"Dear colleagues," the Staff Union of the EPO (SUEPO) wrote today. "In this State of Affairs, we briefly reflect on what will happen, what our administration should be doing vs. what it is doing."
"We hope that our administration will observe the facts and starts looking at the longer-term sustainability of the office."
INTERNATIONALE GEWERKSCHAFT IM EUROPÃâISCHEN PATENTAMT STAFF UNION OF THE EUROPEAN PATENT OFFICE UNION SYNDICALE DE L'OFFICE EUROPEEN DES BREVETS
6 April 2023 su23014cp – 0.2.1/1.3.1/4.4
A state of affairs
What will happen
- EPO staff will grow older; - A quick glance at our demographics pyramid1 shows that soon enough we will see 200+, even 300+ colleagues – the most experienced ones - leave the EPO every year; - There is no indication against the long-term trend in patent filings which has always been onwards and upwards2, even if the short-term variations may seem random.
What should be happening
- The EPO should let the colleagues do their work3, offer them a pleasant working environment4 and a career5 worthy of that name; - The EPO should have been recruiting at a rate that is commensurate with the number of people that will be leaving in a few years from now – especially in DG1 which is responsible for the core business and yet is severely understaffed – if we want to have some time to transfer knowledge; - The EPO should streamline the activities of all DG's towards the main task of the Office: granting (and refusing) patents according to the EPC.
What is happening - Even if production targets would remain the same in the future, productivity targets are necessarily going up with the dwindling numbers of staff actually doing the work3; - Our targets for recruitment in DG1 are an order of magnitude too low for examiners – and the administration isn’t even willing to look to recruit formalities. Recruitment on both fronts should have started years ago. The administration keeps on relying on internal transfers, which amounts to digging a hole to fill _____________ 1 2021 EPO Social Report – Age histogram is on page 9 2 CSC Paper: depletion of the workforce – failure to recruit 3 CSC Publication: Quality paper 4 CSC Publication of a submission by an anonymous drafter 5 CSC Publications: Rewards 2022 – 5 parts
another one. And – mainly thanks to the 5-year contracts – the administration struggles to reach even these too-low recruitment targets; - At the same time, the administration keeps on sprinkling new (director) posts across all other DG’s6, instead of recruiting in DG1; - It appears that Production is now the top priority, directors and even the COO are apparently being brought back to the production line7. The impact on quality remains to be seen – a topic EPO users seem particularly concerned about at the moment8; - BTT is pushing people out of their offices and into a de-personalised one-fits-all working environment that few colleagues appreciate – early implementation appears to be chaotic to say the least9; - The 2023 rewards exercise will see a further real decrease in the number of colleagues that will get to see any kind of a step forward in their career10.
Conclusion
We invite the EPO to observe the facts and change course as soon as possible: the Administrative Council might be pushing for "green in June", but our senior management should be looking at the longer-term sustainability of the office by: - ensuring appropriate workforce replacement and in-depth knowledge transfer, - focus on quality in order to keep the EPO's competitive edge and - managing personnel as a precious resource rather than a liability.
Your SUEPO Team
_____________ 6 CSC Report on the GCC meeting of (i.a.) 08/02/2023 – GCC/DOC 01/2023 – reorganisations 7 LSCTH Publication: All Hands on Deck 8 Stuttgarter Zeitung; RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland 9 CSC Publication: BTT – a divisive exercise 10 CSC Publication: 2023 Rewards Exercise