EPO Central Staff Committee: "The Strategy of the Office Lacks Transparency and Cannot be Understood"

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Mar 11, 2025

The Central Staff Committee at the EPO is circulating an open letter this week. The letter was sent to António Campinos a few days ago and the message to staff said:

Dear Colleagues,

Since 2020, the Office made cross-site transfers for personal or family reasons (almost) impossible to obtain. At least 20-30 staff members who had requested a cross-site transfer are still waiting for a positive reply from the Office.

At the end of 2022, the Office announced for the Social Agenda 2023 a “Review of the benefits in case of physical (cross-site) transfers”. The topic title implied that cross-site transfer opportunities would be reopened only with a change (i.e. reduction) of benefits. However, no discussion took place with the staff representation until October 2024.

Only then, on 1 October 2024, the first technical meeting with the staff representation on the topic took place. In their presentation, the administration showed, that for reducing the rights to benefits, changes to the Service Regulations and hence approval from the Administrative Council (AC) would be necessary.

The Office had originally planned to submit their proposal (GCC/DOC/2025) to the AC at its December 2024 meeting with an implementation planned for 1 January 2025. At the end of December 2024, the Office announced that the discussion in the AC of the proposal would be postponed to the March meeting. At the time of drafting the present announcement, the agenda of the March AC meeting published on 25 February 2025 does not mention the proposal.

The administration has not yet given any explanation to EPO staff who have been waiting since 2020. The strategy of the Office lacks transparency and cannot be understood.

The staff representation maintains that cross-site transfers for personal reasons existed for decades, well before 2020, and allowed the Office to fulfil its duty of care.

In this open letter to Mr Campinos, we maintain that we see no need to change the Service Regulations and hence to reopen the subject of cross-site transfer opportunities with the AC.

Sincerely yours,

The Central Staff Committee

It is generally an open letter, not some secret correspondence. The world at large deserve to have access to it because it demonstrates how untrustworthy this organisation generally is; even its own staff cannot trust it.

Here's the letter.

European Patent Office
80298 Munich
Germany

Central Staff Committee
Comité central du personnel
Zentraler Personalausschuss

centralSTCOM@epo.org

Reference: sc25019cl

Date: 06/03/2025

European Patent Office | 80298 MUNICH | GERMANY

To: Mr António Campinos (President of the
EPO)

By email:
president@epo.org

OPEN LETTER

Cross-site transfers for personal reasons: endless postponement

Dear Mr President,

For decades, EPO employees or their families have sometimes had difficulties in adapting to the country of their place of employment: e.g. distance from relatives, medical reasons, children’s education, etc. When EPO employees found themselves in such a situation, they could request a transfer, for personal or family reasons, to another place of employment.

Since 2020, the Office made cross-site transfers for personal or family reasons (almost) impossible to obtain¹. At least 20-30 staff members² who had requested a cross-site transfer are still waiting for a positive reply from the Office.

At the end of 2022, the Office announced for the Social Agenda 2023 a “Review of the benefits in case of physical (cross-site) transfers”. The topic title implied that cross-site transfer opportunities would be reopened

_______

¹ “Opinion of the GCC members on GCC/DOC/2025”, CSC paper of 14-01-2025 (sc25001cp)

² Estimate provided by the administration during the Technical Meeting of 1 October 2024. The exact figure could be higher.

---

only with a change (i.e. reduction) of benefits. However, no discussion took place with the staff representation until October 2024.

Only then, on 1 October 2024, the first technical meeting with the staff representation on the topic took place. In their presentation, the administration showed, that for reducing the rights to benefits, changes to the Service Regulations and hence approval from the Administrative Council (AC) would be necessary.

On 9 October 2024, the Office announced via a news item that their proposal (GCC/DOC/2025) would be submitted to the AC at its December 2024 meeting³ with an implementation planned for 1 January 2025.

At the end of December 2024, the Office announced in its “Main Projects for governing bodies in 2025” that the discussion in the AC of the proposal would be postponed to the March meeting.

At the time of drafting the present letter, the agenda of the March AC meeting⁴ published on 25 February 2025 does not mention the proposal.

The administration has not yet given any explanation to EPO staff who have been waiting since 2020. The strategy of the Office lacks transparency and cannot be understood.

The staff representation maintains that cross-site transfers for personal reasons existed for decades, well before 2020, and allowed the Office to fulfil its duty of care. Neither the pandemic nor the New Ways of Working should be used as an excuse to suspend the decisions on individual requests for transfer endlessly.

As pointed out before, we still see no need to change the Service Regulations and hence to reopen the subject of cross-site transfer opportunities with the AC.

Sincerely yours

Derek Kelly
Chairman of the Central Staff Committee

______

³ CA/83/24

⁴ CA/1/25

This issue was also brought up months ago.

It's clear from the URLs that a lot of the EPO has been unlawfully outsourced to Microsoft. Since the EPO isn't liable for rule-breaking like the rest of us, it has remained unpunished. Microsoft and the EPO violate data protection laws. █