"SuccessFactors" (SAP) Stunts at the EPO Used to Break Laws and Constitutions, Staff Tricked Into Harming Themselves
Ongoing corruption and lawlessness became the norm; Europe's second-largest institution (EPO) along with the largest institution (EU) has its very own Minsk (which also sends funds to Minsk). Where's the unambiguous condemnation from the German government? Reserved for Belarus and Russia?
LAST month we wrote about the EPO setting up traps for staff (other tricks are reported in The Hague). The union cautions staff not to play along and never to enter these traps. By default, do not sign anything, no matter how much pressure there is; do not consent to things - even electronically - that you cannot and do not understand (or intentionally aren't being informed about). And that goes without saying at the EPO, with a recent history of overt corruption.
The EPO's Central Staff Committee (not the same as the union) has a new publication dated last Friday. It explains the entrapment and how to deal with it. As per communications to staff:
Further recommendations
Dear Colleagues,
You have received with an email from PD People of 17 December 2024 an invitation to acknowledge receipt of your updated job profile and to review it, together with your line manager, in order to ensure that it is in line with your 2025 performance goals.
A note displayed in “SuccessFactors” further requests you to review this information by 31 January 2025. After this date, the profile will automatically be considered acknowledged.
In a former publication, the Central Staff Committee (CSC) has advised you not to acknowledge it.
The change of work conditions only visible in a tool, which can be changed by the administration even after acknowledgement, is highly questionable. For those reasons, the present unilateral allocation of an updated job profile based on the skills framework creates unpredictable consequences and is legally flawed.
In this paper, we provide further recommendations.
Sincerely yours,
The Central Staff Committee
The paper is similar to the above but more detailed. It also gives a way to undo the damage (if one was lured into the trap):
Zentraler Personalausschuss
Central Staff Committee
Le Comité Central du PersonnelMunich, 24-01-2025
sc25008cpYour job profile has been updated
Dear colleagues,
You have received with an email from PD People of 17 December 2024 an invitation to acknowledge receipt of your updated job profile and to review it, together with your line manager, in order to ensure that it is in line with your 2025 performance goals. A note displayed in “SuccessFactors” further requests you to review this information by 31 January 2025. After this date, the profile will automatically be considered acknowledged.
The Central Staff Committee (CSC) has advised you not to acknowledge it.
The new job profiles embrace a job description and a listing of skills. All are relevant concerning the following provisions
- Circular 365 (skills framework), the latest version adopted after consultation of the General Consultative Committee (GCC) on 19 December 2024, to which the CSC members expressed their negative opinion
- Circulars 364 and 366, performance appraisals and rewards are based on the achievements related to your job profile, as also explained in the FAQ in the skills development portal1
- Circular 397 and Article 52 ServRegs, professional incompetence is defined as the lack of ability and or efficiency in the performance of the duties and in relation to their job profile
- For job mobility and for applying to new roles, as explained in the FAQ. The job descriptions, job profiles and the skills contained in the skills framework are indeed essential elements of the conditions of employment. They shall therefore only be adopted or amended by the Administrative Council following statutory consultation of the GCC. In addition, the updated job profiles with individual skills may, in addition, alter the very nature of the employment relationship between the EPO and the employees.
However, the GCC has not been consulted on the adoption or update of job profiles, job descriptions or the specific skills, as required by Article 38(2) ServRegs.
This affects essential aspects like
- the job descriptions and skills of the different job profiles, e.g. “functional technical skills”
_____
1 “Line managers will consider the successful application of skills in overall performance assessments, which can influence rewards. However, skills self-assessments in the skills management tool are not used for performance or rewards attribution”
- the job evaluation methodology for the entitlement to rewards and performance assessment
- the consequences of performing or not the skills self-assessment
- the alignment of the job profile with performance goals
- the consequences of acknowledging or not the job profile.
By doing so the Office unduly attempts to escape the Administrative Council’s oversight.
Furthermore, the change of work conditions only visible in a tool, which can be changed by the administration even after acknowledgement, is highly questionable. For those reasons, the present unilateral allocation of an updated job profile based on the skills framework creates unpredictable consequences and is legally flawed.
We recommend
- not to review or acknowledge the job profile
- not to perform a self-assessment of skills
You may consider answering the email of 17 December 2024 with the text proposed at the end of this post, also if you have clicked on “I have read” button.
The Central Staff Committee
To: skillsmanagement@epo.org
Subject: NONACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF JOB PROFILE - Re: To all staff: Your job profile has been updated – access and acknowledge receipt in SuccessFactors
Dear skills management,
In relation to your email of 17 December 2024, I do not acknowledge receipt of the updated job profile. I object any automatic or implicit acknowledgement derived from not reviewing certain information by 31 January 2025. I further withdraw any acknowledgement derived from having pressed the button “I have read” in SuccessFactors.
With kind regards,
Your name
Imagine working for a company like this. Would you tolerate it? Well, this company (which is what the The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) calls the EPO) is basically above the law and it moreover exercises power over where you can and cannot work when/if you leave the EPO.
One need not travel as far as Moscow to find corruption in Europe. It's right there in Bavaria. █