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Summary: Another fine example of the EPO trying to control the outcome of so-called 'surveys' and 'studies' in order to dominate the narrative (even if false)
CSC answer to Communiqué Nr.50
The Central Staff Committee (CSC) organised an opinion poll on the President's proposals for "Social Democracy" with the company BigPulse, a firm the EPO and the CSC have used a number of times in the past for both surveys and elections. The poll was supposed to end today (Tuesday 18 February 2014) and thereby would not have interfered with the agreed strike ballot planned for Thursday this week.
With Communiqué Nr.50, the President calls into question the services offered by BigPulse and uses these doubts to both block staff from responding to the opinion poll and to postpone the planned ballot on strike. At the same time, he has issued individual, written threats to the CSC's Chairman, Secretary and Vice-Chairmen for alleged breaches of data protection guidelines, despite the CSC simply exercising its right to communicate with the staff they represent.
In postponing the strike ballot, the President is either misled or disingenuous and risks failing to comply with his obligations under his own, albeit contested, strike regulations with regard to the deadline for carrying out the strike ballot. If the President no longer trusts the services of BigPulse, then rather than postpone the ballot, he should instead still run the ballot in time using the "tried and trusted" method of a paper ballot.
A truly democratic process should never avoid or unnecessarily delay seeking the opinion of those affected by its policies and decisions. If the President fails to organise the strike ballot called under the PEACES initiative, he again calls into question whether democratic principles really underlie his policy of Social Democracy.
The Central Staff Committee