As expected, people who work for the EPO marched in protest at midday. This action was, notably, supported by FNV. "Strong Solidarity Message From FNV," SUEPO wrote today/yesterday, "The Biggest Dutch Union (1 million members!)."
Hundreds of European Patent Office workers take action against ‘tyranny’ director
THE HAGUE - More than four hundred employees of the European Patent Office (EPO) in Rijswijk demonstrated against their director Benoît Battistelli at Square 1813 in The Hague on Thursday. The reason for the demonstration is the poor relationship between the staff and the director.
According to the employees the have been suffering under "the yoke" of their director. "“Battistelli rules with an iron fist and tolerates no participation or contradiction. He dismisses people at will, demotes them, and unilaterally implements changes to working conditions and demotivates if the entire organization,” said union FNV.
The demonstration on Square 1813 call employees Secretary Martijn van Dam (Economic Affairs) to take action against Battistelli.
Staff members at the European Patent Office (EPO) are holding a demonstration today in the centre of The Hague in support of dismissed workers.
According to a statement from the Staff Union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO), the demonstration is being held to show solidarity with “dismissed, downgraded and targeted staff representatives and SUEPO officials”.
A source close to SUEPO said that they would “truly prefer not to have to hit the streets again to publicly complain” about the EPO management.
Earlier this month, Laurent Prunier, elected member of the central staff committee and secretary of SUEPO in The Hague, was sacked.