"Paperless Office" (Incompatible With the Law) as a Threat to Workers' Health at the EPO, Europe's Second-Largest Institution and Largest Patent Office
"Software Ergonomics need to be brought back to the agenda at a high level!"
AS nonchalantly hinted a day ago, EPO management "is playing with workers' health and life."
We reminded people that a "shocking amount of [EPO staff] will suffer from upper limb disorders (40% of them are said to have suffered from Upper Limb Disorder (ULD) and it's not improving)."
This issue didn't start with Benoît Battistelli, but it got a lot worse under his reign (and that of António Campinos) because of terrible policies and rogue, dictatorial policy-making.
The Central Staff Committee wrote to staff the other day, stating: "In May 2024, the Staff Representation brought the topic of software ergonomics once more to the Central Occupational Health, Safety and Ergonomics Committee (COHSEC). This topic has been brought to the COHSEC many times. The Staff Representation requests a dedicated and permanent sub-group of the COHSEC for dealing with software ergonomics. The project-management for software projects should show accountability towards the COHSEC."
Here is the entire publication as HTML/GemText/plain text:
Zentraler Personalausschuss
Central Staff Committee
Le Comité Central du PersonnelMunich, 08.11.2024
sc24064cpSoftware ergonomics - important for health of staff!
Request for a permanent sub-group of the COHSEC for computer ergonomics
In May 2024, the Staff Representation brought the topic of software ergonomics once more to the Central Occupational Health, Safety and Ergonomics Committee (COHSEC). This topic has been brought to the COHSEC many times (see References below).
Currently, ergonomics related to software are left for BIT to work on following a User Experience (UX) standard. The COHSEC is not involved at all whereas the topic of ergonomics including software ergonomics is part of its mandate (see COHSEC/DOC 20/2016).
As an example, the JViewer has still many ergonomic advantages as compared to the ANSERA- Viewer, such as availability of voice commands and a well-sorted, high-resolution graphical user interface. Still the tool is soon to be decommissioned despite the ANSERA-Viewer not yet being up to the level of the reference tool, the JViewer.
Basically, all new browser-based tools (Canopée, PWB, etc.) have a huge number of deficits concerning computer ergonomics, i.e. concerning short-cuts, workflow and clarity of layout.
After a swift move to a nearly paperless Office, software tools have become our main working tools, and software ergonomics is therefore of paramount importance to avoid work-related health problems (see table 4 of COHSEC/DOC/5/2024). The expected increase in work pressure and fast introduction of new tools (SP2028) is specifically a strong concern in this context. Software Ergonomics need to be brought back to the agenda at a high level!
For these reasons the Staff Representation requests a dedicated and permanent sub-group of the COHSEC for dealing with software ergonomics. The project-management for software projects should show accountability towards the COHSEC.
The Central Staff Committee
References:
1. Agenda points by the COHSEC members nominated by the CSC (Meeting of 22 February 2024)
2. Agenda points by the COHSEC members nominated by the CSC (Meeting of 15 May 2024) Minutes of the meeting
3. Agenda points by the COHSEC members nominated by the CSC (Meeting of 21 February 2023) Minutes of the meeting
4. Smart rest break software (Meeting of 18 November 2021)
In my last job they forced us to take and pass a "course" (online nonsense) about ergonomics, but the company did not provide anything towards ergonomics. Heck, the company covered no costs associated with work equipment (or equivalents), as I noted repeatedly in videos a few years ago. At least the EPO covered some costs associated with furnishing when staff worked at home (due to COVID-19).
Over the years I spoke to a lot of EPO staff and some had long suffered as a result of the job. It was so bad that it was like a disability; they were too 'handicapped' to even use a computer for longer than a few hours. Safety at one's job is one thing; long-term health is another. If you feel like a job severely harms your physical (or mental) health, then leave. Life is more important than a job. █
