This is accessible for all to see; why do so-called 'journalists' choose to ignore it?

Summary: Europe's second-largest institution and Europe's largest patent office is in a very bad state; but it has managed to sabotage the media, so you probably won't hear about it anywhere

WE are only 7 days away from an EPO strike. It's not limited to one site. It's like a general strike. Of course the media won't tell you about it...

The staff union of the EPO has just published the above image and an English publication [PDF]. Most 'professional journalists' in Europe can understand English. The arguments or the reasoning are contained in the document, but we've chosen to make an HTML version of it, as it will become text and GemText some time tonight.

15.03.2022 su22001mp – 0.2.1/0.3.2

SUEPO Action Plan: Strike on Tuesday 22 March

The SUEPO action plan approved on 22 February started with Work-to-Rule actions and now culminates with 1 full day of strike on Tuesday 22 March 2022 (see calendar) during the meeting of the Administrative Council. Show Mr Campinos your discontent. This paper gives you the latest updates.

A President showing no will to discuss and no will to listen either

Despite SUEPO’s repeated invitation, Mr Campinos refuses to discuss our claims and solely reacted in an online interview by saying: “Staff is difficult, the President is difficult. We are all difficult.”¹ Mr Campinos misses the point: it’s the EPO policies which are difficult.

In the last GCC meeting of 1 March 2022, Mr Campinos declared that he holds a lawyer degree himself and that he does not need the advice of the staff representation. If Mr Campinos knows the law, why has he put an end to some of the breaches of the fundamental right to freedom of association only after a judge told him to do so²?

Buzzwords for deteriorating working conditions

There are still illegal detrimental reforms implemented at the EPO under the buzzwords of “sustainability”, “flexibility” and “mobility”.

-The Career System is competition-based with no equivalent among International Organizations. Official statements about the “excellent work of all staff”³ and “outstanding efforts”⁴ during the pandemic are a mockery in view of the reward exercise: the worst ever percentage of 40% of eligible staff is excluded from any career progression. Mr Campinos adopts the cynical approach that as long as the ‘rat race’ makes staff produce, why should he reward performance?

-The freeze of salary adjustment in 2022 is again with no equivalent among International Organisations and comes on top of massive savings made during the pandemic. Mr Campinos has already filled the financial gap his consultants from Oliver Wyman & Mercer orchestrated in 2019 but he still refuses to protect EPO staff from high local inflation.

-The “fixed-term contracts” will be subject to a new Circular turning the “rat race” into a “Squid Game” in the hope of being converted to permanent.

-The “decentralization package” (CA/19/22) giving jobs to “national experts” from patent offices is conveniently tabled at a time the reelection of Mr Campinos is being discussed among the Council delegations. The “talent pipeline from Alicante” won’t dry up.

Inflation is historically high, but thanks to the Tribunal, there is at least one thing that has become cheaper for EPO staff this year: strike deductions! (down from 1/20^th to 1/30^th)

Participate in the strike! Make Tuesday 22 March count!

____ ¹ CIN meeting @01:01:21 ² Strike regulations J4430 and “Social Democracy” J4482 elections ³ CIN meeting of 18 February @47:35 ⁴ Communiqué of 8 March 2022

António Campinos will be seeing an EPO strike not for the first time; there may soon be more strikes under Campinos than there were during eight years of Benoît Battistelli, but the media won't be mentioning that because it is being paid (or sometimes blackmailed) to cover things up.

We're not exaggerating. This is exactly what's happening. ⬆

Update: The image seems to have been replaced by a less "celebratory" one.