Video download link | md5sum febab52494e5bd1f549266d635c15797 Campinos Giving the Finger Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: The Central Staff Committee (not the union) faces very hostile management, which is very grossly violating the EPO's Code of Conduct. To quote: "The atmosphere of the General Consultative Committee (GCC) meeting was abysmal. The President used foul language throughout, using expletives in various languages, and insulted most of the speakers. The Central Staff Committee (CSC) members were not just interrupted but prevented from speaking multiple times when the content was not complimentary of the President’s policies or when the way of presenting it did not suit him. With time, we observe that the level of disrespect towards us has been growing. We cannot continue to allow this escalation. According to Article 38(5) Service Regulations, the GCC discussions are recorded, and as such we request that this recording be made available to allow full transparency. A meeting conducted under such conditions, where arguments could not be exchanged and where questions could not be answered, cannot be considered to have provided a meaningful consultation. It was also patently clear that the President had absolutely no intention of taking heed to any of the arguments that were presented by us."

THE previous post (one of 3 new EPO videos) mentioned how António Campinos had become like Lukashenko or like Benoît Battistelli. He's no longer even pretending to be nice.

The above video speaks of the following text:

Munich, 29/04/2022 sc22050cp

Report on the GCC meeting of 26 April 2022

Dear Colleagues,

The atmosphere of the GCC meeting was abysmal. The President used foul language throughout, using expletives in various languages, and insulted most of the speakers. The CSC members were not just interrupted but prevented from speaking multiple times when the content was not complimentary of the President’s policies or when the way of presenting it did not suit him.

The hostility displayed by the President was so extreme that he was requested on several occasions, by both staff representatives and even one member of the administration, to try to continue the meeting in a more respectful manner. We find it regrettable that none of the Vice-Presidents were bold enough to address the complete failure of the President to behave in an appropriate manner.

It is difficult to convey the degree of unprofessionalism shown during the meeting. In an attempt to do so, we note just one of the phrases that was used by the President:

"You will never have such a nice person being the f***ing President for the next fifty f***ing years. So you wake up and make agreements with me, or you never will for your f***ing life."

With time, we observe that the level of disrespect towards us has been growing. We cannot continue to allow this escalation. According to Article 38(5) Service Regulations, the GCC discussions are recorded, and as such we request that this recording be made available to allow full transparency.

A meeting conducted under such conditions, where arguments could not be exchanged and where questions could not be answered, cannot be considered to have provided a meaningful consultation. It was also patently clear that that the President had absolutely no intention of taking heed to any of the arguments that were presented by us.

This is the reason why the CSC members of the GCC have sent him a letter asking to reconvene a GCC meeting in order to provide an opportunity to discuss the documents put on the agenda.

The Central Staff Committee

The President now violates his own Code of Conduct, which the EPO likes to selectively enforce, as we last noted some days ago (we gave 3 examples of this).

The Central Staff Committee (CSC) takes this matter quite seriously. This is the sort of leadership one might expect and almost tolerate in a factory floor in some sweatshop, not Europe's largest patent office, based mainly in Germany. ⬆