Summary: The EPO's staff has made it clear to the 'new' and 'improved' President that he's fooling nobody; strike action might be next

ONLY one single day before the protest (10 hours ago) SUEPO, the Staff Union of the European Patent Office (EPO), uploaded this document [PDF] to its Web site and stated, in HTML form as well:

On 23 and 24 October the EPO Budget and Finance Committee will meet in Munich. On the agenda are CA/83/19 and CA/84/19.

Despite the excellent performance of staff during the last years, these documents foresee an unprecedented set of punitive measures, among which:

• A further increase of productivity of 31% for formalities staff and 23% for examining staff, the latter on top of the + 36% already achieved,

• A reduction of the salary progression and a further reduction of the career perspectives for all but the happy few, additionally

• The introduction of a “solidarity tax” (solidarity with whom?) of up to 9% on salaries and pensions, and

• An up to 25% reduction of the pension accrual despite an up to 10% increase in the pension contribution by staff,

• With the further hundreds of millions in cash surpluses thus generated annually to be stashed away in an obscure “EPO Treasury Investment Fund” (EPOTIF).

Is this a just reward for staff’s performance?

Is this in the interest of the EPO and its stakeholders?

Please join us for a demonstration in front of the Isar building if you don’t think so !

We wrote about this before (as recently as yesterday) and we'll have more to say about it soon (maybe photos as well). This protest is significant as it's the first one under President António Campinos. Is strike action next on the agenda [1, 2, 3]? Considering the assault on the staff, it would make sense. ⬆