Bonum Certa Men Certa

EPO is 'Hiding' €4.9 Billion and President “Campinos Has Decided to Freeze the Salaries of All Staff and to Deprive at Least 40% of Them of Any Career Progression”

Video download link | md5sum 578c976b5106258e429f5c45e5b474f9 Plundering EPO Staff During High Inflation Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: The EPO's Benoît Battistelli and António Campinos have both crushed staff such as patent examiners, putting them on time-limited contracts with decreasing salaries while compelling them to grant lots of bogus European Patents, including software patents; no wonder the staff goes on strike!

THERE is less than a day left before the EPO strike and the Central Staff Committee (CSC) of the EPO has just disseminated this 2-page letter. "Statements by Mr Campinos praising the “outstanding efforts” and “excellent work of all staff” are a mockery in view of the proposed reward exercise in 2022," the CSC says. "The worst-ever percentage of 40% of eligible staff is excluded from any career progression. He has even downsized the budget available for rewards approved by the Administrative Council despite the massive savings made with the salary adjustment procedure. Since the beginning of the pandemic, EPO staff worked well to ensure business continuity. At a time when increases in costs of living are historically high, Mr Campinos has decided to freeze the salaries of all staff and to deprive at least 40% of them of any career progression. The way organisations treat their employees during a crisis betrays their true values. At the EPO, it also announces the policies to be continued during Mr Campinos’ second term."



The paper is discussed above and is also reproduced below:

Munich, 21 March 2022 sc22030cp

Reward exercise 2022: From bad to worse



Statements by Mr Campinos praising the “outstanding efforts”1 and “excellent work of all staff”2 are a mockery in view of the proposed reward exercise in 2022. The worst-ever percentage of 40% of eligible staff is excluded from any career progression. Mr Campinos has even downsized the budget available for rewards approved by the Council despite the massive savings made with the salary adjustment procedure. More in this paper.

2021, the second Covid-19 year... The year 2020 was already a challenge for all staff. The year 2021 was hardly better. While EPO staff thought that vaccination would put an end to the pandemic, the number of infections broke out again and home schooling continued for the quarantined. Thanks to the dedication of all staff, by the end of 2021, the EPO annual cash surplus amounted to at least € 310 million3 which is better than the budget and better than 2020. EPO staff deserves to be rewarded for making such achievements possible even during the pandemic.

... but downsizing the budget The Administrative Council had agreed to reward staff with € 29,099 million4. Mr Campinos arbitrarily decided to reduce the proposed budget for rewards by EUR -7,5 million compared to the one in the 2022 budget. This cut comes on top of massive unexpected savings made on the salary mass because of the disastrous application of the salary adjustment procedure 2020 and the freeze in salaries for 2021. The proposed budget for pensionable and non-pensionable rewards at € 21,600 million in 2022 is now below the budget of € 22,600 million in 20205, and € 22,000 million in 20196.

...and setting the worst percentage ever

% among eligible staff for step(s) or promotion

_____________ 1 Communiqué of 8 March 2022 2 CIN meeting of 18 February 2022 @47:35 3 Budget and Finance Committee report of 8 November 2021 4 CA/50/21 & CA/D 1/21, page 69 : 3% x Basic salaries = 0,03 x 969.970 = 29,099 million 5 GCC/DOC 11/20 6 GCC/DOC 4/2019




After setting the ceiling at 70% in 20217, Mr Campinos puts the threshold during the still running pandemic back at the minimum level of 60% applied in 20188, 2019 and 2020. Mr Campinos reverts to the downward trend initiated by his predecessor.

To justify his policy, Mr Campinos still dares to mention the baseline scenario of the Financial Study 2019 correspond[ing] to granting a step to 60% of eligible staff. Management should refrain from referring to a study which has now undeniably proven to be wrong by predicting deflation9 instead of inflation. The most recent reported values in 2021 for the EPO funds10 show that they performed € 4,9 billion11 better than forecast in the baseline scenario.

60% among eligible staff, but in practice? The flaws of the proposed reward exercise12 are detailed in the opinion annexed to the report on the GCC meeting of 1 March 2022. After seven reward exercises, the punitive aspects of the system also become obvious:

Staff in service on 31.12.2021 and still in service on 01.07.2022 may be considered for steps or promotion, provided that they are not yet in the last step of the highest grade of the respective job group or “off-scale”. (section II, 1. 2)


The number of staff members who have reached the end of their job group (e.g. G9(5) for JG6, G10(5) for JG5 and G13(5) for JG4) has increased and they are now deprived of any career progression. This is also not without adverse consequences for their colleagues.

Some directorates may count up to 20 out of 70 staff members at the final step. When applying the threshold of 60%, it is not 42 staff members who may be eligible for steps or promotion but only 30. This reduces opportunities for their colleagues. New recruits in a directorate with many staff at the last step (e.g. in DG1) found themselves at a disadvantage compared to new recruits in a directorate with an overall younger population (e.g. the Communication Department).

In addition, some directors arbitrarily reduce the percentage for the teams they consider less productive without duly considering the specificities of their work. A COO, a PD or a VP may further reduce the percentage to show that he or she is acting more “sustainably” than other managers.

Conclusion Since the beginning of the pandemic, EPO staff worked well to ensure business continuity. At a time when increases in costs of living are historically high, Mr Campinos has decided to freeze the salaries of all staff and to deprive at least 40% of them of any career progression. The way organisations treat their employees during a crisis betrays their true values. At the EPO, it also announces the policies to be continued during Mr Campinos’ second term.

The Central Staff Committee

_____________ 7 GCC/DOC 1/2021 8 GCC/DOC 5/2018 9 CA/83/19, page 20 10 EPOTIF in CA/F 3/22 and RFPSS in RFPSS/SB 62/21 11 “Salary Adjustment Procedure – Pillaging staff during the pandemic”, page 14, LSCMN publication of 28-01-2022 (sc22022mp) 12 GCC/DOC 4/2022


In short, the Office behaves like a bankers' operation [1, 2], not like a patent office. This never ends well for anybody.

Recent Techrights' Posts

YouTube is a Spamfarm, Slopfarm, and Clickfarm (a Lot of Numbers There Are Fake)
Those who don't fake look unpopular and unimportant
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
 
They Try to Lecture Us on Ethics
They even removed "master" from Microsoft GitHub
The Future of the Web is One Rendering Engine or 'Flavours' of Chrome
The future of the Web does not look bright at all
Best Sites Are Not Optimised for Any Browser, They Work Equally Well With All of Them
Red Hat (IBM) is making rubbish sites
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.
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
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