20/03/2015
Actions continue at the European Patent Office (EPO)
The governing body of the EPO will meet on Wednesday 25 and Thursday 26 March in Munich (Germany). On the agenda is a reform that allegedly should improve staff health. In practice it will seriously weaken the position of sick staff vis à vis the Office. Amongst others, the new regulations would oblige staff to remain at their place of employment during at least 10 years of full incapacity to work, before the Office will consider recognizing their invalidity. During this time they will need to request permission from their employer for every absence. According to SUEPO this is an impermissable infringement of their privacy.
On Wednesday 25 March 2015 a demonstration will take place in Munich in front of the EPO Isar building (Bob-van-Benthem-Platz 1) starting at 12.30h.
The demonstration aims in particular at the German delegation in the Administrative Council. As the representatives of a host country and of one of the founding Member States, the German delagation has a special responsibility towards EPO staff.
Staff of the EPO reproach the German delegation that it has thus far uncritically supported all previous reforms that in various ways infringed staff’s fundamental rights to freedom of speech, freedom of association, inviolability of the home and other.