From: Staff Committee
Sent: 23 November 2015 15:36
To: **All ECB Staff (with management approval)
Subject: 3 Staff Representatives suspended at European Patent Office!

 

Dear Colleagues, We regret to inform you that three Staff Representatives have been suspended at the European Patent Office last Friday, 13 November 2015 (note from SUEPO: three staff representatives were suspended on Tuesday, 24 November, not Friday, 13 November 2015). The (EPO) has the privilege of setting their own rules independent of national framework, which in the absence of adequate checks and balances leads to many abuses. The (EPO) has been suffering from a wave of suicides in recent years and the social tensions are very high (see reports of the French newspaper Le Monde, attached). Staff Representatives have to be protected from retaliating actions so that they can accomplish their function, which is to bring more balance to power. In an e-mail last year, we already informed you about the shocking dismissal of the President of the Staff Association of the World Intellectual Property Organisation. With this e-mail to all ECB staff, we aim to foster awareness of these events and contribute to have them satisfactorily addressed. With kind regards, Your Staff Committee. “Additional information can be found here:” http://www.fosspatents.com/2015/11/epo-labor-dispute-getting-completely.html http://www.worldipreview.com/news/epo-suspends-more-staff-claims-threats-of-violence-9187 http://www.pyleborgn.eu/2015/11/courrier-a-emmanuel-macron-sur-la-crise-a-loffice-europeen-des-brevets/ (French MP's letter to the French Minister of Economy and Finance)

 

The institution for the governance of which you are legally responsible is teetering between malfunction and dysfunction.  From being a highly praised and much-admired organisation it has become a hotbed of suspicion, rumour, allegations of corruption and insurgency, accusation and counter-accusation.  It has lost the respect of a substantial number of users, employees and officers.  Its public relations policy -- if indeed it has one -- has failed to engage with the issues that concern the intellectual property community and which form a large part of its current agenda.  Its apparent inability to stem the exponential surge in staff disputes has all but brought the International Labour Organisation's mechanisms for dispute resolution to a grinding halt.  Its integrity has been increasingly questioned and its image has become a laughing stock and a byword for a dictatorial management style that has no place in an open, democratic Europe.

You, as members of the Administrative Council, are responsible both for the approval and formation of EPO policy and for its execution.  How many of you have sought and been given advice from your respective governments with regard to current events in Eponia? How many of you, in the light of your other commitments, have the time, the resources and the information to enable you to play an effective role within the Administrative Council?  How many of you can honestly say that you are happy with the present state of affairs? And how many of you are simply too scared to be able to stand up to the EPO's management?