07.2020 [2] Education and childcare reform, 24.07.2020 [3] Education and childcare reform, 30.07.2020




Despite the postponement, we continued working closely together with the WG colleagues from The Hague, Berlin and Vienna also during the holidays, conducted several meetings without the Administration and exchanged all possible information available in order to better understand the situation and the needs of each staff sub-group concerned. Meanwhile, the Central Staff Committee (CSC) has requested from the administration an impact study, as the Office used to do in the past each time the scheme was amended.

We will continue trying to achieve the best possible solution for all staff, first step of it being the inclusion of excluded staff to the existing allowances as initially planned with the aim to respond to the needs of all staff without redistributing and without reducing the budget.

Your Local Staff Committee Munich


We'll continue to publish this series tomorrow and the rest of this week. It's all about transparency. Names aren't disclosed.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Our Case is a Very Easy Win, the SLAPPs From Microsofters Were a Grave Error, and Censoring Information Won't Work (It'll Only Ever Backfire)
Censoring is what people do when they lose the argument
 
Links 04/06/2025: Workers' Strikes, Sudan Exodus
Links for the day
Links 04/06/2025: Linux Foundation PR Spam and Lee Jae-myung Wins Election
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/06/2025: Future Leaders of the World and Platforming Jordan Peterson
Links for the day
Links 04/06/2025: WSL Backfiring on Microsoft and "Disney, Microsoft Announce Massive Layoffs"
Links for the day
Say the Truth, the Rest Will Follow
There's no guarantee that writing the truth will result in an audience (or readership), but over time - in the long run - people generally gravitate towards what they know or feel to be crude truth, not just what's comforting (albeit false or self-deluding, usually groupthink dictated from above)
How to Expose High-Level Corruption Without Getting in (Too Much) Trouble
Democracy depends on free press and freedom of the press depends on being able to safely publish (and keep available) material that bad people don't want to be known to anybody
In-Depth EPO Coverage at Techrights Turns Eleven
11 years is a very long time
Windows Measured Below 10% in Afghanistan, GNU/Linux Gaining a Lot
about 80% are Android (Linux) users, compared to only about 10% for Windows
Poland's Political Predicament and Social Control Media
Democracy and fake "tech" don't mix well; the latter tends to interfere with the former and that's why we get more "Putins" out there
EPO: Taking Away From the Staff to Give More to the Rich
The Central Staff Committee (CSC) wrote to EPO staff earlier this week
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 03, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, June 03, 2025
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part I: It's a Lot Like the EPO
we can commence a series soon
Gemini Links 04/06/2025: Inescapable Questions and Quitting All "Oligarch Tech"
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Linux FUD From Slopfarms, Blaming Linux for Microsoft Issues; Even WebProNews Has Become a Slopfarm (Googlebombing "Linux" With Slop Images and Fake/Plagiarised Text)
The Web is really getting bad; it's also overwhelmed by fake material or plagiarised material, wherein the plagiarism gets disguised/hidden by LLM sausage factories
Links 03/06/2025: Tiananmen Square Massacre Censorship and Growing Military Activities Around Taiwan
Links for the day
Linux is Already Dominant (Android), Let's Make GNU/Linux Dominant in Desktops/Laptops as Well
"Dr. Stallman recently warned everybody about Microsoft."
The Loyalty to Microsoft and the Salaries From Microsoft (Funding SLAPPs Against Techrights and Tux Machines)
Garrett always knows better. He knows everything best.
Windows Falls in Italy as GNU/Linux Jumps to 5%
Italy knows a thing or two about digital autonomy
Nigeria is All Android and Google
Windows down to almost nothing in Africa's largest population
Mass Layoffs at Microsoft (Second Wave) Not Limited to Redmond
"More layoffs at Microsoft as axe falls in Washington and California"
Gemini Links 03/06/2025: Forth System and "Common Lisp is a Dumpster"
Links for the day
The Leaks Were Right: Mass Layoffs at Microsoft in May, Then Another Wave in June
Just as we've been saying for over a month
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 02, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, June 02, 2025
Last Article From Australia's Sam Varghese Was a Year Ago and It Covered the Release of Julian Assange, Who Will Apparently Come Back as 'Politician'
It'll soon be exactly 12 months
Hungary Seems Hungry for Linux
Windows down by a lot
Like in Europe, Bad News for Microsoft in US and Canada
If it loses those "regions", then what's left?
About 8 Waves of Mass Layoffs at Microsoft in 2025 (in Less Than 5 Months), Now Vista 11 "Market Share" Decreases
Really bad news for shareholders of Microsoft
statCounter Sees Bing "Share" Falling Over 0.5% in One Month, Now Lower Than Before the ChatGPT/Bing Chat Hype
Bing has been part of the mass layoffs for quite some time
After Microsoft's Bankruptcy in Russia Android (Linux) Will Dominate Asia Completely
Windows probably peaked in "XP" or "2000"
Microsoft's Demise is a Global Phenomenon
mass layoffs justified using mindless buzzwords
All-Time Highs for GNU/Linux in EU and the UK, All-Time Lows for Microsoft
Combining ChromeOS and GNU/Linux, it adds up to and almost reaches 6%
India: Windows Falls to 50% in Desktops/Laptops and 8% Overall
laptops/desktops fell to 16% of the whole
statCounter: GNU/Linux Up to 4.7% "Market Share" This Month
30,000 Microsoft jobs may be eliminated by year's end
Microsoft is in Trouble and Microsofters Know It
"I've been happy on Win 3.11 for years."
[Video] New Introduction to Richard Stallman's Contributions Including GNU Emacs, GNU/Linux, and Software Freedom
from the channel previously bullied for supporting RMS
Links 02/06/2025: South Korea to Vote, Russia Blitzed From Within
Links for the day
Links 02/06/2025: Political Leftovers, DRM, and Patents
Links for the day
Links 02/06/2025: Microsoft Spins Layoffs as "Slop", Frontier Settles Lawsuit
Links for the day
When You Publicly Boast About Wanting to Violently Attack People (Even Colleagues) Finding a Job Will Prove Difficult
there's a lesson to be learned here
The Web We Lost, the Information Lost Due to Microsoft's Attacks on Companies Like Yahoo! (Before the LLM Slop Frenzy)
When it comes to news sites, what can we say?
Covering Corruption in Poland, Including a War on Science (Due to Bad Politicians)
What we're about to show is that skilled and experienced scientists in Poland are besieged by bureaucrats
Gemini Links 02/06/2025: "Star Wars Day" and "Security Day"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, June 01, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, June 01, 2025