Bonum Certa Men Certa

The EPO's Staff Union Cautions the Administrative Council That the Office Once Again Violates the EPC (Typically With the Council's Complicity)

More newspeak

Professional Mobility (CA/32/22)
Professional Mobility (CA/32/22) isn't as lovely as it sounds and it's not even legal



Summary: The delegations are warned in advance that they be be conned into -- once again -- breaking the law by authorising unlawful proposals

THE EPO's staff union, SUEPO, has written to national representatives about 19 days prior to this month's meeting, which will also decide the future (or lack thereof) of António Campinos. Remember that Campinos performed no better than Benoît Battistelli; he perpetuates the same illegal agenda, including European software patents.



"Remember that through so-called 'cooperation' agreements (money) the EPO tends to bribe the so-called 'voters', so they end up voting in favour of illegal proposals."SUEPO Central wrote the following "OPEN LETTER" on Professional Mobility (CA/32/22), explaining to union members, various colleagues, and maybe other stakeholders (it's an open letter after all) that this letter "has been sent to the Delegations of the Administrative Council. The proposal CA/32/22 is in the agenda of the 171th AC meeting of 29 June 2022."

As usual, EPO management is breaking the law and violating the EPC rather directly. How can any sober delegate not see this and accordingly antagonise it? Remember that through so-called 'cooperation' agreements (money) the EPO tends to bribe the so-called 'voters', so they end up voting in favour of illegal proposals. That is how defunct and corrupt this institution has become!

Here's what the letter says:

10 June 2022 su22034cl – 0.3.1

To the Chairperson and the Heads of Delegation of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation

OPEN LETTER

Professional Mobility (CA/32/22)

Dear Mr Chairperson, dear Heads of Delegation,

At the 171th meeting of the Administrative Council the package of the measures gathered under the title "Professional Mobility" with number CA/32/22 is on the agenda. By a CSC letter dated 17.05.2022 you have been informed already about the flawed consultation of the EPO staff representation on the underlying President’s proposal GCC/DOC 06/2022, such that a decision of the Administrative Council on CA/32/22 at this stage would be affected by severe legal uncertainties.

Moreover, already a superficial lecture of the document raises very worrisome concerns about the future working conditions of the staff being seconded under the framework to be established by the proposal.

Relating to the secondment of EPO employees to private or public bodies, the following topics are a source of concern and must be clarified before adoption:

- The lack of indications in the document on whether or not EPO employees may or should perform tasks within the Departments defined by Article 15 EPC, while being seconded to a public or private body at the same time; - The absence of any information on the scope and limits of tasks compatible with the secondment to public or private bodies; - The omission of essential details like the salary scales and allowances to be paid to seconded EPO employees, when performing tasks out of their place of employment; - The potential loss of immunities for the EPO employees seconded to public or private bodies, which may lead e.g. to loyalty conflicts, unexpected tax burdens or to immigration hurdles; - The lack of definition of the jurisdiction available to EPO employees for disputes arising during or derived from secondment.

With respect to the secondment of national experts to the EPO, we believe that seconded national experts may earn factual or legal entitlement to an employment at the EPO,




whereas their selection and supervision fall out of the powers of the Office, which de facto would bypass the internal selection procedures of the EPO. Further, it is not apparent that seconded national experts can enjoy the privileges and immunities of EPO employees, which may have consequences for them relating taxation or immigration.

We are very concerned about the fact that the proposal CA/32/22 implies full financing by the EPO of activities well beyond its core activities and thus incompatible with its mission. It is also remarkable that, according to this proposal, both seconded EPO employees and seconded national experts to the EPO will be mainly paid in the future by the Office, which surely will affect the financial results of the EPO in the long term.

We further suspect that the adoption of CA/33/22 may jeopardize the validity of the sovereign acts emanating from the competent departments of the Office, which may affect the Organisation's immunity from jurisdiction and execution under Article 3 PPI. We also think that the inviolability of the documents and archives of the Organisation can be hardly guaranteed under the framework created by the proposal.

We therefore request that the Administrative Council in its 171th meeting consider the proposal CA/32/22 as a document for information rather than for decision, pending a valid consultation and the required clarifications described in the present letter.

Finally, the wide range of the aims of the document allow for an ample decentralisation of the EPO operations. Beyond the apparent incompatibilities with the EPC, the Protocol Privileges and Immunities or the Centralisation Protocol, we believe that the timing for a decentralisation of the EPO is not appropriate in view of the recent perturbing political challenges for Europe, which require the strongest unity among the Member States. For these reasons, we suggest that the Administrative Council suspends the adoption of the professional mobility package until the celebration of the next Conference of ministers under Article 4a EPC.

Yours sincerely,

Thomas Czogalla

Acting Chair of the SUEPO Central Executive Committee

Copy: President of the European Patent Office, Mr. A. Campinos


Notice they've sent a copy to the -- in in his very own words -- "f***ing president".

Recent Techrights' Posts

Curation and Preservation Work
The winter is coming soon and this means our anniversary is near
Microsoft GitHub Exposé — In the Alex Graveley Case, His Lawyer, Rick Cofer, Appears to Have Bribed the DA to Keep Graveley (and Others) Out of Prison
Is this how one gets out of prison? Hire the person who bribes the DA?
Richard Stallman's Public Talk in GNU's 40th Anniversary Ceremony
Out now
Objections to binutils CoC
LXO response to proposed Code of Conduct
Conde Nast (Reddit), Which Endlessly Defamed Richard Stallman and Had Paid Salaries to Microsoft-Connected Pedophiles, Says You Must Be Over 18 to See 'Stallman Was Right'
Does this get in the way of their Bill Gates-sponsored "Bill Gates says" programme/schedule?
 
Techrights Was Right About the Chaff Bots (They Failed to Live up to Their Promise)
Those who have been paying attention to news of substance rather than fashionable "tech trends" probably know that GNU/Linux grew a lot this year
Selling Out to Microsoft Makes You Dead Beef
If all goes as well as we've envisioned, Microsoft will get smaller and smaller
Mobile Phones Aren't Your Friend or a Gateway to Truly Social Life
Newer should not always seem more seductive, as novelty is by default questionable and debatable
Links 29/09/2023: Disinformation and Monopolies
Links for the day
iFixit Requests DMCA Exemption…To Figure Out How To Repair McDonald’s Ice Cream Machines
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Jim Zemlin Thinks the World's Largest Software Company Has 200 Staff, Many of Whom Not Technical at All
biggest ego in the world
Links 29/09/2023: Linux Foundation Boasting, QLite FDW 2.4.0 Released
Links for the day
Red Hat Does Not Understand Community and It's Publicly Promoting Microsoft's Gartner
RedHat.com is basically lioning a firm that has long been attacking GNU/Linux in the private and public sectors at the behest of Microsoft
A 'Code of Conduct' Typically Promoted by Criminal Corporations to Protect Crimes From Scrutiny
We saw this in action last week
Techrights Extends Wishes of Good Health to Richard M. Stallman
Richard Stallman has cancer
endsoftwarepatents.org Still Going, Some Good News From Canada
a blow to software patents in Canada
The Debian Project Leader said the main thing Debian lacked was more contributors
The Debian Project Leader said the main thing Debian lacked was more contributors
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 28, 2023
IRC logs for Thursday, September 28, 2023
Links 28/09/2023: Openwashing and Patent Spam as 'News'
Links for the day
Links 28/09/2023: Preparing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.9 and 9.3 Beta
Links for the day
We Need to Liberate the Client Side and Userspace Too
Lots of work remains to be done
Recent IRC Logs (Since Site Upgrade)
better late than never
Techrights Videos Will be Back Soon
We want do publish video without any of the underlying complexity and this means changing some code
Microsoft is Faking Its Financial Performance, Buying Companies Helps Perpetuate the Big Lies (or Pass the Debt Around)
Our guess is that Microsoft will keep pretending to be huge, even as the market share of Windows (and other things) continues to decrease
Techrights Will Tell the Story (Until Next Year!) of How Since 2022 It Has Been Under a Coordinated Attack by a Horde of Vandals and Nutcases
People like these belong in handcuffs and behind bars (sometimes they are) and our readers still deserve to know the full story. It's a cautionary tale for other groups and sites
Why It Became Essential to Split GNU/Linux Stories from the Rest
These sites aren't babies anymore. In terms of age, they're already adults.
Losses and Gains in an Age of Oligarchy - A Techrights Perspective
If you don't even try to fix something, there's not even a chance it'll get fixed
Google (and the Likes Of It) Will Cause Catastrophic Information Loss Rather Than Organise the World's Information
Informational and cultural losses due to technological plunder
Links 28/09/2023: GNOME 45 Release Party, 'Smart' Homes Orphaned
Links for the day
Security Leftovers
Xen, breaches, and more
GNOME Console Won’t Support Color Palettes or Profiles; Will Support Esperanto
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Let's Hope GNU Makes it to 100
Can GNU still be in active use in 2083? Maybe.
GNU is 40, Linux is Just 32
Today it's exactly 40 years since Richard Stallman sent a message regarding GNU
GNU/Linux and Free Software News Mostly in Tux Machines Now
We've split the coverage
Links 27/09/2023: GNOME Raves and Firefox 118
Links for the day
Links 27/09/2023: 3G Phase-Out, Monopolies, and Exit of Rupert Murdoch
Links for the day
IBM Took a Man’s Voice, Pitting Him Against His Own Work, While Companies Profit from Low-Effort Garbage Generated by Bots and “Self-Service”
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer