Summary: Purchasing power is rapidly decreased and the EPO -- sitting on a pile of cash illegally obtained -- refuses to catch up; staff is concerned that life will become a lot harder and, as noted earlier today, this means worse quality of work, not just worse quality of life

We've only just published the latest letter about the “Bringing Teams Together” initiative/scheme/scam. Staff of the EPO is under an attack fiercer than ever before (maybe representatives of staff were subjected to a lot more abuse by Benoît Battistelli, but that's not all the staff).

António Campinos, who prides himself and brags about his socialist dad, is a crooked corporate shill that is antisocial and -- to quote himself -- is just "the f*cking president" (around a year ago he used the "f word" repeatedly, acting no better than Vladimir Putin because his relationship with Belarus had been exposed).

"Transparency helps because nothing scares vampires more than daylight."This post shares some of the sentiments expressed by EPO insiders. Some days ago there was a call for action, focusing on salary and pension aspects in isolation. To quote:

Safeguard your rights against the adjustment of salaries and pensions in 2023

Dear SUEPO members, Dear colleagues,

The new salary adjustment procedure has caused a noticeable adjustment of salaries and pensions in 2023. However, given the significant cuts and salary freezes in previous years, this should not be overstated. Staff and pensioners will remain at a disadvantage.

It is unclear how the adjustments for 2023 were calculated. It appears that the sustainability clause and the periodical settlement of the new procedure were not applied correctly - to the detriment of staff and pensioners. In particular, it is not comprehensible how the balances of the redistribution pool were used and why/how the Office could reach the conclusion that the pool would be implicitly exhausted.

Since the adoption of the new salary adjustment procedure in June 2020, SUEPO has supported its members with templates for litigation against it. The present requests for review are subsidiary to the templates of the past. While the Central Bureau of SUEPO does not confirm or accept the application of the new salary adjustment procedure, the Office should certainly not interpret the new method to the disadvantage of its staff and pensioners.

The above was circulated by the union, but not only union members are concerned. The elected representatives speak about the very same issues. The Central Staff Committee (CSC), for instance, circulated the following message today:

Family Budget Survey 2023: Survey impacting on our salary adjustment

Dear colleagues,

On 6 March 2023, you (in the Hague and Munich) should have received an e-mail invitation to participate in the Family Budget Survey 2023.

The survey is a regular exercise conducted jointly by the International Service for Remuneration and Pensions (ISRP) at the OECD and the EU’s Statistical Office (Eurostat).

It will be open for submissions for four weeks to give you time to collect the data and complete the survey over a few days if necessary.

It will provide data to update the expenditure pattern for international staff in The Hague and Munich, which is an essential element in the calculation of the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) used in the salary adjustment procedure. PPPs are used to ensure that staff in the different locations receive equivalent pay.

Therefore, we strongly encourage colleagues from The Hague and Munich to participate in the survey and to provide accurate answers.

They will certainly share the results some time after the deadline is reached. We'll try to gather information related to the findings. Transparency helps because nothing scares vampires more than daylight. ⬆