Job Groups 5 and 6 at the European Patent Office (EPO) Another Case of EPO Discrimination
Related: EPO Management Still Treats EPO Workers Poorly, Even During Pandemic | Recruitment Potential at the EPO Has Never Been Worse
TODAY we walk back in time to revisit an under-reported (or entirely not covered) backlash from last summer. The understaffed EPO is expected to be even more understaffed (see the two links above) and detached from the rules. It is like the sole goal is to grant as many patents as possible with as little work as possible, then conflate the number of monopolies with "productivity".
Job Group 6 Formality Team Managers are being eliminated, albeit gradually. António Campinos is weeding them out - a continuation of Benoît Battistelli's policies.
The recent General Assembly covered this in a presentation.
Here is a message disseminated to EPO staff towards the end of summer:
Functional allowances - treat FO TMs equally
And don't hesitate to contact staff representation if you are in this situation Dear colleagues,
On July 4th, the Administration held a meeting with all Team Managers, informing them that their functional allowance would be doubled in recognition of their efforts and resilience over the recent years.
Surprisingly, it appears that this measure was not applied to Job Group 6 Formality Team Managers, creating a clear discrimination. We have asked the administration about the reasons for excluding our colleagues from this measure, but we have not received any reply so far.
We believe, as many of you do, that this kind of discrimination should not happen at the EPO. Therefore, we urge the Administration to extend the same measure to the JG 6 Formality Team Managers.
Furthermore, we call on the Examiner Team Managers to show solidarity and voice that this measure should be equally applied to their valuable colleagues working in formalities.
In the meantime, we would like to remind staff of their legal rights to challenge this decision. If you are a Formality Team Manager, you can initiate a request for review (RfR) within three months from the communication of the negative decision, i.e., the date of the meeting on July 4th - the limit date is therefore October 4th. [...]
Additionally, Staff Representation is aware of the further issues in JG5 and 6 and is working on the topic at the moment.
Kind regards,
Your Local Staff Committee The Hague - LSCTH
It certainly does not seem like the EPO has any intention or a plan to obey the law/EPC. Based on EPO leaks, European software patents became a priority as means of faking "productivity".
We are delighted to say that Techrights' EPO coverage is going "viral" again. Let's hope for very concrete and positive outcomes. Awareness is the first step. █