Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Sickness of the EPO – Part VII: 40% of EPO Workers Have Upper Limb Disorder (ULD), Battistelli Covers That Up

Battistelli lauds himself, claiming decrease in sickness by merely denying people's health problems (cruel, irresponsible, and possibly illegal)

Musculoskeletal disorder and repetitive strain injury
References: Repetitive strain injury and musculoskeletal disorders



Summary: The unpleasant truth about the health effects of EPO work and the strain induced by a management which is in deep denial about it, motivating people to just hide their suffering, disability etc. (for fear of invalidity, incapacity, ultimately dismissal)

RECENTLY, EPO management publicly bemoaned complaints from staff that the tools available for the job were unsuitable (e.g. incapable of detecting prior art through searches, not ergonomic and so on), but there are very legitimate concerns and unless staff is permitted to express/voice these concerns, people will suffer and some may eventually die young.



Today we decided to take our coverage of EPO up a notch, as big things may be about to happen. For those just joining us (we received about 30,000 views on our EPO wiki page yesterday alone), here are the previous 6 parts of this series, which is a must-read for insiders and also concerned outsiders, who include eminent politicians:



How many people out there know about Upper Limb Disorder (ULD) at the EPO? It's somewhat of a taboo subject. "Upper limb disorders (ULDs) affect the arms, from fingers to shoulder, and neck," says the British government. "They are often called repetitive strain injuries, 'RSI', cumulative trauma disorder or occupational overuse syndrome."

"The problem was so big in fact that the EPO itself had several external studies commissioned on ULD. In 2004, for example, the Dutch research institute TNO concluded that some 40% of EPO workers had ULD."I've had one or two colleagues with that issue, but that represents less than 5% of the whole. In the EPO, statistically speaking, this is an epidemic that just leaps off the scale.

"You articles about medical aspects at the EPO caught my attention," one reader told us. We soon learned that Upper Limb Disorder or ULD had for many years been a problem at the EPO. The problem was so big in fact that the EPO itself had several external studies commissioned on ULD. In 2004, for example, the Dutch research institute TNO concluded that some 40% of EPO workers had ULD.

TNO's English version of the site yields 15 results when searching for "Upper Limb Disorder" and this suggests that they have done a lot of research in the area. Among the results (14):

  1. Exposure Assessment of Upper Limb Repetitive Movements: A Consensus Document
  2. Effects of Cued Micro-Breaks on Self-Reported Severity and Recovery of Upper Limb Disorders in Computer Operators
  3. Effectiveness of the RSI quickscan a preventive program on neck and upper limb symptoms for office workers
  4. Effects of software programs stimulating regular breaks and exercises on work-related neck and upper-limb disorders
  5. Work-related musculoskeletal disorders : back to work report
  6. Are software characteristics related to musculoskeletal disorders in computer workers?
  7. The (cost-)effectiveness of a lifestyle physical activity intervention in addition to a work style intervention on the recovery from neck and upper limb symptoms in computer workers
  8. Predictive validity of the Hand Arm Risk assessment Method (HARM)
  9. The development of a practical tool for risk assessment of manual work – the HAT-tool
  10. Work-related musculoskeletal disorders : prevention report
  11. The predictive validity of the RSI QuickScan questionnaire with respect to arm, shoulder and neck symptoms in computer workers
  12. Gender issues in safety and health at work : a review
  13. The effectiveness of a work style intervention and a lifestyle physical activity intervention on the recovery from neck and upper limb symptoms in computer workers
  14. The effectiveness of a work style intervention and a lifestyle physical activity intervention on the recovery from neck and upper limb symptoms in computer workers


TNO certainly knows this area. It studied the EPO 13 years ago, but these studies of the EPO are no longer performed nowadays. In the past, occupational diseases were recognised by the EPO, but Battistelli removed this altogether. How convenient. We'll try to publish the results of the study, but we need some leaks related to that.

Staff representatives are probably aware of this issue, but rarely is the subject being raised or publicly brought up anymore. In fact, Battistelli recently fired the person who was the staff representatives' health expert (for a long time), Els Hardon. Again: How convenient! There was also Ph. Couckuyt in The Hague.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Datamation, Where I Used to Publish Articles, Appears to Have Been Sold to TechnologyAdvice Only to Become a Slopfarm
I'd prefer to not associate with that site anymore
 
Patent Docs (or PatentDocs) Learned the Wrong Lessons From the Death of TypePad
Had they gone ahead with an SSG, they'd become a lot more future-proof
USPTO Patent Bubble Already Imploding, After Decades of Artificial Inflation, Entire Offices Close for Good
we can deduce that financial pressures (lack of "demand" for monopolies) play a role
TikTok is Not Harmless (Being CheeTok in the US Will Advance Orange Agenda)
Social control media isn't "fun and games"; it's a digital weapon that lets hostile groups or nations infiltrate others, then turn them against themselves
Andy Farnell and Helen Plews Explain What "Modern" Tech Does to Old People
Imposing terrible tech "religion" on people is not helping them
Tomorrow the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Turns 40 and Its Web Site is Still Slow Due to DDoS by LLM Slop Bots
For an advocacy group, uptime is important (for its message to remain accessible)
Slopwatch: Google News as a Firehose of LLM Slop About "Linux"
Google News is really bad
Links 03/10/2025: "NPR’s Economics Lessons Come With Neoliberal Spin" and Canada Post at Risk
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/10/2025: Panic Attacks and Food Adulteration
Links for the day
Links 03/10/2025: Lawyers Caught Using LLM Slop Explain Why They Did It, LibreSSL 4.1.1 and 4.0.1 Released
Links for the day
FSF Board Grew 50% Since Last Year, Has New President, Turns 40 in Two Days
It's a good move for the FSF and - by extension - for software freedom
Links 03/10/2025: Conflicts, Death of TypePad, and TikTok/CheeTok Gives a Boost to Far Right Groups in Europe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 02, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 02, 2025
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Google News, and LinuxSecurity
They carry on polluting the Web with fake articles
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: Kubernetes With FreeBSD and robots.txt
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: 'Open' 'AI' Resorting to Gimmicks and Fake Funding, Europe’s ‘Drone Wall’ Discussed
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: Brave Passes 100M Users Milestone, Kodak Selling Its Own Film Again
Links for the day
Michael “Monty” Widenius: It Started in 1983 With Richard Stallman (RMS)
The other co-founder of MySQL is a bit notorious for confronting RMS rather viciously
For the Second Time in a Few Weeks Microsoft Lunduke Makes False Accusations Against Senior Red Hat Staff to Incite a Despicable 'Troll Army'
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims of says can be trusted
su lisa && rm -rf /home/ibm/power
Novell was ruined by another person from IBM, Ronald Hovsepian
A Record Demand at Microsoft: Demand to Cancel
What we're witnessing is a very ungraceful destruction of XBox
Microsoft is Losing Europe
Hence all the "support" and "discount" offers that are limited to Europe
The Free Software Foundation Starts Fund-raising for 40th Anniversary
New pop-up 2-3 days ahead of the 40th anniversary event
Systemd Breaks Networking in Debian and Microsoft Staff Rushes to Make Face-Saving Excuses in LWN
Microsoft's bluca is already there in the comments, his Microsoft money pays for LWN to let him leave comments early
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash
XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday
A day later he speaks in Sweden
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Plagiarism, Fake Articles, and FUD About Linux
not a day goes by without Google News feeding FUD from slopfarms
Gemini Links 01/10/2025: Chat Control and End of Life
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: Long Covid Risk Reiterated, "Bitcoin Queen" Caught
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: EA $55 Billion Deal is Debt and Slop "Raises Vishing Risks"
Links for the day
Bluewashing at Red Hat Means Redundancies
The man who sold Red Hat to IBM meanwhile became a Microsoft Mono booster
After Killing OpenSource.com, IBM ('Red Hat') and OSI Told Us OpenSource.net Would Replace It (But That Didn't Happen)
Now it's time to move on, perhaps tarnishing the "Open Source" label some more (for whatever sponsor wants this)
Linux is Not a Community Project, It's a Wall Street Product
The core goal should be freedom
Bad Actors Abusing the Free Software Community, Vandalising It Using Rogue Politics and Old Tactics
Oil giants have long attempted to do this; now, the digital equivalent of Big Oil does this in technology
Social Control Media Isn't the Future, The Federation or Fediverse Isn't Growing, People's Accounts Vanish for Good
users' accounts will get deleted, not just become inactive
IBM is Failing, This Helps Show Wall Street is Entirely Detached From Actual Commercial Performance
IBM is unable to grow, it's just constantly shrinking
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Clerical Aspects of Publishing and Development
In Free software, the management aspects are considerably reduced
Slopwatch: Fake Articles and Google News Promoting "Linux" Spam or Bot-Generated Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
These slopfarms help misplace blame
Third Wave of Microsoft Layoffs in September, This Time Many in Liverpool Affected
Be ready for more waves of layoffs ahead of the so-called "results" in late October