Almost a Thousand EPO Workers Have Voted for Industrial Action
Yesterday we wrote to say that the EPO's vote on industrial action had been finalised, with an impending announcement soon to follow. António Campinos has failed to improve things and we're back in Battistelli times, with top-level management at the EPO actually getting arrested. Later today we'll start a new series about it.
The following message was circulated among EPO staff yesterday:
Mandate given to SUEPO for action plan to stop the salary erosion of EPO staff
Open letter to the Administrative council
Dear SUEPO members,
Dear Colleagues,From 26 November to 7 December, SUEPO Munich and The Hague consulted their active members through a ballot to seek a mandate for preparing an industrial action plan.
Of the 991 voters, 855 have voted in favour, 52 against and 84 abstained.
Mandate is given to SUEPO to prepare an action plan to stop the salary erosion of EPO staff. We will analyse the comments in the coming weeks.
Over the last six years, the SUEPO trade union has actively supported litigation against the 2020 reform of the salary adjustment procedure: ca. 1 300 individual appeals from EPO staff (~ 1 000) and pensioners (~ 300) have been filed against the method. The amount of litigation against the application of this salary adjustment procedure exceeds all former salary adjustment procedures put together. The Appeals Committee has already issued a unanimous positive opinion in favour of staff considering i.a. that the sustainability clause violated the principle of purchasing power parity and thus the underlying general principle of equal treatment. Regrettably the President decided not to follow the opinion and the matter is now in front of the ILO Tribunal in Geneva.
So far, discussions with EPO management on the new salary adjustment procedure have proven challenging and have not yielded productive results.
On 8 December, SUEPO Munich and The Hague sent an open letter to the Administrative Council stating that continuing the erosion of salaries of EPO staff puts at risk staff engagement, business continuity and social peace.
Here's the open letter in full:
SUEPOINTERNATIONALE GEWERKSCHAFT IM EUROPÄISCHEN PATENTAMT
STAFF UNION OF THE EUROPEAN PATENT OFFICE
UNION SYNDICALE DE L'OFFICE EUROPEEN DES BREVETSOrtssektion MU-DH
Local section MU-TH
Section locale MU-LH08 December 2025
su25018ml & su25019hl 0.3.1 – 5.3To: Members of the Delegations in the Administrative Council
Cc: Mr António Campinos (President of the Office)By email:
To: council@epo.org
Cc: president@epo.orgMunich, 8 December 2025
SUEPO ballot for action plan to stop the salary erosion of EPO staff
Dear Members of the Delegations in the Administrative Council,
We have now reached the end of the six-year period of application of the salary adjustment procedure, introduced in 2020, and a full review of the results has been made. Because of this prejudicial reform, the evolution of the salaries of EPO staff now lags considerably behind the costs of living in all places of employment and national inflation1 resulting in a permanent erosion of purchasing power for all EPO staff and pensioners that is well beyond the outcome predicted by the Office. The EPO salary adjustments also score far below the benchmarks, specifically when compared with the Coordinated Organisations2 and the European Union Institutions3.
The SUEPO trade union has actively supported litigation against the 2020 reform of the salary adjustment procedure: ca. 1 300 individual appeals from EPO staff (~ 1 000) and pensioners (~ 300) have been filed against the method. The amount of litigation against the application of this salary adjustment procedure exceeds all former salary adjustment procedures put together. The Appeals Committee has already issued a unanimous positive opinion in favour of staff considering i.a. that the sustainability clause violated the principle of purchasing power parity and thus the underlying general principle of equal treatment. Regrettably the President decided not to follow the opinion and the matter is now in front of the ILO Tribunal in Geneva.
When considering the impact of the numerous cost-cutting measures imposed on staff over the past decades, it becomes clear that the consequences are enormous. The new pension scheme, which now covers more than one third of active staff, is expected to suffer the most from this rate of erosion.
_____
1 CA/79/25, par. 40: –4.2 pp behind in Germany, –6.8 pp in the Netherlands and –10.1 pp in Austria
2 CA/79/25, par. 46: –7.0 pp behind in Germany, –4.8 pp in the Netherlands, –3.8 pp in Austria
3 CA/79/25, par. 46: –7.7 pp behind in Germany, –6.3 pp in the Netherlands, –7.1 pp in Austria
We highlight that the EPO is in an excellent financial situation, thanks to the extraordinary efforts of its staff. The conditions are met for correcting the salary erosion (see CA/18/20, par. 9) as promised in the 2020 bundle of financial measures.
So far, discussions with EPO management on this topic have proven challenging and have not yielded productive results. Consequently, SUEPO The Hague and Munich have decided to consult their active members through a ballot to seek a mandate for preparing an industrial action plan.
Of the 991 voters, 855 have voted in favour, 52 against and 84 abstained.
It is time for the Office and the Administrative Council to take decisive action and fulfil the promises made to staff. EPO staff deserves a salary adjustment procedure that respects the principle of purchasing parity, the parallelism with national civil servants, and is in line with the legal standards set by the Tribunal.
Continuing the erosion of salaries of EPO staff puts at risk staff engagement, business continuity and social peace. The voice of staff must no longer be ignored.
Sincerely yours,
Mr Derek Kelly
Chairman of SUEPO MunichMr Fausto Ciotta
Chairman of SUEPO The Hague
Stay tuned for plenty more. █