EPO Leak: Staff of the EPO Challenging Unattainable 'Targets' That Are "in Breach of the EPC" (European Patent Convention)
A few months ago EPO workers sent a lot of mail challenging the unreasonable and illegal demands set by Benoît Battistelli and António Campinos, basically misapplying rules to illegally grant patent monopolies solely "for profit" (at whose expense?) and it now seems safe to publish the instructions sent to examiners (for the most part). There was a suggested template of mail to send, either to Line Managers or higher ups.
Here is the message sent by SUEPO TH committee (the union leaders in Dutch territories) at the end of November:
Staff Union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO)INTERNATIONALE GEWERKSCHAFT IM EUROPÄISCHEN PATENTAMT
STAFF UNION OF THE EUROPEAN PATENT OFFICE
UNION SYNDICALE DE L'OFFICE EUROPEEN DES BREVETSOrtssektion Den Haag
Local section The Hague
Section locale La Haye28 November 2023
su23016hpTarget setting 2024 - Avoid committing to unattainable objectives
Dear colleagues,
The target setting exercise for 2024 has started.
The 2023 Mercer & Wyman financial study (see p.99/145, figure 12) seems to point to a targeted 2.1% productivity increase in the Patent Granting Process (PGP). The information we are receiving from our colleagues is far more drastic, with requested increases of up to 100% (!) for some individuals.
It appears therefore that the intention is again to impose even higher individual targets than those of 2023 when objectives were already unreachable for many, if they were not to risk their health or compromise quality standards.
According to the intranet publication of 22.11.20231: "Staff and managers alike are kindly invited to engage in collaborative discussions and ensure that goals are entered in the tool before the end of the yea ". When estimating your performance for 2024, we recommend that you be conservative and realistic and avoid committing to unattainable objectives for which you alone will be deemed to be responsible and will have to bear the consequences, in 2024 and beyond.
Don’t forget your health: if your work is having negative effects on your health (exhaustion, stress, sleeping problems, headaches, musculo-squeletal issues…) consult your general practitioner services and report it to your manager and to OHS.
Discussing objectives is reasonable, but committing to a target imposed on you is not. If you nevertheless feel obliged to commit to an imposed target and do not agree with the objectives set, inform your direct manager in writing – possibly using the template below. This is important to protect yourself against a potential negative performance appraisal.
If you feel that you are being put under pressure by your manager or you feel you need any advice don’t hesitate to contact us or your staff representation.
Relevant publication: Increase in capacity for 2024, CSC, 14.11.2023
Kind regards, Your SUEPO TH committee
_____
1 Performance development cycle 2024, 22.11.2024
One can imagine many messages like the following were sent in November and December:
ANNEX: template email to manager, please use only the parts which apply to you, delete and / or adapt the rest.
Dear xxxx,
On _______ my (final) quantitative objectives were set at ____ [products]. As in the past, I commit to working to the best of my abilities in 2024. However, with regard to the proposed objectives for 2024, presently I cannot commit to those objectives for the following reasons:
- The objectives set correspond to an increase of production/productivity of +___% compared to 2023 so I cannot commit to accomplishing them;
- I do not know how my achieved objectives will be evaluated in 2024 - 2025; I was neither informed about the consequences of this evaluation, nor to which part of the Service Regulations the evaluation refers to;
- My working days seem not to be properly calculated. My Parental Leave/ Home Leave / Unpaid Leave were not deducted from the total working days;
- The many hours expected to be spent in training, (team) meetings, system disturbances, etc… which in my case amount to ____ days [put a number if you can make an estimation] have also not been taken into consideration;
- Since the implementation of the new “active search division”, I have been given extra tasks but no extra time budget. It could be that in 2024, further new tasks will be required of me without me being given time to fulfil them. This is likely to further prevent me from reaching my objectives;
- I have been given the following new tasks [please make a list of tasks] which did not previously fall within my job description [if available, make a reference to your job description], and for which I have not been given neither training nor time [adapt if necessary];
- The working tools have not evolved in a way which could help me increase productivity since 2023 and apart from a few procedural modifications without consequence on productivity, nothing has changed in the way I am supposed to perform my work since last year, when my target was __ [please fill in];
- The ratio Search / Actions without point / Grants is influenced by management decisions and/or change of work priority during the year, all of which are beyond my control;
- The files in Search/Examination allocated to me could come from technical fields outside my Area of Competence, as it happened already in the past OR as already announced by team manager/ director/ COO;
- I can neither know nor predict my personal circumstances in 2024. As mentioned above, you can of course continue to count on me to work to the best of my abilities in 2024, as I always have;
- I have been told that I need to increase my production / productivity by X% in order to “pay” for the salary adjustment I am likely to be receiving in January 2024 as a result of salary indexation. Salary indexation is only meant to adjust my income to the increased cost of living and is irrelevant to objective setting.
- [For examiners] My intention to work together with the team to achieve good results may find its natural limits in my duty to deliver quality products under the EPC. If management expects me to go beyond this limit by delivering products which do not necessarily meet the requirements of the EPC, I expect written instructions to do so, so that the responsibility for the quality of these products and the consequences thereof will not be placed at my door.
- [For other functions] My intention to work together with the team to achieve good results may find its natural limits in my duty to deliver quality work which fulfils the requirements of my job description. If management expects me to go beyond this limit by delivering work which does not necessarily meet the requirements of my job description, I expect written instructions to do so, so that the responsibility for the quality of my work and the consequences thereof will not be placed at my door.
Best regards
[your name]
It's hard to guess just how many messages like these were sent, but that matters a lot because they try to curb the bubble that includes many European software patents. █