Summary: SUEPO, the staff union of the EPO, has just released a call for protest, scheduled to coincide with the Administrative Council's meeting

TOMORROW there will be another EPO protest. To quote SUEPO:

Dear colleagues,

We invite you to a demonstration during the next Administrative Council meeting which will take place tomorrow Tuesday 10 October 2017, 12:30 at the Isar building to:

show your discontent with the abusive management style of the present administration

demonstrate against the irrational reforms and the new decision against staff to abolish national holiday, ‘purely for production gains’.

Your SUEPO Committee Munich

Tomorrow we'll also publish the final part of a series, previous parts of which are as follows:

• Battistelli's Club Med at the EPO – Part I: EPO Validation Agreement With Angola
• Battistelli's Club Med at the EPO – Part II: António Campinos, Benoît Battistelli and the Angolan Connection
• Battistelli's Club Med at the EPO – Part III: Angola and the Portuguese “Laundromat”
• Battistelli's Club Med at the EPO – Part IV: The Angolan Patent Office (IAPI) Seems Almost Defunct
• Battistelli's Club Med at the EPO – Part V: Portugal's “Golden Visa” Scheme for Angolan Nationals
• Battistelli's Club Med at the EPO – Part VI: “When Corruption Rules” in Portugal - Operation Marquês
• Battistelli's Club Med at the EPO – Part VII: Quo Vadis EPO?

SUEPO's announcement appeared in the RSS feed but not in the main HTML version of the site (SUEPO central). Here is the document explaining reasons to attend the protest [PDF]:

Ortssektion München . Local Section Munich . Section locale de Munich

09.10.2017

su17013mp – 0.2.1/0.2.2/0.3.2

DEMONSTRATION

TUESDAY 10 OCTOBER 2017

12.30h in front of the Isar building

There are at least 14 reasons why you should participate to the demo:

Unfair and illegal immediate dismissal of three staff representatives (Els Hardon, Ion Brumme and Laurent Prunier).

Unfair and illegal downgrading of one staff representative (Malika Weaver).

Unlawful composition of the internal appeals committee in 2014-2016 (= no timely justice for EPO staff).

Unlawful composition of the disciplinary committee (= no timely justice for EPO staff).

Lack of bona fide consultation of the staff representation for all past, present and future reforms.

Forced new career system for examiners (1700 ILOAT appellants)

Cronyism (Inner circle of Mr. Battistelli)

Arbitrary team rewards, steps, double steps and boni (but not for all)

Ever-increasing production targets (resulting in a rat race amongst examiners and a continuous increasing production pressure)

Unnecessary reform of DG1 and DG2 (with 3 COO’s directly under Mr. Battistelli, mega directorates and team managers)

Banning of the Union SUEPO of the EPO premises (but SUEPO represents 50% of EPO staff)

Change of the strike regulations (making it de facto impossible for SUEPO or any other union to organize a strike)

Continuous reforms of the staff representation system (leading to de facto no existing/workable staff representation anymore)

Not respecting German law, the EPC, the EPO Codex and the code of conduct for the EPO

Your SUEPO Committee Munich

And here's more [PDF] background regarding the protest:

Ortssektion München . Local Section Munich . Section locale de Munich

04.10.2017

su17012mp – 0.2.1 – 0.2.2 – 0.3.2 DEMONSTRATION Tuesday 10 Oktober 2017 (12:30 Isar building)

“We act with professionalism and a sense of social responsibility in observing the applicable laws, and respecting customs and traditions of the countries in which we work contributing responsibility to the welfare of society.” (Code of conduct for the EPO),

Dear colleagues,

The above text is from the so called ‘Code of conduct for the EPO’ published on the intranet by Mrs. Bergot. It is a vein attempt to persuade the readers that this administration is actually respecting the law, customs and traditions of the country in which we work. As we all know this is however, in stark contrast to what this administration is actually doing.

It acts clearly in breach of: the EPO Codex, the German law, the International law.

It never consults: the EPO staff representation, the Unions (recognised or not).

Decides always: against the staff and their rights (DG1-DG2 reform)

The EPO administration shows its appreciation for the enormous production rise in the last years (40% and 25%) by obliging the EPO staff to work also during National holidays.

“Adding a further day to the list of public holidays for the place of employment already enjoying the most favourable situation was therefore not deemed necessary.” (HR matters September 2017)

VP4 put it even more bluntly during the last meeting with the Munich Staff Representation: ‘The national holiday has been abolished purely for production gains’

We invite you to a demonstration during the next Administrative Council meeting on Tuesday, 10.10.2017, to show your discontent with the abusive management style of the present administration, to demonstrate against the irrational reforms and the new decision against staff to abolish their well-deserved national holiday, ‘purely for production gains’.

Your SUEPO Munich Committee

VP4, who is mentioned above, is a known thug in his home country. We'll get back to legal cases against him some time in the near future.

The EPO is run by a cabal of very bad people. Protests aren't just justified; they're almost moral imperative. ⬆