Summary: Out of 2,237 EPO workers who expressed their position on the SAP, which in essence lowers their salary, only 31 expressed support for it (that's 1.385%)

"Final results of the petition" regarding the SAP, say the staff representatives to the people whom they represent (EPO workers), show that 2191 workers are against the SAP, only 31 are in favour of the SAP, and 15 have chosen to abstain.

"The EPO Pensioners’ Association has also prepared a similar petition and more than 1000 of its members have signed it," say the staff representatives. As a reminder, the EPO President António Campinos goes after pensioners (past workers), not just current workers. Some say this policy started with a controversial hiring in 2017 under Benoît Battistelli, the plunderer in chief.

"We strongly believe," say the staff representatives, "that the combined effect of the two petitions and the December 2020 strike give a strong signal which cannot be ignored."

"Some say this policy started with a controversial hiring in 2017 under Benoît Battistelli, the plunderer in chief.""In this open letter," they note, "we informed the Heads of Delegation of the Administrative Council of the results."

Here is the full letter:

Reference: sc21023cl - 0.3.1/3.1/0.2.4 Date: 19.02.2021

To the Chairman and The Heads of Delegation of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation

OPEN LETTER

Staff Petition against the Implementation of the New Salary Adjustment Procedure

Dear Mr Chairman, dear Heads of Delegation,

More than 2000 EPO employees have voted in favour of the attached petition against the implementation of the new Salary Adjustment Procedure (SAP). This is remarkable, especially in view of the circumstances under which it took place¹.

The final results of the petition are as follows:

2191 against the SAP 31 in favour of the SAP 15 abstentions

In accordance with the terms of the petition the CSC is urging the Delegations in the Administrative Council:

● to postpone the application of the capping mechanisms of the new Salary Adjustment Procedure,

● to maintain in the meantime the Salary Adjustment Procedure without capping,

● to reopen the discussions with the Staff Representation with a view to finding a workable agreement on an amended new Salary Adjustment Procedure which respects the principles of parallelism with salary evolution of national civil servants and equality of purchasing power in all places of employment taking into account in a commensurate manner the long-term sustainability of the EPO.

¹ E.g. teleworking associated with the pandemic, the refusal by the Office to let us inform all colleagues on an individual basis using their official email address

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For your information the EPO Pensioners’ Association has also prepared a similar petition and more than 1000 of its members have signed it.

We strongly believe that the combined effect of the two petitions and the December 2020 strike give a strong signal which cannot be ignored.

Yours sincerely,

Alain Dumont Chairman of the Central Staff Committee

Annex: Petition

The petition from the Central Staff Committee was circulated a long time ago and reposted here as HTML. It's inevitable that some of its many recipients would want us to see it.

We can't help wondering who voted in favour (or why). Roberta Romano-Götsch and the likes of her? ⬆