Bonum Certa Men Certa

The European Patent Office (EPO) Local Staff Committees (LSCs) Remind Staff That They Are Unlawfully Being Censored by the Management Even Years After an International Tribunal, ILOAT, Ruled in Favour of Mass Mail From Representation Bodies to Staff

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jan 18, 2024

Silence is a source of great strength

Protecting its power by silencing the staff; that's not the same as staff keeping quiet wilfully so as to avoid uttering something foolish

A DECADE ago the EPO's ringleader, who had brought corruption to the Office, decided to silence staff and prevent even the staff representation from speaking to staff, at least efficiently (like, speaking directly to everybody as those who were legitimately voted to represent everybody).

The ringleader, Benoît Battistelli, whose family has actual Nazi connections (we covered this before), left António Campinos in his place. They swapped some chairs (musical chairs at CEIPI) and fellow Frenchman António continues to cover up while promoting illegal patent courts, promoting European software patents, ignoring courts' judgments, silencing the union, and worsening the work conditions in general. Nothing has truly changed; even the atmosphere is more or less the same, but that became a "new normal". People got accustomed to terrible working environments and low standards.

At the start of the year the Local Staff Committees (LSCs), notably the one in Munich, sent an outline to already-overencumbered staff. And highlighted in yellow: "We are still not allowed to send mass e-mails, so we had to print this to reach you!" (See below)

Here's the full thing:

About staff representation

At the EPO, there are five staff representation committees: the Central Staff Committee (CSC), which deals with matters affecting all sites, and four Local Staff Committees (LSC), which take care of local affairs in Munich, The Hague, Berlin and Vienna. We are the Local Staff Committee Munich (LSC MN). As defined in Article 34 (1) of our Service Regulations, we represent the interests of all staff and maintain suitable contacts with the Administration. We contribute to the smooth running of the service by providing a channel for the expression of opinion by the staff.

To do this we rely on your help: Please do not hesitate to get in touch with us if you have comments, questions, feedback, information, advice or proposals about any topics regarding the workplace. The more information you give us, the better we can work for you. We are here to represent your interests.

We are still not allowed to send mass e-mails, so we had to print this to reach you!

Local Staff Committee Munich NEWSLETTER 1 10-01-2024 This is our first newsletter, we aim to inform you about what we have done, and what we will be doing in the near future:

1. General Assembly

A hybrid General Assembly will be held on Wednesday 24 January 2024 at 15:00 hrs. We will address several topics, including:

1. Unattainable targets and appraisal reports

2. Quality

3. Career Judgments and our response

4. The Salary Adjustment Procedure (SAP)

2. LSCMN met VP4 on 9 November 2023. We discussed several topics:

a. Bringing Teams Together (BTT)

b. Future renovation of BT 5-6

c. The new printers and their restriction to “secure printing” (P5000)

d. Ergonomics of the printing rooms and the use of "pigeonholes"

Concerning BTT, we have requested that floors 6-8 of BT 1-4 be reopened to free up more fixed offices. We also requested a staff survey.

Concerning the renovation of BT 5-6, we expressed a negative opinion on the introduction of glass walls.

Concerning the introduction of the new printers and secure printing (P5000), the LSCMN will be soon publishing on this issue.

Happy new year to all of you and your beloved ones!


Contact us at any time per e-mail: mnstcom@epo.org

For more contact options and all other updates, visit our intranet page:

The Office → Staff Representation → Local Staff Committee Munich (LSC Munich) and Announcements

We can give you advice and support you in any work-related issue!

It should be noted that suppression of speech by Campinos and his friends (now colleagues) began only months after he had arrived at the Office. There's so much more that we can talk about, but it would risk repetition, which would be cumbersome to readers.

The Local Staff Committee Munich (LSC Munich) plans a meeting next week. The agenda includes "Unattainable targets and appraisal reports, Quality, Vote on resolution (draft will follow), Career Judgments and our response, Salary adjustment procedure, and Any other business" (direct quote).

Ever since 2018 (believe it or not, 6 years ago!) nothing has truly changed for the better except some superficial things. António covers up for his predecessors and tries to keep judges off their backs - to the point of actually ignoring and disregarding judgments selectively (those that don't suit his and his friends' interests). One might expect this in a country like Turkey, not in Bavaria.

Other Recent Techrights' Posts

Links 01/06/2025: "Vibe Coding" Turns Out to be a Fraud and Amazon Merits Boycott, Argue Bloggers
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/06/2025: "Stardust" and Ideal PC Setup
Links for the day
Links 01/06/2025: Windows TCO, Openwashing, "It's FOSS" Still Promoting Microsoft
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/06/2025: Simplification and Networks Everywhere
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 31, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, May 31, 2025
Google Bribes EFF. EFF Promotes LLM Slop as 'Fair Use'. To GAFAM It's a Low-Cost Lobby Hedge.
So the bribes pay off ("slush fund") and the word spreads
Slopwatch: Fake Text and Images, Financial Bubbles, and Scams in "Intelligent" Clothing
Sometimes what they mean by "AI" is just cheap labour somewhere else, as we discussed in IRC a few hours ago
Why Microsoft is Collapsing (Similar to What's Happening at IBM), As Insiders See It
IBM seems like one heck of a mess
Reliable Computing Means Free (Libre) Computing
Sites that want to promote security ought to deal with the biggest issues
Links 31/05/2025: US Court Orders Sides With RFE/RL, War Updates From Ukraine
Links for the day
Gemini Links 31/05/2025: ARM Server and power_supply Subsystem
Links for the day
Links 31/05/2025: Slop Stigmatised as Disinformation, Catalyst/Driver of "Death of Communication"
Links for the day
Common Sense 101: Do Not Write Blog Posts Saying You Want to Murder Colleagues (or Yourself)
Only crazy people would think stabbings are a joke
Microsoft Bankruptcy
"Microsoft unit in Russia to file for bankruptcy, database shows"
Techrights Does Not Compete With LLM Slop, It Exposes the Bastards, Plagiarists and Scammers Who Do That
People like Scam Altman, still facing a lawsuit from his own sister for sexual abuse against her
Links 31/05/2025: Microsoft-Connected Builder.ai is a Fraud and US is Purging Students Based on Race/Nationality
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/05/2025: Limmat, Doomscrollers, and Arguments Parsing
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 30, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, May 30, 2025
The "AI" (Slop) Bubble Already Popped, But It's Not an Overnight Collapse
where Microsoft put its money
No More Steven Astorino at IBM, Chatter About Weekly/Nonstop Layoffs at IBM
What happened? Good luck guessing.
Looking at Corruption in Europe, Going Beyond the EPO
Expect a new series to kick off very soon
Slopwatch: Security SPAM and LLM Slop for SEO and FUD Purposes, Perpetually Tarnishing the Perception of Linux and (Open)SSH Security
A lot of this Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD) comes from Microsoft and its LLMs
Links 30/05/2025: Google's LLM Slop Pushers Are Killing Journalism and Shira Perlmutter Fails to Stop Bribed Regime From Legalising Plagiarism (in "AI" Clothing)
Links for the day
Links 30/05/2025: Offline Arts and "Threshold of Patience"
Links for the day
Signing Off Serious Lies With a Statement of Truth is No Joking Matter
It's not hard to see what's happening here
Links 30/05/2025: LLM Slop Already Ingests and Vomits Its Own Garbage, Facebook Exec Admits Copyrights a Concern Too
Links for the day
Mass Layoffs at Microsoft Result in More Whistleblowers From Microsoft
Microsoft's predatory pricing is further
Slopwatch: Planet Ubuntu Became LLM Slop and Some People Fail to See the Immorality of Plagiarism
it lessens the incentive for people to publish real articles
EPO Poll: 68% Dissatisfied With Quality of Slop (Wrongly Framed as "AI") for Patent Classification
Slop does not work, it's just falsely advertised with extra hype (funded by slop pushers that sponsor the major media)
Big Crowds Gather to Learn About Software Freedom From the Man Who Started GNU/Linux in 1983
"It was a great success"
Microsoft Layoffs Again in Bay Area
Microsoft relies on people's false belief that being "in LinkedIn" will get you a job; well, seems like even working inside LinkedIn really sucks and you lose the job
Gemini Links 30/05/2025: Fighting Against the Bad News, and Slop is Dehumanisation Disguised as "Intelligence"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 29, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, May 29, 2025