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EPO Against Work Experience
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0
The systematic abuse of the EPO, led by Benoît Battistelli's friend António Campinos, is taking another step further as experienced examiners are being driven out, with the expected outcome of worse patent quality and mental health crisis; the management promotes illegal European software patents, knowing they might end up being handled by an illegal kangaroo court.
"What does the European Commission think of a patent office bribing publishers to cover up corruption?"The Local Staff Committee Munich (LSCMN) has some new publication. SUEPO also has some new representatives, more than a dozen of them in fact [1 [PDF], 2 [PDF]], and there are some overlaps between the two groups (staff representatives and union representatives). Well, they now point out [PDF] that the Office is going to run out of suitably trained and experienced patent examiners. To quote the representatives' message to staff:
The fate of an ageing workforce at the EPO
Dear colleagues,
When reading the communication campaigns of the EPO, one would think the EPO is an employer treating its employees with respect and fulfilling its duty of care. However, the current policies are focusing on productivity as the main (sole) criterion for appreciating staff with unrealistic production expectations in many cases.
Such policies do not take into account the facts of life (e.g. health problems) and even worsen them with production corridors affecting in particular the ageing workforce.
Those among the ageing workforce who are considered, regardless of their condition, as performing below the expectations of their corridor are currently being singled out by line managers.
In this paper, we explain that instead of chasing out ageing employees, the EPO should rather invest into its workforce and be up to the standards it pretends to have in its communication campaigns.
Sincerely yours
The Local Staff Committee Munich - LSCMN
Reading these quotes you would think the EPO is an employer treating its employees with respect and fulfilling its duty of care. However, the current policies are focusing on productivity as the main (sole) criterion for appreciating staff with unrealistic production expectations in many cases.
Such policies do not take into account the facts of life (e.g. health problems) and even worsen them with production corridors affecting in particular the ageing workforce.
In addition to that, other issues come into play:
- working digitally in general - new IT tools that are frequently updated - high pace of procedural changes - sedentary work causing physical problems, such as eye or back trouble - concentration issues
Those among the ageing workforce who are considered, regardless of their condition, as performing below the expectations of their corridor are currently being singled out by line managers.
They are regularly forced to attend meetings with the team manager, director, often HR partner and even sometimes principal director.
The pretext for these meetings is:
“We are here to help you reach your goals”
But the real reason is to make it clear to him or her that:
“Your production/productivity is too low”
“You are not doing enough according to your grade and experience” “You are being unfair towards the younger colleagues in the team because they do more for less money”
“You are lowering the team’s production figures”
Which may then be followed by:
“This low production/productivity could lead to the initiation of the incompetence procedure”
And even:
“Maybe you should consider working part time”
“Maybe it is time to retire”
Such a procedure is experienced as institutional harassment forcing employees to retire or even resign.
By focusing solely on productivity aspects, the EPO is actually ignoring the specific competencies of each employee in its workforce. Ageing employees accumulate significant knowledge over the years and are a precious asset for training purposes and decision making.
Instead of chasing out ageing employees, the EPO should rather invest into its workforce and be up to the standards it pretends to have in its communication campaigns.
Sincerely yours The Local Staff Committee Munich
