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EPO Women Affairs
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Some years ago there was some waffle [PDF] from Elodie Bergot, who was promoted not as a woman but as a family member (spouse) of the EPO's "mafia" (Benoît Battistelli's faithful servant from INPI). Bergot seems to be attacking more women than she attacks men (M. & E.). How's that for an achievement? Cat fights are not breeding diversity -- more so in an office that already fails to attract women and barely offers them promotions (compared to men), according to the EPO's own numbers.
António Campinos also "supports" women. He brought women without relevant experience in patents just because they had previously worked with him at EUIPO -- the subject of a new scandal as noted in the video above. It is connected to Christian Archambeau, a confidant of Campinos, who originally came from the EPO.
Nothing allures women scientists more -- and even attracts them to the EPO -- than a Mr. Campinos dropping "F bombs" in front of women. Apply today, the "fucking president" (his description of himself) loves women applicants.
Staff Committee The Hague Comité du personnel de La Haye Personalausschuss Den Haag
8 March 2023
HAPPY WOMEN’S DAY 2023!
An invitation to work together towards gender equity at the EPO
Dear colleagues,
International women’s day is celebrated on March 8th: “a day to Celebrate women's achievements, raise awareness about discrimination and take action to drive gender parity”.
#EmbraceEquity is this year's campaign theme of the International Women's Day. Equity aims to ensure the access, equality of opportunity and advancement for everyone, through the identification and removal of obstacles which, in the present context, prevent women from fully participating in all aspects of life.
In 2018 (reflecting the data up to 2017), the administration prepared a document “Gender Awareness Report - 2018” containing several indicators which revealed weak points in D&I policies at the Office.
Since then, the administration has put some measures in place. The staff representation believes that it is the right moment to evaluate the impact of each of the measures taken, and to receive an overview of the present situation as well as an evaluation of the previous policies. Therefore, we requested an update of the “Gender Awareness report” complemented with an in-depth study on “Equality in career”, with a specific focus on the impact of the NCS on female colleagues.
To shed more light on areas where the Office is doing well regarding gender equality, and where further improvements can be made, in 2018 staff representation requested that available data concerning the equality of careers by gender and by site of employment be made available. One deliverable of the D&I team is to “establish historical and current data sets on key D&I criteria to track progress and inform policy”, and we kindly request that the information be shared. In 2022 the central staff committee analysed some of the annually published statistics on the reward system, and described that although some steps in the right direction had been taken, the new career system still has the effect of widening the gender pay gap. Furthermore, the negative effects of the education allowance and childcare reform on women should not be underestimated, and there are question marks as to the effects on women of the Bringing Team Together project.
According to the EPO intranet Diversity & Inclusion intranet page: “D&I is naturally embedded in our Office’s Mission, Vision and Values. In 2022 we will move to identifying and implementing concrete actions on D&I – that make a real difference to
our staff and that integrate D&I in our daily activities – as a core ingredient of the design and execution of the Office’s strategy. This approach will allow us to identify areas we need to improve, target solutions, assess outcomes and report openly on our progress.”
We welcome the administration to share the concrete actions and progress report, and once again express our willingness to work together towards embracing gender equity at the EPO leaving no one behind.
“We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back” Malala Yousafzai
Kind regards, Local Staff Committee The Hague (LSCTH)