New Document From the European Patent Office (EPO) Highlights Deliberate Understaffing and Demoralisation of Staff, Whose Purpose Was to Obstruct Monopolies That Don't Merit Patent Grants
LAST month the staff representation of the EPO circulated a report on feedback it had submitted for a meeting with António Campinos or his cronies (who are in turn also cronies of Benoît Battistelli, i.e. Office plunderers). A lot was covered in these preparatory documents, but they focus on staff issues rather than issues like software patents (that matter more to us as members of the public as opposed to salaried EPO staff).
There are explanations therein, however, as to why patent quality sank so low. Those lacking capacity (like time) might want to skip to the last section below, and the graphics in particular (there are two of these). Some of that should be self-explanatory and quick to digest.
The Central Staff Committee said to colleagues that "detailed and reasoned opinions by the CSC members of the GCC can be found in this paper." It sent this last month, covering what happened in a meeting a fortnight beforehand or rather what it had planned to discuss in that meeting.
Here we go, as HTML/plain text/GemText:
Zentraler Personalausschuss
Central Staff Committee
Le Comité Central du PersonnelMunich, 06-12-2023
sc23136cpReport on the GCC meeting of 21 November 2023
Dear Colleagues,
The General Consultative Committee (GCC) met on 21 November 2023. The following items were on the agenda of the meeting and the CSC members of the GCC raised their concerns and tried to get further clarifications:
• Adjustment with effect from 1 January 2024 of salaries and other elements of the remuneration of employees of the European Patent Office and of pensions paid by the Office (CA/76/23) - for consultation GCC/DOC 26/2023
• Revision with effect from 1 January 2024 of the rates of the daily subsistence allowance (CA/77/23) - for consultation GCC/DOC 27/2023
• Annual adjustment of young child allowance and education allowance with effect from 1 January 2024 (CA/78/23) - for consultation GCC/DOC 28/2023
• Amendment to the Annex of Circular 319 - Revision with effect from 1 January 2024 of the rates of the kilometric allowance - for consultation GCC/DOC 29/2023
• Amendment to the Annex of Circular 326 - Revision with effect from 1 January 2024 of the rates of the lump sum compensation of removal expenses - for consultation GCC/DOC 30/2023
• Amendment to Circular 425 - Contribution for gainfully employed spouses to the healthcare insurance scheme in 2024 (Article 83a(1) (a) ServRegs) - for consultation GCC/DOC 31/2023
• Review of the New Ways of Working (NWoW) pilot scheme - for information GCC/DOC 32/2023
• Orientation on Recruitment (CA/100/23) - for information GCC/DOC 33/2023
The detailed and reasoned opinions by the CSC members of the GCC are annexed to this paper.
The Central Staff Committee
Opinion of the CSC members of the GCC on GCC/DOC 26/2023:
Adjustment with effect from 1 January 2024 of salaries and other elements of the remuneration of permanent employees of the European Patent Office and of pensions paid by the Office (CA/76/23)
The CSC members of the GCC note with regret that the information provided to the GCC was initially incomplete. The report to the GCC drawn up by the GCC SSPR, which used to be provided to the GCC when consulting them on the adjustment, was missing from the documentation that was submitted on time in accordance with the provisions of Article 6 of the Rules of Procedure of the GCC. Upon the remark that the report was considered essential for a proper consultation of the GCC, the report was then sent to the GCC by email at 15:38 hrs during the meeting of the GCC.
The CSC members of the GCC accepted the apologies for the late submission of the report. Under these circumstances, the CSC members of the GCC express the following opinion on the adjustment proposed in GCC/DOC 19/2023.
The CSC members of the GCC appreciate that three meetings of the GCC SSPR could take place in which questions as to the proposed adjustment were discussed. The meetings on 2 November 2023 with the administration, on 3 November 2023 with the Advisory Group on Remuneration, and on 16 November 2023 with experts from the International Service for Remunerations and Pensions contributed to a better understanding of how the administration calculated the adjustment.
However, it could not be clarified in the three meetings nor in the GCC consultation whether Article 2 of the Implementing Rule for Article 64 of the Service Regulations for Permanent and other Employees of the European Patent Office (“Implementing Rule”) was implemented correctly. As the CSC members of the GCC already objected in their opinion on GCC/DOC 19/2022 to the calculation of the former basic salary scales and allowance amounts for Belgium as being too low, inter alia because of an undue interpretation of Article 9(4) of the Implementing Rule to the detriment of staff and pensioners, the present calculation is in consequence also erroneous and to the detriment of staff and pensioners. Therefore, the CSC members of the GCC object to the implementation of Article 2 of the Implementing Rule.
Furthermore, it could not be clarified in the three meetings nor in the GCC consultation whether Article 10(1) of the Implementing Rule was implemented correctly. The positive adjustment resulting from the application of Article 9 and carried forward after three annual salary adjustments is to be paid out to employees. However, this positive amount has not been calculated and is merely assumed to be EUR 0. The CSC members of the GCC object to the implementation of Article 10(1) of the Implementing Rule. The assumption that there is no positive adjustment resulting from the application of Article 9 and carried forward after three annual salary adjustments could not be confirmed, no relevant calculation was provided.
Therefore, the CSC members of the GCC also object to the implementation of Article 10(1) of the Implementing Rule. It is recalled that the CSC members of the GCC
criticised already in their opinion on GCC/DOC 19/2022 that the amount of the redistribution pool had not been explicitly calculated by the administration.
The CSC members of the GCC come to the conclusion that the proposed adjustment with effect from 1 January 2024 of salaries and other elements of the remuneration of permanent employees of the European Patent Office and of pensions paid by the Office is based on an incorrect implementation of the Implementing Rule. In particular, the adjustment is too low (by roughly 30 bps) and a lump sum should have been paid according to the Implementing Rule. The amount of this missing lump sum is difficult to estimate because of the unclear wording of Articles 9 and 10 of the Implementing Rule but should amount to at least 2% of the annual salary of an employee or the annual pension respectively (see Article 33(2)(c) EPC).
The CSC members of the GCC
Opinion of the CSC members of the GCC on GCC/DOC 27/2023:
Revision with effect from 1 January 2024 of the rates of the daily subsistence allowance (CA/77/23)
The CSC members of the GCC give the following opinion on the revision proposed in GCC/DOC 27/2023.
The proposed revision of the daily subsistence allowance is based on the arithmetic average of the rate of the annual salary adjustment for Austria, Germany and the Netherlands. The salary adjustments calculated for 2024 could not be understood as an implementation of Article 64 ServRegs according to the official Implementation Rule, which is further outlined in the opinion on GCC/DOC 26/2023.
The CSC members of the GCC are therefore of the opinion that the proposed revision suffers from the same deficiencies as the underlying annual salary adjustments for Austria, Germany and the Netherlands for 2024.
The CSC members of the GCC
Opinion of the CSC members of the GCC on GCC/DOC 28/2023:
Annual adjustment of young child allowance and education allowance with effect from 1 January 2024 (CA/78/23)
The adjustment of the young child and education allowance has been made according to the arithmetic average of the Salary Adjustment Procedure for all places of employment. Therefore, an Office wide adjustment of 3,58% on the young child and education allowance amounts has been proposed for all places of employment.
The document GCC/DOC 28/2023 states at page 5:
“Amounts will be reviewed regularly to take into account the evolution of childcare and education costs at the respective places of employment”.
However, contrary to the above statement, the adjustment is not reflecting the evolution of the education costs.
The situation in The Hague is particularly remarkable, were education costs increased around 9% in 2023, i.e., much higher than the adjustment proposed.
Considering the above and the fact that the topic is very sensitive for staff the CSC members of the GCC suggest that the regular review is given high priority.
CSC members of the GCC
Opinion of the CSC members of the GCC on GCC/DOC 29/2023:
Amendment to the Annex of Circular 319 – Revision with effect from of [sic] 1 January 2024 of the rates of the kilometric allowance
The CSC members of the GCC give the following opinion on the revision proposed in GCC/DOC 29/2023.
The proposed revision of the rates of the kilometric allowance is based on the arithmetic average of the rate of the annual salary adjustment for Austria, Germany and the Netherlands. The salary adjustments calculated for 2024 could not be understood as an implementation of Article 64 ServRegs according to the official Implementation Rule, which is further outlined in the opinion on GCC/DOC 26/2023.
The CSC members of the GCC are therefore of the opinion that the proposed revision suffers from the same deficiencies as the underlying annual salary adjustments for Austria, Germany and the Netherlands for 2024.
The CSC members of the GCC
Opinion of the CSC members of the GCC on GCC/DOC 30/2023:
Amendment to the Annex of Circular 326 – Revision with effect from 1 January 2024 of the rates of the lump sum compensation of removal expenses
The CSC members of the GCC give the following opinion on the revision proposed in GCC/DOC 23/2022.
The proposed revision of the rates of the lump sum compensation of removal expenses is based on the arithmetic average of the rate of the annual salary adjustment for Austria, Germany and the Netherlands. The salary adjustments calculated for 2024 could not be understood as an implementation of Article 64 ServRegs according to the official Implementation Rule, which is further outlined in the opinion on GCC/DOC 26/2023.
The CSC members of the GCC are therefore of the opinion that the proposed revision suffers from the same deficiencies as the underlying annual salary adjustments for Austria, Germany and the Netherlands for 2024.
The CSC members of the GCC
Opinion of the CSC members of the GCC on GCC/DOC 31/2023:
Amendment to Circular 425 – Contribution for gainfully employed spouses to the healthcare insurance scheme in 2024 (Article 83a(1)(a) ServRegs)
The CSC members of the GCC give the following opinion on document GCC/DOC 31/2023.
The calculations of the contribution for gainfully employed spouses are to be calculated with reference to the market prices for low premiums offered by reputable private healthcare insurers for the minimal cover required by law in the spouse’s country of employment. The CSC members of the GCC appreciate that the document on the market analysis produced by Mercer Marsh Benefits was pre-discussed in two meetings of the GCC SSPR on 12 September 2023 and 22 September 2023. This appreciation also includes the fact that the external experts answered the questions that arose at the first meeting in writing.
The CSC members of the GCC observe that the proposed mechanism for the calculation of the contributions result from a comprehensible application of the Implementing Rules for Articles 83a, 84 and 84a of the Service Regulations. The suggestion repeatedly made by the CSC members of the GCC in recent years to revise the calculation in Germany has thankfully been taken up. Averaging the three tariffs “Hallesche NK4”, “Continentale Comfort-U” and “ARAG K1500” will contribute to smoothing the adjustment in the coming years, which is especially significant in the case of rising contributions to private health insurance in Germany.
The resulting monthly contributions calculated for Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, and spouses living and working in other countries are comprehensible.
The CSC members of the GCC
Comments of the CSC members of the GCC on GCC/DOC 32/2023: Review of the New Ways of Working (NWoW) pilot scheme
The New Ways of Working (NWoW) entered into force following a three-month transition period as a two-year pilot (Circular No. 419).
The COHSEC opinion and GCC opinions of 2021 and of 2022 express the view and requests of the staff representation at the start of the pilot. The administration announced in the Communiqué of 13 November 2023 a review of the New Ways of Working (NWoW) in 2024 and provided some details in the document GCC/DOC 32/2023.
The CSC members of the GCC give the following comments on the document.
On the situation so far
The document (§3) mentions that:
“The Office implemented a variety of tools and resources to fully support the new guidelines: amongst other, the Planning tool, the ‘workplace for a day’ system, the Bringing Teams Together project, and the recent introduction of magnetic nametags for office doors.” (emphasis added)
Back in 2021, the administration conveyed a Working Group to discuss the New Ways of Working (CA/77/21). The meetings were headed by Mr Oliver Dreute, Chief of Staff at the time. Among the requests from the staff representation was a teleworking allowance in view of the savings made by the Office thanks to teleworking. The Chief of Staff argued consistently that as the New Ways of Working would offer one of the most generous teleworking schemes where no EPO Staff would have to renounce to their office spaces, there was no justification for a teleworking allowance to be granted.
Since then, the administration implemented the Bringing Teams Together project (BTT) which aims at making savings on EPO buildings by reducing the number of available workplaces and putting in place a workplace-for-the-day system. The BTT project is among the most unpopular among staff. The project has both an impact on the working conditions of staff and the EPO buildings.
The BTT project and the workplace-for-a-day system were never part of the NWoW consultation package.
When a pilot is proposed, all consequences must be announced and explained. It was not the case for the NWoW.
On the comprehensive review
The document (par. 4) announces that:
“The Office intends to conduct a comprehensive review of the scheme before its expiry and, building on the successes and main principles of the current pilot, to adopt a scheme of hybrid working that serves our goals in the long-term. Staff representatives
will continue to be involved and consulted through technical meetings and the General Consultative Committee.”
The Communiqué of 13 November 2023 announcing the review triggered both expectations and worries among staff who contacted their representation.
We request that the administration makes its plans clear for 2025 as soon as possible. Staff needs clarity and should not be left 6 months from now on in the dark.
On the health of staff
The President met with the staff representation on 30 October 2023 for 45 minutes. In the meeting, the President said that the NWoW increased the health of staff. In order to make such a statement, the President must have had sick leave statistics at hand. However, no document containing such statistics for 2023 was made available to the COHSEC members so far. The administration only submitted a cover page to our members at the time of the meeting of 16 October.
After several requests from COHSEC members, the administration replied that statistics could not be extracted because of a software issue. If the administration managed to extract such statistics for the President, then it must be possible to do the same for the staff representation.
In the GCC meeting, we repeated the request for access to the sick leave statistics.
On the coming survey
The staff representation asked by letter of 20 September 2023 (Annex 1) to be involved in the organisation of the survey coming in Q1 of 2024. The President sent a reply letter dated 25 October 2023 (Annex 2) providing no answer to this request.
In the meantime, the administration orally told us that the staff representation would be invited to send comments on the survey. This is not sufficient for a topic of this importance.
We request to be deeply involved in the organisation of the survey. If the administration has good intentions for staff, then there should be no reason to exclude staff representation.
The CSC members of the GCC
Annex 1 “New Ways of Working pilot project and beyond”, CSC letter to the President, 20-09-2023 (sc23115cl)
Annex 2 “Reply” letter from the President, 25-10-2023
Annex 1
European Patent Office
80298 Munich
GermanyCentral Staff Committee
Comité central du personnel
Zentraler Personalausschuss
centralSTCOM@epo.org
Reference: sc23115cl
Date: 20.09.2023European Patent Office | 80298 MUNICH | GERMANY
Mr António Campinos
President of the EPO
by email
New Ways of Working pilot project and beyond
Dear Mr Campinos, dear President,
The New Ways of Working (NWoW) Pilot Project is now past half-time and will end in May 2024. The CSC is being asked frequently what the future NWoW will be made of, and numerous colleagues would like to share their view before the post-pilot NWoW framework is submitted to the Administrative Council.
It appears that staff still have very diverse opinions on the best way forward.
The CSC raises the following questions to you:
• Do you intend to organize a new survey to compare with the answers received in 2020? We would like to be involved in the organization of the survey.
• Will your administration produce a (preliminary) report on the current pilot?
• Do you intend to lay-out several scenarios for the future or do you envisage early on a single path towards the future NWoW?
• Will you ask for legal assessments regarding possible scenarios maintaining or modifying work from workplaces within and outside of the EPO host countries?
The CSC expresses its renewed commitment to play its part in shaping the future of the EPO. To that effect, the CSC proposes to revive the Working Group “New Ways of Working”.
Sincerely,
Derek Kelly Chairman of the Central Staff Committee
Annex 2
The President
Tel. +49 (0)89 2399 - 1000
president@epo.org
Date: 25.10.2023European Patent Office | 80298 MUNICH | GERMANY
Mr Derek Kelly
Chair of the Central Staff Committee
Via email: centralstcom@epo.org
Your letters dated 20 and 27 September 2023 re the New Ways of Working (NWoW) and the European Qualifying Examination (EQE)
Dear Chair,
Reference is made to your above mentioned letters on the future of the NWoW and on the EQE.
As mentioned during our meeting on 5 October, the Office will run in 2024 a staff survey focusing on NWoW. The results of this survey, together with an in-depth report on the NWoW pilot, will enable the Office to prepare its future policy. NWoW will be tabled on our Social Agenda for 2024 and will be discussed with the staff representation in technical meetings and finally submitted to the GCC.
In the meantime, we will continue to keep staff and member states informed of progress by means of regular updates.
With reference to your letter dated 27 September 2023, the Office attaches great importance to the modernisation of the patent profession, and highly regards the contributions of its staff to various EQE preparatory activities (paper marking, drafting, quality management, Guinea pigging etc). These activities do not only promote the EQE but also provide opportunities for professional development to those who decide to invest their time to contribute.
The Office acknowledges this contribution in the context of the holistic performance management that is in place. Examiners are free to share with their line manager a copy of the relevant confirmation letter submitted by the EQE Examination Board and request that it be annexed to their staff report. This ensures proper visibility to the DG1 management.
As regards your comments on the modality of some of the above activities, please note that hybrid work, successfully implemented since the end of the pandemic, is the guiding principle for contributions to the EQE as well. In
particular, the hybrid format of pre-marking meetings enables new EC members to work together with more experienced ones both online and on- site to gain the necessary alignment for a harmonised marking. This is fully in line with our NWoW, offering increased flexibility and saving employees both time and travel expenses. In fact it is highlighted that the applied limitation was not reached as some pre-markers actually preferred to attend the meeting virtually instead of travelling.
Finally, contrary to your assertion, rooms were made available both in Isar and PschorrHöfe for the use of Check Groups while printers, located close to these specific rooms, were available as well. The Office is committed to its well-known sustainability goals by reducing paper consumption and its carbon footprint, and the EQE activities cannot make an exception.
Yours sincerely,
António Campinos
Comments from the CSC members of the GCC on GCC/DOC 33/2023: Orientation on Recruitment (CA/100/23)
Introduction
The Orientation on Recruitment document confirms the continuation of the recruitment plan as set out in previous documents, with the main points including the average 80% replacement rate for examiners over a three-year rolling period, no replacement of formality officers, and 50% replacement rate for other staff. The administration attempts to justify this significant reduction of the workforce by citing the efficiency gains of the “digital transformation” and improvement of the IT tools. However, the Office is yet to provide any evidence that the efficiency gains have been achieved by the claimed drivers, and that any past or planned increases in productivity are not achieved by additional production pressure on the staff. This prolonged practice of recruiting many fewer staff than are departing is of great concern to the staff representation, with some of the reasons are set out below.Demographic developments
In the 10 years between 2012 and 2022, the age distribution of staff in the Office has increased significantly. The graph below shows how the age pyramid has lurched to the older end of the scale, with the peak number of staff moving from 41 years old to 51 years old.
Age pyramid of EPO staffIn addition, the figure below shows that the average age of staff has increased from 45 to 50.3. Even more striking is that the number of staff that are 50 or older has increased from around one quarter in 2012 to over one half in 2022, and the number of staff that are 55 or older has increased from one eighth to over one quarter over the same period.
Changes in age demographics of EPO staffThe consequence of such a change in the age of our EPO staff is that the recruitment needs to take into consideration the outflow of knowledge that is happening over the short-term. Such a change needs to be considered when making recruitment plans because the office depends so heavily on experienced trainers. It seems wise to recruit more while the experienced colleagues are still available for a proper handover ensuring sufficient knowledge transfer. This is even more important when one considers individual units or teams, where a majority of the team may be expected to retire in the coming years, with no one left to train the new recruits. If knowledge transfer and proper peer-to-peer training are not accounted for adequately, then the quality will be severely negatively impacted.
Workload increases
The number of incoming applications is expected to increase by 1.7% annually. Over the next 5 years, that amounts to a 9% higher workload. The document states that the “growth underscores the persistent interest and demand for the Office’s services”. Here we agree, but it also underscores the need to ensure the recruitment plan takes into account the increasing workload. Furthermore, past experience has shown that growth assumptions are often quite conservative, so growth is likely to be even higher. In this case, the 80% replacement rate would certainly be too low.Recruitment policy
Considering the headcount in 2018 and the expected headcount for 2024 (page 4), the number of staff will have reduced by 10% already in 6 years. The document further confirms the plans to continue reducing the number of staff in all areas of the Office.Examiners
On examiner replacement, the 80% replacement rate is confirmed, leading to yet more cuts in examiner numbers. We cannot agree that the “digital transformation” has created efficiency gains that justify this plan. We wonder how the efficiency gains been measured, and whether there are any plans to ask for feedback from examiners to confirm these assumptions.It is stated prominently and persistently in this orientation on recruitment document, and in the draft budget, that the examiner replacement rate for 2024 will be 130%. However, there is a caveat, that the “over-recruitment above 80% from 2023” will first need to be deducted, and it is later stated that this means 112 examiner recruits are planned with 124 expected
to leave, which is finally a 90% replacement rate for 2024. We find this manner of presenting the figures to be questionable.
In addition, the concept of front-loading is considered quite insufficient to address the staffing problems we face, since it will be compensated by lower recruitment in the following two years.
Formality officers
On formality officer replacement, no replacement is foreseen for next year, which has been the case since 2019. Considering the feedback collected by the staff representation from FO teams, which is one of persistent understaffing and excessive workload, we are concerned by the complete lack of recruitment.Furthermore, both the orientation on recruitment and the budget are vague regarding the plan for recruitment after 2024. We hope that the recruitment will begin once again from 2025 to address the issues outlined above.
Other areas of the Office
For staff in the non-examination units, a replacement rate of 50% was planned. However, only 35% was achieved in 2023. Therefore, we expect that a compensation for lower-than- expected replacement rate will be employed in 2024 as was the case for the examiners.Conclusions
Taking into account; A) the wave of retirements that are quickly approaching and the importance of knowledge transfer, B) the lack of any quantifiable evidence supporting the assumption that digitalisation and updated tools have made tasks take less time than before, and C) the ever increasing workload that has shown to be robust even under difficult economic situations, we find it difficult to see how the plan for recruitment can be described as “prudent”.On the contrary, it seems that the plan is not based on the data at hand, but on based on ambitious ideas of perfect IT tools that do the work on behalf of staff allowing unlimited efficiency gains. However, this is not the reality we face today, and therefore we ask for a reconsideration of the recruitment policy.
The CSC members of the GCC
That last part is probably most relevant to us or at least more interesting. It serves to show that quality declines are a matter of policy. █