Bonum Certa Men Certa

The EPO's Mythical “Gap” Has Been Found and It's Bonuses for People Who Use Pure Fiction to Steal From Patent Examiners

Video download link | md5sum daa6c4b14f45f1292dcf04348028c109



Summary: The phony president who has the audacity to claim there's a budget gap (see above) is issuing millions of euros for his enablers to enjoy; weeks ahead of the next meeting of national delegates the Central Staff Committee (CSC) tells them: "Events show that the delegations’ concerns about functional allowances have materialised. The lack of transparency and inflation of the budget envelope gives rise to the suspicion that high management is pursuing a policy of self-service at the expense of EPO staff, which is difficult to reconcile with the Office’s claimed cost-saving policy, and to the detriment of the whole Organisation."

The Central Staff Committee (CSC) of the EPO has sent António Campinos a copy of a letter about the same sort of thing we saw in the Benoît Battistelli days. The abusers take all the money, gamble with cash reserves illegally, and then give themselves bonuses for these illegal acts.



Talking about spitting in your staff's face...

The letter to the Chairman (of the Administrative Council) and heads of national delegations is dated 4 days ago. EPO staff has been notified that "[t]he Central Staff Committee (CSC) has sent this letter to the AC secretariat, with a request to distribute it to the Heads of Delegations. Since 2015, the budget envelope for functional allowances has inflated from 400.000€ to 2.370.000€."

Remember similar things happened half a decade ago under Battistelli. We covered that at the time. Campinos continues to prove he's no better than Battistelli and since both of them bribe and defang the media we no longer see these issues aired in the media.

"The EPO is basically being robbed, exploiting the immunity by which managers plunder everybody else with impunity."The CSC continues: "While the number of team managers and heads of department has increased in recent years, their functional allowance remains frozen since 2018 at 360€ per month regardless of grade. At the same time, from 2014 to 2021, the number of managers in the Management Advisory Committee (MAC) increased from 8 to 30, and such members are eligible for a functional allowance of up to two months’ salary per year at the discretion of the President."

"In addition to the financial aspects, functional allowances can also have a deleterious effect on the functioning of the MAC and thus on the governance of the Organisation. The MAC is the President's advisory body and it advises him on strategic or other important decisions. Most of its members (27 out of 30) are however under the direct authority of the President and functional allowances have accounted for a significant part of their remuneration since 2017. These circumstances can weaken the MAC as an advisory body, which is expected to provide high-quality and objective advice in these areas of strategic importance.

"Events show that the delegations’ concerns about functional allowances have materialised. The lack of transparency and inflation of the budget envelope gives rise to the suspicion that high management is pursuing a policy of self-service at the expense of EPO staff, which is difficult to reconcile with the Office’s claimed cost-saving policy, and to the detriment of the whole Organisation."

So there's no lack of money, it's just badly allocated. The EPO is wasting money on stock market gambling (losing as much as 100 million euros per year in past years) while insisting it cannot pay staff -- i.e. people who do all the work -- as it did all along and as EPC standards generally demand (for talent attraction and retention).

We're reproducing the whole letter below as HTML:

European Patent Office 80298 Munich Germany

Central Staff Committee Comité central du personnel Zentraler Personalausschuss

centralSTCOM@epo.org

Reference: sc21140cl

Date: 26/11/2021

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

OPEN LETTER

Functional allowances at the EPO

Dear Mr Chairman, Dear Heads of Delegation,

After seven years of implementation, the New Career System (CA/D 10/14) is still a concern in terms of transparency for staff and proper consultation is still lacking. This year, for the first time, the budget for functional allowances was not even submitted to the General Consultative Committee (GCC) and the budget envelope was simply disclosed in an announcement published on the Intranet on 15 October 2021. The details concerning the distribution and entitlement remain undisclosed. The Office also carried out a harmonisation reform without discussing it with the staff representation and without providing any details or basis for it. From the limited data available, the Central Staff Committee observes a trend towards less transparency and a continuous increase in the budget envelope.

Back in 2014 when functional allowances were introduced, they were limited to a maximum of two steps1 per month of the relevant grade and applicable to employees in job groups 4, 5 and 6 called upon to perform additional duties or involving specific demands (Article 12(2) ServRegs)2. At the time, the Office explained3 that they would be used for rewarding managerial responsibilities not otherwise rewarded (e.g. heads of

_________________ 1In 2014, the functional allowance of team leaders (e.g. for examiners) was set at 1,5 step in their grade per month, and thus below the maximum. 2 CA/84/14, page 20/40, “New Career System” 3 CA/84/14, par. 30




department, team leaders), temporary extension of duties and specific constraints. Delegations expressed4 concerns about the lack of certainty on the entitlement5 and that a functional allowance would be difficult to withdraw even if the responsibilities end. They also saw a risk of inflation of the budget envelope. From 2015 to 2016, the budget envelope increased from 400.0006 € to 900.000 €7.

In 2017, the Office proposed8 to extend functional allowances to job groups 1, 2 and 3 in order to open entitlement to managers9 and to increase the ceiling in view of a manager’s salary to two monthly basic salaries per year (namely around a 6-fold increase for higher grades). Delegations expressed10 concerns that this extension corresponds to 17% of yearly salary i.e. up to 35.000 € - 40.000 € for the higher job groups. The staff representation warned that a beneficiary could earn in practice a salary of an employee in a higher job group, i.e. one Principal Director becoming a Vice-President in terms of salary, under the exclusive authority and discretion of the President and without involvement of the Council.11 From 2017 to 2021, the budget envelope continued to increase from 1.400.000 €12 to 2.370.000 €13.

While the number of team managers and heads of department has increased in recent years, their functional allowance remains frozen since 2018 at 360€ per month regardless of grade. At the same time, from 2014 to 2021, the number of managers holding the specific function of advising the President in the Management Advisory Committee (MAC) increased from 8 to 30, and such members are eligible for a functional allowance of up to two months’ salary per year at the discretion of the President.

_____________ 4 CA/89/14 e, par. 17 & 22, “Draft minutes of the 110th meeting of the BFC” (20 November 2014) 5 CA/96/14 e, par. 73, “Draft minutes of the 110th meeting of the BFC” (10/11 December 2014) 6 GCC/DOC 12/2015 7 GCC/DOC 16/2017 8 CA/24/17 e, “Periodical review of the Service Regulations” 9 CA/36/17 e, par. 102, “Draft minutes of the 151st meeting of the AC” (15/16 March 2017) 10 CA/36/17 e, par. 103 and 105 11 CA/36/17, par. 114 12 GCC/DOC 16/2017 13 Intranet announcement of 15 October 2021




From a governance point of view, functional allowances can also have a deleterious effect on the functioning of the MAC. The President is assisted by the three Vice-Presidents14, who are appointed by the Administrative Council. On the other hand, the MAC is the President's advisory body and it advises him on strategic or other important decisions15. Most of its members (27) are however under the direct authority of the President and functional allowances have accounted for a significant part of their remuneration since 2017. These circumstances can weaken the MAC as an advisory body, which is expected to provide high-quality and objective advice in these areas of strategic importance.

Events show that the delegations’ concerns on functional allowances have materialised. The lack of transparency and inflation of the budget envelope gives rise to the suspicion that high management is pursuing a policy of self-service at the expense of EPO staff, which is difficult to reconcile with the Office’s claimed cost-saving policy, and to the detriment of the whole Organisation.

The Central Staff Committee calls on the delegations to exercise their supervisory role over the Office to bring it to the proper standards of consultation and transparency.

Yours sincerely,

Alain Dumont Chairman of the Central Staff Committee

cc.: President of the EPO _____________

14Article 10(3) EPC 15 See the Terms of Reference of the MAC


Maybe we'll follow up on this soon, maybe as a video tomorrow. Either way, it seems clear nothing is changing for the better. The EPO is basically being robbed, exploiting the immunity by which managers plunder everybody else with impunity.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Our Three Lawsuits Against Microsofters Are About to Become a Lot More Relevant to GNU/Linux
The Master will easily understand why Garrett has been attacking me since 2012
Slop Is Not Intelligence and It Does Not Enhance Productivity
Like voice dictation, which cannot tell the difference between "sheet" and "shit"
 
Links 23/07/2025: Slop Patents Tackled, Slop Copyright Misuses Tackled by Politicians
Links for the day
Links 23/07/2025: Retreating From Transparency on Jeffrey Epstein, We No Longer Have Press Freedom
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/07/2025: Piano and Food
Links for the day
New and Old
On Ageism in Tech
EPO Crimes Are Spreading to the British Court System
Society is now paying the price for failing to tackle crimes at the EPO
It's Time to Dump SharePoint and Here's What to Use Instead
Nextcloud, ownCloud, Bookstack, MediaWiki, and MediaGoblin
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 22, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Brett Wilson LLP Has Gone Silent
Sometimes silence says more than nothing at all
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Planet Ubuntu, and LinuxTechLab
some slopfarms show no remorse and they don't value their reputation at all
Links 23/07/2025: Book Bans, Storms, and Kangaroo Court for Patents Commits More Unlawful Acts of Overreach
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/07/2025: Thinkpad and Pinephone
Links for the day
Links 22/07/2025: "Blog Restart" and Microsoft Clobbered by “ToolShell"
Links for the day
Global Warming and Global GAFAM Energy-Wasting
Burn more money (borrowed, loans), then hope the waste will somehow translate into profit?
No Compliance With the European Patent Convention (EPC) at the European Patent Office (EPO)
It's about preventing competition against this autocracy
Blue-Collar Trolls vs White-Collar Trolls
Examples of white-collar trolls
Apple Vision Pro Failed So Badly That Its Sales Are About 2,000 Times Smaller Than iPhone Sales
What's left for Apple to offer other than hype?
To Millions of People "Year of the Linux Desktop" Was Some Time in the 1990s (Bootable GNU/Linux as a Complete Operating System is Over 33 in Age)
In some sense, "year of the Linux desktop" was 33 years ago
Make No Assumptions (or Demands) About the Screen Resolution Used by Other People
There are usability aspects, aside from accessibility aspects
Why Wayland (and XWayland) Won't Solve the Key Problem It Proclaims to be Tackling (the Same Is True for Rust)
The problem isn't Wayland per se but the false promises and efforts to force everybody to move to it whilst insulting or demonising everyone who won't play along
They Don't Tell Us that 'Digitalisation' (Now Sold as "Hey Hi") Just Means Customers Become Unpaid Staff and Are Made Accountable
People are being conditioned to associate technology with something undesirable, at times even unbearable
Diplomatic Immunity Should Not Exist for Anybody
The EPO in its current form gradually 'normalises' the end of European democracy
Brett Wilson LLP Stopped Sending Me Papers When I Showed It had Sent Me Over 5 Kilograms of Legal Papers
A week ago we lodged our third lawsuit
Microsoft Mass Layoffs and Shutdowns Became the New Normal at Microsoft
Microsoft mass layoffs became a topic of everyday media coverage since May
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Has Layoffs and Microsoft Gaming/Entertainment Division Has an Uncertain Future
it's good to see all those horrible things crashing and burning
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 21, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 21, 2025
FSF "Raised Almost $139,000 During This Summer Campaign"
"Thank you for making a stand against dystopia!"
Gemini Links 22/07/2025: VPS Exploited and Fear of View
Links for the day
LLM Bots vs Techrights
Slows things down a bit
New Publication Sheds Lights on Abuse of Workers at the European Patent Office (EPO)
Put in simple terms, they're killing the Office, harming remaining staff, try to hire rubber-stampers
Links 21/07/2025: Hardware, Health, and Imperialism
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/07/2025: "When Buying Isn't Owning" and "CMS Special Edition"
Links for the day
Links 21/07/2025: Indie Web and Toxic Politics
Links for the day
[Meme] Microsoft Lawyers Throwing Stones in Glass Houses
threatened me with bankruptcy
Google "AI Overview" is Not AI and Not Overview
do not be misled; what Google does isn't smart, it's just ripping off the sites it already crawled for as long as 27 years
Making the Case to Dump Microsoft and GAFAM for National and Digital Sovereignty
"Sovereignty is difficult"
The Tactics of the Opposition (Microsoft Lunduke): Associate With K00ks, Throw in Vaccines to Muddy the Water
Who stands to gain from this?
Europe's Second-Largest Institution (EPO) and Largest Patent Monopoly Office Needs More Transparency, Not Less Transparency
In the EPO, what good are elections when one candidate literally bribes all the voters?
How Not to Report News About Microsoft
This pattern of misreporting is so widespread that it's hard to believe it's not intentional
Computer Science is Under Attack, They Want Everyone to be a Consumer
If people can no longer acquire Computer Science education and real Computer Science experience, they will not know how to control their own digital destiny or emancipate the very same universities that now control the syllabus and instead of teaching Computer Science encourage the outsourcing of systems
The Best Tools Are the Simplest Tools
There's a hidden message here about the merits of sticking with X
Ofcom Online Safety Group Speaks of Protecting Women Online, Will Brett Wilson LLP Ever Listen?
They've essentially became like the Taliban's "burka police"
Social Control Media Relies on Advertisers, So It'll Always Be Hostile Towards Free Software
Sales, sales, sales
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 20, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 20, 2025
Fragmentation of Data
Life is too short to "hoard" data
In Defence of "Spinning Rust"
Just because something is "old" (or older) doesn't mean it ought to become extinct
Using Free Software to Prepare Legal Documents
LibreOffice is openly complaining about OOXML as an obstacle
Tech and Technology Are Not the Same Anymore
"Are you into tech, Sir?"
Our Articles About SLAPPs Receive Recognition and Interest
This week we shall continue writing about the 3 lawsuits we filed