EPO Demonstration Happening Right Now, Later This Week Things Will Only Escalate Further

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Mar 18, 2026

This morning we mentioned the demonstration, which started some minutes ago. It's the beginning of something a lot bigger and tomorrow the staff goes on strike. Next month there will be many more strikes and then it can become complete absence. The EPO would basically cease to function.

The SUEPO The Hague Committee wrote to staff this morning (to be clear, the demonstration is in Munich, but there is a live-stream), heralding an upcoming decision on how big the industrial actions will become this spring. We reproduce this below in full:

Extraordinary General Meeting of SUEPO The Hague - New date on the 26th March at 11:00

Dear members, dear colleagues,

Following a poll conducted among SUEPO members in November 2025, the SUEPO The Hague committee drafted an action plan aimed at stopping the continued erosion of staff purchasing power.

This action plan, covering the period February-March, was adopted during an Extraordinary General Meeting on 27 January 2026 and combined:

• Warning strikes: on 30 January, 23 February and 19 March.

• Work-To-Rule: for all staff. In practice, this means working thoroughly, avoiding rushing or overtime, and refraining from voluntary projects.

Two warning strikes, intended to signal staff’s serious concerns and to encourage genuine dialogue with the administration, have already taken place, and a third will take place on March 19th.

The document CA/24/26, tabled for discussion at the Administrative Council on the 18-19 March,  does not meet the expectations of a fair and lawful Salary Adjustment Procedure (SAP). If the method is implemented unamended, it would lead to a further erosion of staff purchasing power, which has already been significantly reduced in recent years, despite increasing productivity.

Following calls from staff and SUEPO members in The Hague, and seeing that the EPO refuses to enter bona fide discussions with staff representatives and SUEPO on the SAP 2027–2032, we have therefore drafted two potential action plans, to intensify our effort.

From 30th March onwards, two possible action plans are currently under consideration:

• Action Plan 1
  Continuation of the current strategy as presented in January, involving strikes on fixed days of Mondays and Fridays combined with continued work-to-rule action;

• Action Plan 2
  Further intensification through rolling strikes allowing strike action any day of the week from Monday to Friday combined with continued work-to-rule action.

The reason we present two plans is to allow the members to indicate which schedule is expected to provide the highest possible overall participation of staff. These action plans will be presented, discussed and decided upon by the SUEPO The Hague members during our upcoming Extraordinary General Meeting of SUEPO The Hague (EGM). Please note the new date for the EGM: 26th March at 11:00.

Provisional agenda

1. Recap of recent developments regarding SAP

2. Presentation of the proposed action plans

3. Discussion/debate with members

4. Vote on the preferred action plan

5. Conclusions

We encourage all SUEPO TH members to attend the meeting and support the action plans

Please do participate in those actions. They are working! The management is stressed and delegates want to see real change.

At this point (phase) all the momentum is with the ordinary staff - the inertia is in favour of the workforce. It's the executives who have plenty to fear, not the staff. The executives are disposable and they don't have the qualifications required for their position/role. █