Bonum Certa Men Certa

European Patent Office (EPO) Adopting the 'Gig Economy' Mindset, Telling Staff "Contract is Over" Instead of Implementing Layoffs and Paying Compensation

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jan 23, 2024

Microsoft uses the same tactics to hide the full extent of the mass layoffs. This goes against labourers' safeguards which they fought and died for. The severance lessens the incentive to needlessly let people go.

Gig Rowers: Re digitized vintage public domain illustration of a black and white men rowing a boat.

THIS was all along expected.

The EPO under Benoît Battistelli constantly attacked EPO staff and took away their rights. Of course António Campinos not only defended Battistelli's measures but took them even further - to the point of breaking the rules to fake 'production' (which otherwise fell sharply), e.g. by granting loads of software patents by means of facilitating buzzwords like "Hey Hi" (AI).

Battistelli's "5-year contract" legacy is now beginning to rear its ugly head, 5.5 years after he left the Office (in the hands of his corrupt friend).

Last month the staff representation told staff:

Dear colleagues,

The staff representation has been following the personal case of a DG1 Examiner notified that his 5-year contract shall not be extended.

Back in 2017, the motivation behind the “Modernisation of the Employment Framework” (CA/103/17, §7) was to improve flexibility in the workforce planning and employment structure. The EPO currently has sufficient workload for all 5-year contracts to be extended.

In this open letter to the President, we hope for a favourable review of the case.

Sincerely yours,

The Central Staff Committee

Here is the full letter in question:

Central Staff Committee
Comité central du personnel
Zentraler Personalausschuss

centralSTCOM@epo.org

Reference: sc23140cl

Date: 07/12/2023

European Patent Office | 80298 MUNICH | GERMANY

Mr António Campinos
President of the EPO

ISAR - R.1081

By email: president@epo.org

OPEN LETTER

Non-extension of 5-year contract in DG1

Dear Mr President,

The staff representation has been following the personal case of a DG1 Examiner notified that his 5-year contract shall not be extended.

Back in 2017, the motivation behind the “Modernisation of the Employment Framework” (CA/103/17, §7) was to improve flexibility in the workforce planning and employment structure. The EPO currently has sufficient workload for all 5-year contracts to be extended.

In our view, health issues caused by the pandemic and resulting in personal circumstances should not be prejudicial to an employee for obtaining an extension.

The case is currently under review by the conflict resolution unit.

We hope for a favourable review of the case.

Yours sincerely,

Derek Kelly
Chairman of the Central Staff Committee

It was correctly envisioned way back in 2017 that this would happen. Now they try to make it the "new normal". It's a willful race to the bottom of patent quality and they've been busy trying to game the courts which judge these patents (that are wrongly presumed valid and are very expensive to challenge at the UPC, so very few can afford to even bother).

Other Recent Techrights' Posts

Extortion is a Crime, Even If You're Based in Another Continent and Work for Microsoft
reported to British authorities
 
Gemini Links 06/06/2025: "MBA Tear" and Slop ('AI') as Plagiarism
Links for the day
Links 06/06/2025: "Convicted Felon and MElon Trade Insults" and Europe Snubbed by US Again
Links for the day
Links 06/06/2025: Microsoft XBox Bracing For More Mass Layoffs, Climate Disaster, Fake 'Money' Tokens From US President
Links for the day
Gemini Links 06/06/2025: Vanishing Cultures and MElon Implosion
Links for the day
We're in 6/6 Now, Almost Halfway in 2025
2025 was probably the best year for us
South Americans Are Saying Goodbye to Microsoft
We're hardly even "Cherry-Picking" or conveniently singling out one South American nation
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part III: Data Protection Failures, Just Like at the European Patent Office (EPO)
Just less than a decade ago we showed that the EPO had illegally shared staff data with third parties
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 05, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, June 05, 2025
Pushing Microsoft's Proprietary Trash/Trap as "Open" and "Linux" (Windows is 'Linux' Now?)
Maybe it's time to just stop saying "FOSS". The people who use that term are promoting Microsoft.
Slopwatch: Comparing Linux to Vermin, Attacking BSD With LLM Slop, and Helping Microsoft Demonise Linux/OpenBSD/SSH Over Weak User Passwords
Microsoft must be laughing its arse off, seeing how a bunch of Serial Sloppers (no skills, no comprehension, no integrity, no creativity) and slopfarms use Microsoft LLM to flood the Web with anti-Linux FUD
Links 05/06/2025: US Poised for Another $2.4 Trillion to Debt, Cops Want GAFAM Kill Switches
Links for the day
Links 05/06/2025: First US Spacewalk 60 Years Ago, GNU Octave 10.2.0 is Out
Links for the day
Scandinavia Saying Goodbye to Microsoft
The Danes have had enough of Microsoft
GNU/Linux Measured at 6% in Bangladesh, According to statCounter
Windows isn't growing, it's going away
Nat Friedman Had Left Microsoft GitHub Exactly One Week Before Matthew Garrett Sent His First SLAPP (Which Was an Empty Threat, He Was Abusing the Legal System of Another Continent to Terrorise Critics Who Had Just Unearthed Major Microsoft Scandals)
And it was likely talked about by his lawyers around the exact same time Nat Friedman was packing up
Gemini Links 05/06/2025: Loop Earplugs Review and ANS Forth
Links for the day
Armenian Adoption of GNU/Linux
Russian influence in Armenian must be worrying to Microsoft
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part II: Turning a Once-Respected Patent Office Into a Circus and Laughing Stock
It's not legal, but administrators who don't care about the law and don't fear the law would just go ahead and turn things to junk
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 04, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, June 04, 2025
Slopwatch: Mindless Slop Pieces, Fake Images and Text, Linux FUD on the Cheap
spewed out by Microsoft-controlled LLMs
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
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
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