Bonum Certa Men Certa

Nearly 3,000 Days of EPO Violating Fundamental Rights of EPO Staff, and Not Without Help From an Overwhelmingly Complicit Administrative Council

Related: Expecting the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation to Actually Follow the Law...

epo-welcome-letter
Publication from yesterday; we reproduce it here



Summary: EPO lawlessness would not have been possible without active or passive participation of the Administrative Council, which is basically in the pockets of Office management owing to bribes and other forms of profound institutional corruption

AS we have only just mentioned, today marks "Two Months of ILO-AT Non-Compliance at the EPO" after almost a decade of Benoît Battistelli's unlawful [PDF] strike regulations. Turned out insiders had beaten us to it when it comes to noticing the "monthsary" (even a day in advance).



"Turned out insiders had beaten us to it when it comes to noticing the "monthsary" (even a day in advance)."As it turns out, António Campinos posted a meaningless blurb about it, but internal publications by staff suggest there is still no compliance. In fact, as recently as yesterday the Central Staff Committee (CSC) of the EPO published a message to staff, stating:

On 7 July 2021, the ILO Administrative Tribunal issued essential judgments condemning the EPO for violating workers' fundamental rights when it adopted and implemented new strike regulations with CA/D 5/13 and Circular 347 since 1 July 2013. These strike regulations are now illegal. However, two months later, Mr Campinos has only reacted with a void statement and has given no sign whether and how he intends to mend this situation, putting the EPO once again negatively in the public spotlight.

Shortly after reforming the Internal Appeals System and the Disciplinary Committee, the strike regulations were one of the very first reforms in Mr Battistelli’s “HR Roadmap”, paving the way for more than eight years of violation of fundamental rights in a highly turbulent period of social unrest and conflict in the EPO’s history. Several highly controversial – and consistently detrimental – reforms have been shoved through while staff was facing highly contentious strike provisions and legal means of redress to show their discontent. This casts serious doubts on the lawfulness of these reforms introduced under duress. The full paper summarises these detrimental reforms:

● Social Democracy

● Sick leave and invalidity

● The New Career System

● Fixed-term contracts

● The Salary “Adjustment” Procedure

● The Childcare & Education allowance

The EPO seems not to be interested in conducting a staff survey, but the latest staff surveys, both internal and by SUEPO, give strong indicators of the lingering staff discontent, a tumour that has only been growing over the years. The EPO scores far worse than any benchmark – violating fundamental worker rights for 8 years & 68 days and counting isn’t going to help.


The full paper was sent to us as well. We hereby reproduce it below:

Zentraler Personalausschuss Central Staff Committee Le Comité Central du Personnel

Munich,06/09/2021 sc21109cp

Welcome to EPOnia1 2990 Days of Violation of Fundamental Rights and counting

On 7 July 2021, the ILO Administrative Tribunal issued essential judgments2 condemning the EPO for violating workers' fundamental rights when it adopted and implemented new strike regulations with CA/D 5/13 and Circular 347 since 1 July 2013. These strike regulations are now illegal. However, almost two months later, Mr Campinos has only reacted with a void statement3 and has given no sign whether and how he intends to mend this situation, putting the EPO once again negatively in the public spotlight456. The administration could (and actually should) have easily issued a reassuring statement to EPO staff that it would swiftly take action to apply the outcome of judgments to all those negatively affected, and that it would sit together with its social partners to repair the damage done. It did not do so, forcing hundreds of staff members to file applications to intervene in front of the Tribunal7. Is the administration trying its best to maintain the EPO’s standing as the worst contributor to the Tribunal’s excessive workload8? Shortly after reforming the Internal Appeals System and the Disciplinary Committee, the strike regulations were one of the very first reforms in Mr Battistelli’s “HR Roadmap”9 in July 2013, paving the way for eight years of violation of fundamental rights in a highly turbulent period of social unrest and conflict in the EPO’s history. Several highly controversial – and consistently detrimental – reforms have been shoved through while staff was facing highly contentious strike provisions and legal means of redress to show their discontent. This casts serious doubts on the lawfulness of these reforms introduced under duress.

_________ 1 EPOnia is used by the press (e.g. arsTechnica and IPKat) to designate the EPO as a land outside the law. 2 ILOAT Judgments 4430, 4432, 4433, 4434, 4435 3 “132 nd session of the ILOAT” Communiqué of Mr Campinos, 6 August 2021 4 “EPO complaints procedure in needs of shake-up”, Managing IP post of 15-07-2021, 5 “Trade union to EPO president Campinos: Quash unlawful strike restrictions”, Kluwer Patent Blog post of 21-07-2021, 6 “ILO: EPO president Battistelli abused his power in restraining workers’ right to strike”, Kluwer Patent Blog post of 13-07-2021 7 “Applications to intervene on strike regulations pending cases”, SUEPO paper of 06-08-2021 (su21022cp) 8“Managing the ILO Administrative Tribunal’s workload – Current challenges and improvements”, SUEPO letter of 15-09-2015 (su15345cl) 9 See the “Achievements 2011-2014” in document CA/39/14.




Social Democracy Social dialogue never deteriorated as fast as it did when the “social democracy” reform was imposed (CA/D 2/14 & CA/4/14). The time allocated to staff representation activities was trimmed down, staff committees and statutory bodies disbanded, and the former General Advisory Committee (GAC) replaced by the General Consultation Committee (GCC) which has now proven to be the scene of a rubber-stamping exercise for pushing through further detrimental reforms. The disbanding of secretarial support for staff representation10 in 2021 is yet again an attack against the functioning of the EPO staff representation (and against freedom of association).

Sick leave and invalidity Mistrust towards sick staff was institutionalized with the “sick leave and invalidity” reform (CA/D 2/15) imposing house arrests11 and the obligation to stay around the place of employment for those in incapacity. By abolishing the lump-sum invalidity insurance12 without any transitional period, the EPO additionally breached its duty of care and infringed the legitimate expectations of those who paid their contributions for many years. Regrettably, the President recently decided not to follow the majority recommendation of the Appeals Committee to implement transitional measures13, thereby again forcing colleagues to file complaints with the Tribunal.

The New Career System14 Our truly merit-based, cooperation-facilitating and transparent career system was replaced with a competition-fostering winner-takes-all setup (CA/D 10/14). The NCS proved beneficial for a small minority, whilst essentially grinding the career progress of the vast majority to a (near-)halt. It stifles cooperation, makes people shy away from any activity that costs time but is not accounted for and creates friction, year after year, at a level where there shouldn’t be any. It is a major source of continuous conflict.

_________ 10 “Disbanding secretarial support for staff representation”, CSC paper of 12-07-2021 (sc21088cp) 11 House arrests for sick leave verification were only abolished in 2021 after litigation succeeded (see VP4 Communiqué of 23.12.2020) 12 “Another severe attack on both dignity and fundamental rights of EPO staff” SUEPO paper (su15203cp) of 19-05-2015 13 “Challenging (...) the abolition of the invalidity lump sum”, SUEPO paper (su21009cp) of 16-04-2021 14 “Report on the GCC meeting of 24 March 2021: Guidelines for rewards”, CSC paper of 26-03-2021 (sc21042cp)




Fixed-term contracts15 Since 1 April 2018, all recruits ‘enjoy’ fixed-term contracts with a variable contract- length up to 5 years and a total time on contracts of up to 10 years as a result of a “Modernization of the EPO’s employment framework” (CA/D 2/18). The net effect is that the EPO cannot be seen as an attractive employer by far, illustrated by the rather dramatic drop of incoming job applications for examiners. Soon a dwindling working population (because of retirement) will need to be replaced. We know that the EPO already today is struggling to recruit experienced specialists in many technical fields. The pool in which we the EPO can search for talent has all but evaporated, thanks to the actions of our administration.

The Salary “Adjustment” Procedure16 For the first time in history, the EPO threw the main principles (CA/D 4/20), common to the salary methods of all other International Organisations, overboard. The new method was based upon a heavily criticized – and fundamentally flawed – financial study and adopted an utterly unrealistic scenario. Today, we are in a situation where, despite the unforeseeable pandemic, we are still faring far, far better than that scenario, yet the administration continues to remain deaf and blind to any argumentation.

The Childcare & Education allowance17 Under the pretext of simplification and fairness, a scheme which is heavily disadvantageous for The Hague and Vienna is being implemented (CA/D 4/21), by omitting to take the actual circumstances of the sites into account. The new scheme indeed negatively discriminates the colleagues in the places of employment where the education costs are higher and raises a plethora of legal concerns.

The EPO seems not to be interested in conducting a staff survey, but the latest staff surveys, both internal and by SUEPO18, give strong indicators of the lingering staff discontent, a tumour that has only been growing over the years. The EPO scores far worse than any benchmark – violating fundamental worker rights for

8 years & 68 days



and counting isn’t going to help.

Your CSC

_________ 15 “On Fixed-term contracts (Part A): A short history on fixed-term contracts at the EPO”, CSC paper of 30-10- 2020 (sc20163cp) 16 Salary “adjustment” procedure for 2020 – Loss of purchasing power for all staff (and pensioners), CSC paper of 13-11-2020 (sc20171cp) 17 “Education and childcare allowance reform: A summary”, CSC paper of 07-05-2021 (sc21060cp) 18 “Survey: EPO working conditions continue to deteriorate”, Kluwer Patent Blog post of 12-02-2021


The above is a self-explanatory overview of so much more than the strike regulations. In fact, as we shall see in a moment, it wasn't the only such publication this week.

Recent Techrights' Posts

New Article Explains How the GPL Came About and WordPress Having Copyleft Obligations
Having been involved in the WordPress development community since almost the beginning, I know why it chose the GPL and how it restricts abuse by Automattic
Dr Richard Stallman (RMS) Gives Talk in Oxford University in 4 Hours
If you live nearby, go there (it's free as in gratis)
Using a Law Firm's Licence to Exercise Politics Through Frivolous SLAPPs and Nastygrams (to Silence People, Remove Pages, Demand Fake or Forced 'Apologies')
Things must be getting really bad when lawyers act for raving antisemites
 
Slopping the Trough: Disney Plus Loses Billions and the Decline of Physical Media in America
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 24, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 24, 2025
Links 24/04/2025: GAFAM Problems and No Peace (or Ceasefire) in Sight
Links for the day
Slopfarms on the Web Almost Always Generate Anti-Linux FUD When They Produce "Linux" Output
Welcome to the dying Web
Richard Stallman's Oxford Talk Has Just Ended, Here Are Some Photos
he might hop over to another European country
Gemini Links 24/04/2025: Birthday and Good Work of Academia in Esotericism
Links for the day
Links 24/04/2025: EU fines Apple and Facebook, Another Microsoft GitHub Security Blunder
Links for the day
IBM Gained Almost 6 Billion Dollars in "Goodwill" Value in Just 3 Months, According to IBM
Congrats to the management!
In Belarus, Yandex is Now Measured as 50 Times More 'Popular' (by Usage) Than Microsoft
Yandex continues to gain, whereas Bing cannot even register at 1%. Last month it was registered or measured at a measly 0.65%.
IBM Cannot Lie to Shareholders Anymore
"I would not be surprised if we see a layoff every quarter this year."
We're Working to Make Full-Site Search Available
This site has over 1,000 'wiki' pages, many thousands of documents, several thousands of videos, and about 50,000 blog posts or articles. We need to make them easier to find/navigate.
Links 24/04/2025: IBM Loses Many Contracts, Intel to Lay Off Over 20% (Not Counting Those Who Leave 'Voluntarily')
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Can Explain to Oxford Artificial Intelligence Society Why LLM Slop is Not Artificial Intelligence and Why It Hurts Society
another 'crop' of LLM slop that damages GNU/Linux and facts
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 23, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 23, 2025
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Promoting Microsoft and Proprietary Software Using Microsoft Operatives
Because nothing says "Open Source" like GPL violations facilitated by Microsoft
Another Site Bites the Dust: "Open Source For You" Becoming a Slopfarm (LLM Slop)
What a shame. Another dead site.
Links 23/04/2025: Crackdowns on Dissent, Palin Loses Libel Retrial Against New York Times
Links for the day
Links 23/04/2025: Hard Times and Digital Amnesia
Links for the day
The GNU/Linux Site Formerly Known as "linoxide.com" is Back... as an LLM Slopfarm!
Better for linoxide.com to go offline than to do this
Get Rid of Back Doors, Don't Obsess Over Bounties and Other Corporate PR Stunts (or Needless Reboot Rituals)
Security as a term has mostly lost its meaning due to repeated misuse for many years
Richard Stallman to Speak in Oxford University Exactly a Day From Now
outsourced to GAFAM
Links 23/04/2025: "Hiding Corruption" and "The Cost of Defunding Harvard"
Links for the day
Microsoft 'Studies' Again? Leon Musolff is Writing Papers With Microsoft.
Even if one can see/find a link to "the study" (in the Bezos-controlled publication), most people won't look any further and just take everything at face value.
Towards GNU World Domination
The FSF led by Geoffrey S. Knauth with his friend Richard Stallman in the FSF's Board [...] Let's encourage people to adopt GNU/Linux. There has never been a better time.
statCounter Helps Visualise Just How Deep in Trouble Microsoft is (Especially in Africa)
Microsoft sabotaged efforts to connect Africans and equip them with GNU/Linux laptops
The Register is Using Linux-Hostile Clickbait in Articles of Linux Proponents
Don't be a "whore" to advertisers, team El Reg
Microsoft Windows in Cyprus Lacking a Future
Most people access the Web there from mobile
Matrix Has a Severe Problem With Illegal Images
If Matrix cannot get the CP problem under control, many projects and people will dump Matrix
Never Try to Justify Strangulation of Women (Not in the US and Not in the UK)
Joint post by Mrs. Rianne Schestowitz and Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Links 23/04/2025: Tesla Profits Plunge 71%, Intel Ready to Lay Off 20% of Staff, Microsoft and IBM Layoffs
Links for the day
Microsoft's Most Profound Issue is That People Moved to 'Mobile' and "App Stores" (Microsoft's Presence There is Negligible)
Expect a wild ride for Microsoft this year
Google News is Amplifying FUD and Lies About Linux (and OpenSSH/SSH) by Promoting Slopfarms With Machine-Generated FUD and Slop Images
Google should know better
Gemini Links 23/04/2025: Librarians, Anubis, and Refactoring a Gemini Capsule
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, April 22, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, April 22, 2025