Meeting (Webchat) With Maria Arranz Gomez, Florian Grundies, Jürgen Janda and Konstantinos Kortsaris Confronts EPO Management About Breaking Promises and Crushing Workers
The EPO's Local Staff Committee Munich has circulated a document about a recent meeting concerning a recent scandal. In a message to staff it said:
Dear Colleagues,On 9 July 2025, the Office announced a two-year renovation of the Isar Building during which all allocated offices will be abolished. In its publication of 10 July, the LSC Munich protested against the lack of consultation with staff representation and requested, by open letter of 23 July, an urgent meeting on the topic. On 29 July, Social Dialogue sent an invitation for a 30-minute meeting on “ISAR building renovation – allocation of workspaces” which would be held two days later.
In the meeting which took place on 31 July, we proposed that affected Isar Building staff is relocated to the upper floors of the Pschorr. We asked again the Office to promise that after the renovation was finished, they would get their allocated offices back. Also, that the loss of allocated offices would not be rolled out to the other buildings. This move from the Office happened at a time when some managers, e.g. in Dir. 1103 in The Hague, had unilaterally decided to abolish allocated offices in their directorate.
"Read more in the detailed report," they said, referring to a PDF dated today about yesterday's webchat. We've decided that it's worth reproducing for the public (the biggest stakeholder) to see:
Örtlicher Personalausschuss München Innenstadt, Haar und Brüssel
Local Staff Committee Munich City, Haar and Brussels
Le Comité local du Personnel de Munich Ville, Haar et BruxellesMunich, 01-08-2025
sc25008mpMeeting between Social Dialogue and
the Local Staff Committee Munichon 31 July 2025
On 9 July 2025, the Office announced a two-year renovation of the Isar building during which all allocated offices will be abolished. In its publication of 10 July, the LSC Munich protested against the lack of consultation with staff representation and requested, by open letter of 23 July, an urgent meeting on the topic. On 29 July, Social Dialogue sent an invitation for a 30-minute meeting on “ISAR building renovation – allocation of workspaces” which would be held two days later. This paper reports on the meeting.
On 31 July 2025 members of the Local Staff Committee Munich met online with Maria Arranz Gomez (Social Dialogue Secretariat), Florian Grundies (PD General Administration), Jürgen Janda (Director Buildings) and Konstantinos Kortsaris (President's Office).
Meeting opened: 10:00
Mr Kortsaris opened the meeting by explaining that it was not a secret that a renovation of the Isar building had been planned for years, and disruption in the medium term would make the building better in the long term. Big projects unavoidably change the way we work, and we need to “tighten our teeth”. Everyone who works in the Isar building would be affected. Would Staff Representation like to see the presentation again?
Staff Representation explained that they were not challenging that renovation was needed, and they had already analysed the presentation. They knew that the presentation mentioned that allocated offices would be abolished in the Isar building for the duration of the renovation. However, two years was a long time and even longer than some of the fixed-term contracts given by the Office. Allocated offices had been promised to staff working at least three days a week, as part of the “Bringing Teams Together” concept, and the Administrative Council had also been told this (CA/16/24, page 42/100). Why couldn’t disrupted Isar Building staff be reallocated to the upper floors of the Pschorr (5 in part, 6, 7 and 8)? To clarify, renovation of the Isar Building was welcomed, the only concern that Staff Representation wanted to raise in the current meeting was that of the loss of allocated offices.
Staff Representation stressed that a lot of staff needed allocated offices to work properly for privacy reasons, which was particularly important for HR, financial services and Health and Safety staff. A lot of staff in the Isar building also still relied on paper to work because of a lack of digital alternatives. In 2008-2010 the Isar Building had been renovated, and staff moved to other EPO buildings (incl. Westsite). Why couldn’t something similar be done now?
Mr Janda replied that due to planned work in the Pschorr underground garage there would be a lot of noisy construction work and staff from lower floors would need to be moved. So, staff from the Isar Building could not move to the Pschorr. PH 7 would also be renovated for the reallocation of the Boards of Appeal, so that would also not be available for Isar staff.
Staff Representation asked why, in that case, the Office couldn’t just rent a building, as had been done in the past.
Mr Janda replied that this was not needed with the current workplace concept as half of the space in the Isar would be sufficient to host all Isar staff.
Staff Representation stressed that the situation was identical with that of 2004 and 2008- 2010 as the problem was only with staff with allocated offices. This was only about 300 people. Again, why couldn’t space be found for these people? Staff have been promised a concrete solution. Where was it?
Mr Kortsaris replied that, as a lawyer he could see both sides. Staff Representation stressed that the Office was asking staff who come to work every day to look for a room every day. Nowhere in the Bringing Teams Together document, nor in Circular 419, was it mentioned that allocated offices could be abolished.
Mr Janda answered that it could be seen from the pipeline that the Pschorr underground garage would be renovated in 2026, and this would obviously cause disruption. The impact, because of noise, would be on the lower floors. Mr Grundies added that the Westsite was not rented in the past just because of the Isar renovation project but because the Office was waiting for PH 7&8 to be built. Anyway, the Office had a different workplace concept then.
Staff Representation asked why affected staff couldn’t move to the upper floors of the Pschorr, where there was space for not only staff from both halves of the Isar building but also the lower floors of the Pschorr. Staff were not being well-treated by the Office.
Mr Grundies replied that if anyone said to him that staff were not being well treated he would reply “Come on!”. The Office was investing a lot of money for a two-year disruption.
Staff Representation replied that this was not a minor disruption. What about staff with special technical equipment? What about staff still using paper? What about staff who needed to come to work every day because they could not work at home? With this issue staff was losing trust in the Office.
Staff Representation again asked the Office to promise that after the renovation was finished, they would get their allocated offices back. Also, that the loss of allocated offices would not be rolled out to the other buildings. This move from the Office happened at a time when some managers, e.g. in Dir. 1103 in The Hague, had unilaterally decided to abolish allocated offices in their directorate.
Mr Grundies replied that there was “no plan to change the workplace concept”.
Nobody from Social Dialogue was prepared to promise that staff would get their allocated offices back after the renovation was finished. Mr Kortsaris said that the subject of the current meeting was only about the renovation. He added that the Office had looked into giving Isar staff allocated offices in the Pschorr, but this was not possible. Staff Representation stressed they could not understand the refusal of the Office to relocate Isar Building staff to the PH 1-4 in allocated offices according to their needs and their presence on-site as was being monitored in the NWoW usage dashboard.
Mr Grundies stressed that everyone would have a place to work, in a public workspace either in the Isar or in Pschorr 1-4. The Office would find solutions for every issue raised.
Meeting closed: 10:40
The Local Staff Committee Munich
The lack of consistent messages suggests plans other than what's advertised and the lack of consultation (secrecy) likewise. █