Bonum Certa Men Certa

Almost Half of Vienna-based EPO Staff Went on Strike This Past Week

First time in several years

A photo from EPO Vienna



Summary: A report on participation in the latest EPO strike, which is the first strike in years; it's abundantly clear that in spite of many barriers (making it harder to go on strike) and risks associated with unemployment in these difficult times, as many as 1,448 employees have chosen to take direct action

THE unique situation Viennese EPO staff (or EPO staff based/stationed in Vienna) is in was mentioned here last month. The cuts are being implemented by António Campinos, who barely replaces departing/retiring staff. It is therefore not surprising that despite the risks (of reprisal) almost half of EPO staff there was on strike on December 15th.



"We've taken note of the fact that media across Europe did not mention this strike, despite it affecting Europe's second-largest institution.""On 15 December 2020," the Central Staff Committee wrote, "according to the figures published by the Administration and despite strike registration being difficult for managers, 1.448 employees representing 22,6% of all staff participated in the strike. It is the highest result of an industrial action since 2016 and a clear signal to the President that there is room for improvement in terms of social peace."

Here is the full letter:

Munich, 18.12.2020 sc20191cp – 0.2.1/0.3.2

2020, a striking year



Thanking you for your support

Dear colleagues,

Over the year 2020, EPO staff has shown to be resilient. The on-going Covid-19 pandemic has changed our work and our family life. EPO staff worked well and deserve to be thanked for going above and beyond in their efforts this year.

The participation in the General Assemblies on the 19th November (ca. 2000 attendees combined from Munich and The Hague) and the numerous Virtual Floor Meetings (ca. 2100 attendees overall) showed the desire of staff to gather again in live events and their interest in what is going on in the Office. We called on you to make your views on the recent reforms known in emails to the President and VP4, and you answered. We found your words stirring and felt it necessary to move forward with additional actions.

The decision to call for strike did not come easily because staff have already given a lot this year to maintain business continuity and to meet their ever-increasing objectives. However, the reluctance of management to acknowledge any discontent at the EPO forced us to resort to strike as a means of last resort.

On 15 December 2020, according to the published figures and despite strike registration being difficult for managers, 1.448 employees representing 22,6% of all staff participated in the strike, including 28% of staff in The Hague, 17% of staff in Munich, 39% of staff in Berlin, and 46% of staff in Vienna. It is the highest result of an industrial action since 2016 and a clear signal to the President that there is room for improvement in terms of social peace.

We asked you to support us and many of you supported us. We thank all those who participated in the proposed actions.

In his season’s greetings, Mr Campinos announced his decision to offer one week of additional holidays for the first week 2021, and for that we thank him. We are now looking forward to next year to tackle with him the concerns of staff thanks to the strong mandate you gave us.

Since this might be the last publication of your staff representatives this year, we take the opportunity to wish you all a relaxing break and a happy new year!

Sincerely yours,

Your Central Staff Committee



Readers are asked to remember that many of these employees are working from home; this further complicates a classic strike action. Office management was quick to exploit the pandemic to stifle the previously planned strike action, which coincided with lock-downs across Europe.

EPO Vienna"We are now looking forward to next year to tackle with the President the concerns of staff thanks to the strong mandate you gave us," the representatives concluded. "In the meantime, we take the opportunity to wish you all a relaxing break and a happy new year!"

We've taken note of the fact that media across Europe did not mention this strike, despite it affecting Europe's second-largest institution. It did, however, publish a bunch of reputation-laundering fluff for Office management.

Recent Techrights' Posts

There Was Always Too Much 'Crazy Stuff' Going on Around Freenode
What many IRC users lost sight of
Exposing Crime is Not a Crime (It Never Was)
In the eyes of rich and powerful people, those who speak about their crimes are the "criminals"
Drug Addiction is a Real Problem, It Destroys Families
a rather sensitive matter
 
This Past Friday, Confirming What We Said All Along About Brett Wilson LLP: It's Shrinking, Has Considerable Debt, Loss of Net Assets Despite the Microsoft SLAPP Money
The documents only became publicly available less than 2 days ago
Some of the Many Reasons We Sued Microsofters for Harassment
perpetrators of harassment
For 20 Years Many People Were Sharecropping for Canonical's Oligarch, Now He's Deleting All Their Contributions
"Ubuntu has erased instead of archiving the trove of material at Ubuntu Forums"
GNU/Linux Distros Abandoning Microsoft GitHub
Will curl be next to leave Microsoft GitHub?
Expect More XBox Mass Layoffs Soon If the Rumours Are True
From a Microsoft media operative
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, June 07, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, June 07, 2025
Europe Needs to Move Away From GAFAM; The Sooner, the Better
Europe - not just the EU - must abandon GAFAM as soon as possible
The Issue Isn't GNOME's Promotion of Diversity But GNOME Corruption, Abuse, Censorship, and Worse
So-called "Conservative" (republican, pro-Trump, bigoted) people want you to think the problem with GNOME is politics
When the News Sources Become Scarce and Increasingly Full of Polluted/Contaminated 'Content' (With LLM Slop and Slop Images)
Integrity matters
"Linux" Sites That Spew Out LLM Slop
We're lacking enough material for another "Slopwatch"
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part V: Breaking the Law, Just Like EPO
We'll hopefully cover some of the pertinent details later this year
Links 08/06/2025: Security Lapses, CISA Cuts, and More
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/06/2025: Mime Types and Geminisphere Introduction
Links for the day
Links 07/06/2025: Slop Companies Retain All Private Data, More Books Banned in the US
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/06/2025: "A Monk's Guide to Happiness" and "Wireless Earbuds"
Links for the day
Links 07/06/2025: More Rumours of Mass Layoffs in Microsoft's XBox Division, New COVID Variant
Links for the day
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part IV: Political Scrutiny and Errors/Inconsistencies in Official Documents
When such organisations receive scrutiny they start focusing on cover-up and muzzling of facts (or crushing people who say the truth)
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, June 06, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, June 06, 2025
Slopwatch: LinuxTechLab, Planet Ubuntu, Anti-Linux FUD, and Microsoft SPAM
It's not easy to altogether avoid take articles these days
Gemini Links 06/06/2025: "MBA Tear" and Slop ('AI') as Plagiarism
Links for the day
Links 06/06/2025: "Convicted Felon and MElon Trade Insults" and Europe Snubbed by US Again
Links for the day
Links 06/06/2025: Microsoft XBox Bracing For More Mass Layoffs, Climate Disaster, Fake 'Money' Tokens From US President
Links for the day
Gemini Links 06/06/2025: Vanishing Cultures and MElon Implosion
Links for the day
Extortion is a Crime, Even If You're Based in Another Continent and Work for Microsoft
reported to British authorities
We're in 6/6 Now, Almost Halfway in 2025
2025 was probably the best year for us
South Americans Are Saying Goodbye to Microsoft
We're hardly even "Cherry-Picking" or conveniently singling out one South American nation
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part III: Data Protection Failures, Just Like at the European Patent Office (EPO)
Just less than a decade ago we showed that the EPO had illegally shared staff data with third parties
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 05, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, June 05, 2025