In a recent document, the ILO Legal Advisor and the ILO Administrative Tribunal blame the number of complaints coming from the EPO for the Tribunal’s current workload and effectiveness problems. CA/21/15, a report by the external auditors of the EPO, confirms problems in the internal justice system of the EPO (see in particular points 13-15 and 59-61). In response the Governing Body of the ILO requested its Director-General “to initiate without delay discussions with the European Patent Organisation … in order to identify a solution to the difficulties …” (point 33 of the above mentioned document). Staff representatives are only to be “consulted”, and that only afterwards.
ILO defines its mission and objectives as “to promote rights at work, encourage decent employment opportunities, enhance social protection and strengthen dialogue on work-related issues” (emphasis added).
SUEPO was therefore shocked and dismayed to see that the governing body of ILO (International Labour Organisation) proposed discussions with representatives of the President without involving representatives of the staff. On behalf of SUEPO and the other staff associations that rely on the Tribunal for justice, SUEPO’s lawyer, Ed Flaherty, has requested to involve staff representatives from the outset. Click here to access the letter of Mr Flaherty.
Management is alleging that some of its senior members received threats, inside and outside of the Office. A spokesperson for the EPO told WIPR that “EPO officials (senior managers but also colleagues at working level) are increasingly subject to personal attacks and undue exposure through blogs, flyers, and calls for violence”.
If there have been individual threats, surely the Office will have acted directly against the culprit (and rightly so). But we have never seen a flier or a blog calling for violence. We wonder if such allegations are not fabricated to harness sympathy among staff and outsiders, at a time when senior management has (finally) landed under intense public scrutiny for their actions. No matter how much they try to portray themselves differently, (senior) managers are not the victims: they are the perpetrators of institutional violence, particularly violence directed against those who dare to express disagreement with certain policies.
Such cheap allegations discredit EPO staff. They call into question our integrity and are an insult to our dignity of honest employee. We do not deserve that. We are committed to seeking change through peaceful protest, negotiation, transparency, and the application of checks and balances - not through threats and intimidation.
Management should commit to the same.
The Staff Committee of the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) has sent a note for the attention of the Members of the Administrative Board and the Budget Committee:
"The OHIM Staff Committee feels deeply concerned and would like to call your attention to the urgent situation at the European Patent Office (EPO) [...] three staff representatives were suspended from service in Munich with immediate effect. The EPO has initiated disciplinary proceedings against them."
"Staff committees count on monitoring bodies such as the Administrative Board to make sure that staff representatives are free to express the worries of staff without fear of punishment for doing so. In other words, staff representatives need extra protection in order to avoid possible abuses of power [...] the Administrative Council should express its concern, in uncertain terms, to the EPO management."
The next demonstration will take place on Thursday 10 December, starting from the Pschorrhöfe building at 12h. The demonstrators will march peacefully to the local Palace of Justice.
With these demonstrations staff protests against the persistent attacks on its staff representatives, culminating in the suspension of and disciplinary procedures against 3 Union officials in Munich.
French MP Pierre-Yves le Borgn' represents French nationals living in Germany and Austria (among other countries). Here is an up-to-date course of events regarding his intiatives:
The european press continues its covering of the appaling social situation at EPO :
Translated title: Suicides, espionage, nepotism... The European Patent Office is a powder keg
El Confidencial, a highly praised spanish media reports on the deteriorated social situation at European Patent Office and in particular about its authoritarian drift:
Florian Mueller, a world authority on the granting of patents, says: “The most recent information we’re getting describes a situation that would be inconceivable anywhere in the civilized world, but then the European Patent Organization, quite simply, is not a part of the civilized world”. It has even been said that the Office today is the last dictatorship on European soil.
So what is Mueller, a German, talking about? Nothing more and nothing less than the fact that an atmosphere of panic at work and psychological terror has been created among many of the 7,000 or so employees of the European Patent Office (EPO).
The Union Syndicale Brussels (USB) is the biggest trade union in the European Public Service. Its members are drawn from all the European institutions and organisations. It has sections for the European Commission, the EU Council, the European Parliament, Eurocontrol etc. Founded in 1973, it was set up to defend the unique status of officials of the European Communities.
Union Syndicale Brussels has published a message of solidarity for our three suspended colleagues and initiated the distribution of this message to the entire staff of the above European institutions and organisations - more than 50,000 employees.
The next demonstrations will take place on:
With these demonstrations staff protests against the persistent attacks on its staff representatives, culminating in the suspension of and disciplinary procedures against 3 Union officials in Munich.