Reports About the Latest Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the EPO Staff in Rijswijk

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Feb 16, 2024

THE staff union of the EPO held meetings towards the end of last year. In Rijswijk (Netherlands) there was also a physical meeting, streamed online for those who preferred it that way.

Today seems like the right time to share here what was discussed, starting with the Minutes of the Annual General:

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of 15.11.2023

Dear SUEPO members,

Here you will find the minutes of the Annual General Meeting of SUEPO The Hague, which took place on November 15, 2023 from 17:00 to 20:00 at the new headquarters of SUEPO TH at De Bruyn Kopsstraat 15, 2288 EC Rijswijk.

Read the full minutes [...]

Yours sincerely, SUEPO TH

A report was released a week after the meeting:

INTERNATIONALE GEWERKSCHAFT IM EUROPÄISCHEN PATENTAMT
STAFF UNION OF THE EUROPEAN PATENT OFFICE
UNION SYNDICALE DE L'OFFICE EUROPEEN DES BREVETS

Ortssektion Den Haag
Local section The Hague
Section locale La Haye

22 November 2023
su23015hp

Minutes SUEPO TH AGM 2023

15 November 2023, 17:00 – 20:00

De Bruyn Kopstraat 15, 2282 EC Rijswijk

 AGM opens at 17:10

o Moderator: RR

o Minutes: TJ

 Welcome

Moderator: Thanks for being here. We’ll try to finish in time, afterwards we’ll party.

People registered to the AGM: 25

Proxies: 17 proxies

Reminder: Only members that have already paid their dues can vote.

Questions? No questions

 Approval of the agenda:

Added points and approval

Art. 12(2) of the Statute dictates the agenda. Two additional points proposed by the audience:

- Election rules: list of candidates

- Pensioners: how is their voice heard in the committee

Additional points cannot be voted but can be discussed under AOB (Art.12(4))

Approval: Agenda with 2 additional points for discussion is adopted with 1 abstention.

---

 Approval of the minutes of the previous AGM

Discussion and approval

Question: which minutes are they?

Reply: minutes are those of the AGM that took place in November 2022 that was for the exercise 2021

Approval: Approved unanimously

 Presentation of the Annual and Chair Report 2022

Presentation of the annual SUEPO activities, overview of the situation at the EPO and insight into social dialogue and by the Vice Chair who is replacing the Chair who could not attend.

 Presentation of the Financial Reports 2022

Presentation by the Treasurer of the finances of 2022.

 Presentation of the Auditors Reports 2022

Auditor: We received the papers on the accounts: we just checked if there are any errors. We ask questions about what is not clear and then we approve it when we see it is all good.

 Acceptance of the Accounts 2022

- Decision: accepted unanimously

 Number of full members of the Bureau (Art. 15.2 Statute):

 LBDH proposal: No changes, i.e., 7 full members and remaining candidates elected as alternates

 Question: can you manage with 7?

 Answer from Committee: yes, because alternates also contribute a lot to the work.

 Decision: accepted unanimously

 Approval of 2024 membership fees (Art. 12.2 Statutes)

 Proposal for active members: no change to the percentages (fees will be calculated in the same way as in 2023)

 Annual fee: 2.7% of the monthly basic salary

 Decision: approved unanimously

---

 New proposals:

 For pensioners: indexation of the present fee according to the SAP of the previous year, rounded up to the nearest euro. The present 50 euros fee for 2023 fee will be indexed according to the 2022 SAP result to 55 euros for 2024

 Decision: approved unanimously

 First year membership for free during the first 3 years of employment.

 Committee: It can also be perceived as a solidarity measure.

 Decision: approved by majority (1 vote against)

 It is proposed to be discussed next year again.

 Young Professionals get the same flat rate as the pensioners

 Decision: approved unanimously

 Amendments to the Statutes & election rules

 No amendments

 Discharging of the Executive Committee

 Decision: approved unanimously (members of Committee abstain). The Executive Committee 2022 is therefore discharged.

 Big applause for the Committee and the Administrator too.

 Election of the Auditors

 Volunteers: Damien Lefol, Dominic Afriat, Jakob Mauritz and Vincent Franche

 Other volunteers? No more volunteers.

 Election: all volunteers elected unanimously

 Election of the Electoral Committee

 Volunteers: Cinzia, Paloma, Eric, Roberto, Ansgar, Argini

 Other volunteers? No.

 Eric withdraws

 Election: elected unanimously: Cinzia Rossi, Paloma Sevillano, Roberto Righetti, Ansgar Wansing, Argini Zanna

---

 AOBs

1: The previous Election Committee decided that standing as a list was allowed. It gave rise to numerous questions from some candidates. The question of whether or not candidates can stand as part of a list should be tackled within an AGM organized by the next Executive Committee. For the time being the AGM trusts the Election Committee to proceed in the best interest of the Union.

2: Involvement of pensioners in SUEPO TH: The number of pensioners will increase a lot in the future. They should be given the opportunity to contribute and join forces with SUEPO. No statutes changes are needed to invite pensioners as observers (Art. 15(7)). The next committee is tasked with organizing the participation of pensioners. There are 3 Interested pensioneers so far: Roberto Righetti, Desmond Radford and Amar Lindner.

3: SUEPO should – resources permitting - advertise its services more and improve its communication.

 AGM closes at 18:55.

 Party

Similarly, this meeting was mentioned days later in the "digest". It covered the meeting along with other things we'll catch up to some other day. Here is the report with some photos:

SUEPO TH digest - Autumn 2023

Dear members, dear colleagues,

Please find below the SUEPO TH Autumn 2023 digest:

SUEPO TH AGM and elections

The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of SUEPO TH took place on November 15^th in the new SUEPO headquarters followed by an informal reception. There were some interesting exchanges on the future and goals of the union and it was a good opportunity to warmly thank Roberto who is going on pension. The SUEPO committee elections are scheduled for Monday, 4^th December to Thursday 7^th December, see more details here.

Employment Law:

New Pension System (NPS) / Salary savings plan (SSP) benefits: appeals rejected:

In May and June 2023 the appeals committee (ApC) issued unanimous opinions in favour of re-examining the NPS architecture on the one hand and of re-evaluating age coefficients on the other. Both appeals were rejected by the EPO and no re-evaluation will take place, contrary to the recommendations of the ApC. This leaves appellants no other choice than to pursue their cases in front of the ILOAT. Read more here.

RfR Education allowance reform – Dutch schools:

Colleagues whose child(ren) attend a national school often pay fees – also the “ouderbijdrage” - below the threshold of the education allowance arbitrarily defined in the recent reform. If you are in this situation, you have the possibility of contesting the non-reimbursement of these school fees by filing a Request for Review (RfR). See here for more details and a template.

Recent celebrations

Opening of the new SUEPO headquarters

On the 5th of October we celebrated the opening of the new SUEPO headquarters at de Bruyn Kopsstraat 15, unit 1.11. This was preceded by a big removal – including archives dating back to the 60s! We extend our heartfelt thanks to all the helping hands who made the removal a success.

EPC 50 years - A balanced view

On the 5th of October, celebrations for the 50 years of the European Patent Convention (EPC) took place at the EPO in the presence of high dignitaries of the host countries. Please see here for a balanced view of this milestone.

Inward transfer of Pension Rights from UK
The Office was reminded by CSC on that matter and is now able to offer colleagues who hold UK private pension rights, and whose appointment was confirmed between January 2015 and August 2019, the opportunity to transfer in these pension rights to the EPO’s New Pension Scheme; requests must be submitted within the next months, see here.

IOSA-NL: International Organisations Staff Associations – NL
In September the staff representation in TH invited other staff associations of international organizations in The Netherlands. The “Ambassador for international organizations”, Paul van den IJssel, also attended. The main topics on the agenda were issues with the health care system and international schools.

Recent publications

• How do we cope with stress at work? "Week van de werkstress", LSCTH, 22.11.2023
• Increase in capacity for 2024, CSC, 14.11.2023
• Active Search Division: More « checks ». Better quality?, CSC, 13.11.2023
• November 2023 press articles, Kluwer, ManagingIP, 13.11.2023
• Report on the 176th meeting of Administrative Council of 6 October 2023, CSC, 25.10.2023
• Campus Days and EPC 50 celebrations - A Missed Opportunity, LSCTH, 24.10.2023
• Report on the GCC meeting of 28 September 2023, CSC, 20.10.2023
• 50 years EPC: Rewarding quality in the core business, CSC, 19.10.2023
• Job Group 6: Discrimination that must end now, CSC, 12.10.2023

On our radar:

Next USF wellbeing workshop: “Stress-Free Workplace Toolkit: Practical Strategies for Reducing Stress and Boosting Well-being” - Thursday, 30 November 2023, from 12h30 to 14h00, more info and registration here

Europe Public Service Union: The EPSU collective bargaining News

Kind regards,
Your SUEPO TH committee

Stress-related publications were shared here earlier this week. It seems possible that the immunity will be removed for cases where EPO staff commits suicide and such; time will tell. █