Extraordinary General Meeting of Staff Union of the European Patent Office Ahead of Intensifying Strikes
The SUEPO The Hague Committee, or the staff union at the European Patent Office, plans an Extraordinary General Meeting on the 11th of June, i.e. 2 days from now, at 11:00 AM CET. This is what SUEPO The Hague told staff:
Dear members, dear colleagues,
Following the Extraordinary General Meeting of 26 March 2026, SUEPO The Hague members endorsed an action plan for rolling strikes combined with work-to-rule actions in response to the continued erosion of staff purchasing power and the unsatisfactory proposal concerning the future Salary Adjustment Procedure (SAP).
Over the past two months, this choice of action plan has demonstrated its effectiveness: participation of staff has significantly reduced production, which is now almost 12K products behind plan, and contributed to a noticeable decrease in granted patents (-23% compared to plan for the first 4 months of 2026). The message sent by staff has therefore been both visible and measurable.
The Administration has taken no action to address the concerns repeatedly expressed by staff and their representatives. The Member States have also shown limited willingness to address the shortcomings of the proposed SAP in a meaningful manner, despite improvement in the rhetoric used by some large delegations.
In view of this situation and the upcoming AC meeting starting on the 30th June, the SUEPO The Hague Committee considers that maintaining pressure remains necessary. The proposal put forward by SUEPO to both the management and to the delegates in May, put simply, is that there must be an end to the cuts. For our concerns to be heard, a continuation of the industrial actions is necessary.
We therefore invite all members to attend a third Extraordinary General Meeting of SUEPO The Hague on 11 June 2026 at 11.00 hrs, during which we will submit for decision by the SUEPO members present the continuation of the current action plan until the end of 2026, namely:
Continuation of rolling strikes, allowing participation in strike action on any working day;
Continuation of work-to-rule actions across the Office.
Provisional agenda
Review of recent developments regarding the SAP and discussions with the Administration and Member States
Assessment of the impact of the current industrial actions
Presentation of the proposed action plan for the remainder of 2026
Discussion and exhange with members
Vote on the proposed action plan
Conclusions
We strongly encourage all SUEPO The Hague members to attend the meeting and vote on the future action plan.
We will, in the meantime, run a series about EPO corruption, which is now connected to corruption in Portugal and to corruption inside the EU. █