Perpetual Strikes to Begin at European Patent Office (EPO), Large Majority Votes for Strikes Any Day of the Week
9 days ago: A Step Close to Shutting Down the European Patent Office (EPO)
The union or SUEPO The Hague Committee has contacted staff regarding the outcome of a very recent vote (yesterday, almost exactly 24 hours ago).
It looks like many workers will not work for 3 months to come (unless some exceptional things happen). The strikes will commence this coming Monday and stay in effect until June 30th. After they they may carry on for another 6 months, i.e. until the end of this year.
Remember when we wrote about Annus Horribilis at the European Patent Office (EPO).
Approved industrial actions below:
The SUEPO The Hague Committee has sent the following message to members/staff:
INTERNATIONALE GEWERKSCHAFT IM EUROPÄISCHEN PATENTAMT
STAFF UNION OF THE EUROPEAN PATENT OFFICE
UNION SYNDICALE DE L'OFFICE EUROPEEN DES BREVETSOrtssektion Den Haag
Local section The Hague
Section locale La Haye26 March 2026
su26010hpApproved Action Plan 30 March – 30 June
Every working day available to strike from Monday 30 March until the end of June
Dear members, dear colleagues,
On Thursday, March 26 at 11.00 hrs, SUEPO The Hague held an extraordinary general meeting. An update on the situation with the administration and delegates was given, as outlined in the attached slides. Two votes were then held: one on the decision to continue the industrial actions and one to determine the preferred action plan of the members present. The result of the two votes, after verification and inclusion of proxies were as follows:
Vote 1: Are you in favour of continuing the industrial actions against the salary erosion at the EPO?
Yes: 97.5%
No: 0%
Abstain: 2.5%
Vote 2: What is your preferred action plan until the end of June?
• Action Plan 1 (strikes on Mon and Fri): 34.4%
• Action Plan 2 (strikes any day of the week): 58.6%
• Abstain: 7.0%
As a result of the votes, Action Plan 2 is adopted and enters immediately into force in The Hague (see the approved industrial actions annexed below). The President was informed of this result in an open letter sent on the same day.
The SUEPO TH committee calls on all staff to strike for at least 23 days in the period from 30 March until the end of June. This is equivalent to the number of strike days planned in Munich on fixed days (Mondays and Fridays), according to their approved action plan.
Kind regards,
Your SUEPO TH committee
Notice that nobody voted against the strikes; 2.5% abstained.
Notice how none of the media or even so-called 'IP' blogs write about it. They similarly looked the other way when EPO management got caught red-handed (or white-nosed) with cocaine. █