EPO Staff Representatives Say It Has Gotten Very Hard to Get Promoted (Forget About Getting Rewarded for Hard Work)
THE LACK of incentive/s at the EPO leads to worse work and worse staff, as staff retention and recruitment are both impacted; moreover, why would an examiner wish to work harder if that has no positive effect, either financial or something more symbolic it not superficial such as a job title?
This has long been a problem and the staff representation is circulating new instructions today for challenging this. Here's the message they sent today to staff in The Netherlands:
Staff Representation provides guidance on how to contest a lack of rewards
Dear colleagues,
If you have not received a career advancement or bonus in April 2024 concerning the performance of 2023, you have a chance of reversing the decision and receiving a step or promotion with retroactive effect.
In this paper, Staff Representation provides you with updated information about the process of contesting the lack of reward.
An updated presentation will explain the procedure to follow if you did not receive a reward in April 2024.
Here is their guidance.
Staff Committee The Hague
Comité du personnel de La Haye
Personalausschuss Den HaagRijswijk, 12 July 2024
sc24007hpFurther information on
contesting a lack of rewardsAn updated guidance document was prepared by Staff Representation, following the April 2024 rewards exercise. Extra considerations need to be taken into account when contesting a lack of rewards.
The rewards statistics show a tremendous variation between the distribution of pensionable rewards: in the last ten years, staff have received between seventeen steps and no step at all, as if highly rewarded colleagues would contribute seventeen times more to the success of the Office than those receiving the minimum rewards.
If you have not received a career advancement or bonus in April 2024 concerning the performance of 2023 and either received a good appraisal report for 2023 or contested your appraisal report for 2023, you have a chance of reversing the decision and receiving a step or promotion with retroactive effect.
For more information about the process of contesting the lack of reward, please read this updated guidance document.
Contesting a lack of rewards can be done by filing a request for review (RfR) until three months following the earliest of the following two dates:
- when your manager called you to announce the decision, or
- the 26th of April (your April 2024 payslip).
It is important that you personalize your RfR to your individual situation. Judgment 4711, consideration 8 states: “Even though the new system is not automatic, neither is it left to an unfettered discretion.”
The main objective of your RfR will be to prove that this was not the case in your situation.
Kind regards,
Your Local Staff Committee The Hague
There's further information in this deck of slides.
The EPO is trying to get 'cheap' work done for a high price. This will doom Europe on several levels. █