In New Letter Sent to Chair and Heads of Delegation of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation the Staff Union Explains How to End European Patent Office Strikes
2 days ago a letter was sent to the administration that attempts to 'bribe' its way out of trouble after signalling that the bedroom of the President comes first.
In communication sent to staff yesterday they explained what they had told the administration:
Open letter to the President
Dear Colleagues,
On 23 April 2026, the President met for the first time with a SUEPO delegation to discuss the ongoing industrial action. Given that the industrial action has been underway since January 2026, with strike days in the thousands and work-to-rule measures significantly affecting production, this engagement comes at a relatively late stage.
In this context, the emphasis in the President's meeting report on “numerous iterations” in the consultation process and on the staff representation’s opportunity “to co-define the current proposal” fails to accurately reflect staff perceptions of the process to date. In particular, it fails to reflect the points raised and the proposals made by the Staff Representation during the technical meetings with the administration. Furthermore, the report lacks the demands formulated by SUEPO at the onset of the process.
It is worth recalling that some of the predecessors of Mr Campinos successfully proposed salary adjustment methods to the Administrative Council in agreement with the Staff Representation. Last minute agreement on salary adjustments belongs to the history of the EPO, for example, on the first day of the BFC meeting on 9 October 2007.
In this open letter, SUEPO [Staff Union of the European Patent Office] tables a proposal aimed at preserving purchasing power in order to solve the ongoing industrial action.
From the letter itself:
INTERNATIONALE GEWERKSCHAFT IM EUROPÄISCHEN PATENTAMT
STAFF UNION OF THE EUROPEAN PATENT OFFICE
UNION SYNDICALE DE L'OFFICE EUROPEEN DES BREVETS29 April 2026
su26008cl - 0.3.1 – 0.3.2Mr António Campinos
President of the European Patent Officecc:
Chair and Heads of Delegation
of the Administrative Council
of the European Patent Organisation– by email –
OPEN LETTER
Proposal for solving the ongoing industrial action
Dear Mr Campinos,
On 23 April 2026, you met for the first time with a SUEPO delegation to discuss the ongoing industrial action. Given that the industrial action has been underway since January 2026, with strike days in the thousands and work-to-rule measures significantly affecting production, this engagement comes at a relatively late stage. In this context, the emphasis in your meeting report on “numerous iterations” in the consultation process and on the staff representation’s opportunity “to co-define the current proposal” fails to accurately reflect staff perceptions of the process to date. In particular, it fails to reflect the points raised and the proposals made by the Staff Representation during the technical meetings with the administration. Furthermore, your report lacks the demands formulated by SUEPO at the onset of the process.
Your administration has participated in the technical meetings under your mandate that the average adjustment of the salary scales should be aligned with eurozone inflation. However, this aggregate approach overlooks the situation of individual staff members and pensioners, for whom the primary concern is the evolution of their own salary scale. Our request to include a minimum guarantee for adjustments, aimed at preserving purchasing power at the individual level, was considered to fall outside your mandate. Your current proposal instead incorporates a number of safeguard mechanisms that limit upward adjustments in periods of higher inflation, but no safeguard for staff monitoring their purchasing power. The six years of application of the current salary adjustment procedure has already lowered salary adjustments by −3.9% in Germany, −3.8% in the Netherlands and −3,6% in Austria compared to the underlying methodology.
To address this imbalance, we propose introducing a minimum adjustment threshold linked to the evolution of the purchasing power of civil servants in the Contracting States. We are
prepared to accept a limited fixed offset of X percent as our concession to facilitate acceptance by the Administrative Council. Our proposal combines the idea of alignment with Eurozone inflation with the maintenance of the parallelism with civil servants’ remuneration in Europe as follows:
A guaranteed basic salary scale (GBSS) shall be set up for Belgium. The GBSS for Belgium in 2026 shall be the basic salary scale validly in force for Belgium in 2026, reduced by X percent. In subsequent years, the GBSS for Belgium shall be adjusted annually by the HICP for Belgium and corrected by the index for remuneration trends in the central government services of the reference countries (“specific indicator”).
For the countries other than Belgium, a GBSS shall be determined by multiplying in each year the GBSS for Belgium by the respective purchasing power parity coefficient relating to the country concerned and calculated with reference to Brussels (“PPP”). Should, for a given year, the basic salary scale for a country resulting from your proposed adjustment method fall below the GBSS for that country, the GBSS shall apply instead.
Furthermore, your method stipulates that, once the results of the third year are known, the Council may adjust the predefined reference by adding a positive or negative spread to the HICP for the eurozone. We propose starting with a positive spread of Y percent already from the outset, for example 0.3%.
Should the above approach meet with your approval, we invite you to fix the offset X and the spread Y at appropriate levels for the Council and staff. The level of the offset and the spread will be a decisive factor for SUEPO members. If an agreement on these levels is found, we are then prepared to recommend to SUEPO members that industrial action be suspended and let them decide on the suspension. Following a positive decision by the Council, SUEPO members would then decide on the termination of the industrial action.
It is worth recalling that some of your predecessors successfully proposed salary adjustment methods to the Council in agreement with the Staff Representation. Last minute agreement on salary adjustments belongs to the history of the EPO, for example, on the first day of the BFC meeting on 9 October 2007. We continue to hope for your willingness to engage in social dialogue with us in order to bring the industrial action to an end.
Yours sincerely,
Derek Kelly
Chair of SUEPO MunichFausto Ciotta
Chair of SUEPO The HagueJohannes Schaaf
Vice-Chair of SUEPO BerlinMichael Sampels
Chair of SUEPO Vienna
The timing of the letter is strategic. If Campinos continues to behave as he does right now, the Council can show him the door. █