Leak: The EPO's General Consultative Committee (GCC) Does Not Consult Staff on Crucial Matters and Bypasses the Administrative Council (AC) to Do Illegal Things

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Apr 28, 2025

Two weeks ago: EPO Likely Breaking the Law Yet Again, This Time by Using Slop for Patents (to Lower Costs While Producing Monopolies That Cause Ruinous Lawsuits)

There's a new publication (an open letter) and communication circulating at the EPO this week. As a reminder, António Campinos is acting like a dictator and does all sorts of illegal things in the name of serving bullies and profiteers. He believes that if he serves the rich and the powerful, then constitutions and laws can simply be ignored and routinely violated. That extend to violations against the EPO's very staff!

Here's a message sent by the Central Staff Committee, i.e. elected Staff Representatives (SRs):

Request for consultation on the upcoming document (GCC/DOC 7/2025)

Dear All sites,

The document GCC/DOC 7/2025 was tabled in the General Consultative Committee (GCC) meeting of 6 May 2025 for information only, as such, it is provided to GCC members only one week in advance of the meeting and no opinion from the GCC is sought. At the time of drafting the present announcement, the document has not been provided to GCC members.

According to the agenda sent on 17 April 2025, the document relates to the “application of education and childcare reform” (CA/7/21), which is typically an issue concerning the conditions of employment of EPO staff. Therefore, the document should be tabled for consultation, and as such, be provided to GCC members two weeks in advance and an opinion from the GCC should besought.

The Education and Childcare Reform of 2021 was appealed by EPO staff members affected by the changes. In its opinions issued in 2024, the Appeals Committee (ApC) considered in particular that “[t]he definition of direct and indirect costs is an essential element of the reform, as the former are eligible for reimbursement up to an annual ceiling, while the latter are subject to reimbursement by a monthly lump sum”.

The ApC noted that the relevant amendments made in CA/7/21 presented to the Budget and Finance Committee (BFC) and the Administrative Council (AC) in 2021 differed from those presented to the GCC in GCC/DOC 2/2021. The ApC recommended that “it would have been appropriate and advisable to re-consult the GCC on these amendments” and “This could have further clarified the definition of direct and indirect costs”.

In this open letterto the President, we recall that any document tabled in the GCC concerning the Education and Childcare Reform should be tabled for consultation.

Sincerely yours,

The Central Staff Committee - CSC

This is the open letter they're alluding to:

European Patent Office
80298 Munich
Germany

Central Staff Committee
Comité central du personnel
Zentraler Personalausschuss

centralSTCOM@epo.org

Reference: sc25027cl

Date: 25/04/2025

European Patent Office | 80298 MUNICH | GERMANY

To:
Mr António Campinos
(President of the EPO)

By email:
president@epo.org

OPEN LETTER

Request for consultation on Education and Childcare Reform (ECR) guidelines (GCC/DOC 7/2025)

Dear Mr President,

The document GCC/DOC 7/2025 was tabled in the General Consultatitve Committee (GCC) meeting of 6 May 2025 for information only, as such, it is provided to GCC members only one week in advance of the meeting and no opinion from the GCC is sought. At the time of drafting the present letter, the document has not been provided to GCC members.

According to the agenda sent on 17 April 2025, the document relates to the “application of education and childcare reform” (CA/7/21), which is typically an issue concerning the conditions of employment of EPO staff. Therefore, the document should be tabled for consultation, and as such, be provided to GCC members two weeks in advance and an opinion from the GCC should be sought.

The Education and Childcare Reform of 2021 was appealed by EPO staff members affected by the changes. In its opinions issued in 2024, the Appeals Committee (ApC) considered in particular that “[t]he definition of direct and indirect costs is an essential element of the reform, as the former are eligible for reimbursement up to an annual ceiling, while the latter are subject to reimbursement by a monthly lump sum”.

---

The ApC noted that the relevant amendments made in CA/7/21 presented to the Budget and Finance Committee (BFC) and the Administrative Council (AC) in 2021 differed from those presented to the GCC in GCC/DOC 2/2021. The ApC recommended that “it would have been appropriate and advisable to re-consult the GCC on these amendments” and “This could have further clarified the definition of direct and indirect costs”.

In our view, any document tabled in the GCC concerning the Education and Childcare Reform should be tabled for consultation.

We are looking forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely yours,

Derek Kelly
Chairman of the Central Staff Committee

This is hardly the first time the management refuses to take input from staff that actually knows the law and understands how patents work. The sad fact is, the EPO is nowadays run by a cabal striving for financialization, even if that technically means fraud. █