In a message to members dated 15 August, as reported by the specialist IPPro Patents website, the President all the Munich section of the Staff Union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO), Ion Brumme, called on the new President of the EBO, António Campinos, to stop the “persecutions” of trade union leaders.
The specialist website points out that the message was published following Mr Brumme being given his job back by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) administrative tribunal, two and a half years after he had been dismissed.
The trade unionist is sending out a clear message to the new president of the EBO, Mr Campinos, who took up his position last July (see EUROPE 12054), to “stop the persecutions of trade union leaders and staff representatives”. The trade union President added “some are still undergoing unnecessary disciplinary procedures and ILO complaints. You can put an end to this chapter”, before hammering home the message “Give the staff back its pride, its voice and its dignity”.
Staff management under the mandate of the former President Benoît Battistelli, from France, as well as the thoroughgoing reforms he carried out, were characterised by a number of controversies (see EUROPE 11504). In a document seen by EUROPE, the ILO’s administrative tribunal therefore had to pass judgement on no fewer than 17 cases at the EBO during its 126th session (23 April - 18 May 2018), at which three staff members were given back their jobs. These include Mr Brumme and Malika Weaver, the respective President and Vice President of the Munich based satellite of the SUEPO, who had been suspended in 2015, at the peak of the social conflicts.
In this connection, an internal SUEPO analysis denounced the lack of standard controls, failures at the EBO’s internal appeals committees and the “clear” bias in favour of the Organisation to the disadvantage of staff. It subsequently denounced the judgements made by the ILO administrative tribunal which remains, above all “an employers’ tribunal”.
Career system in question
With regard to the reforms, the trade unions are particularly targeting the new career system introduced at the end of 2014, which is said to be too opaque. In another internal document dated July 2017, we can also read that “Since the introduction of the new career system, management has wilfully confused managerial discretion with arbitrariness”.
The document also adds “The (retroactively applied) criteria for getting a reward are so arbitrary and lack so much transparency that most staff do not know where they stand”. This uncertainty is said to have worsened due to a sharp increase in the production based on quantity rather than quality, if the authors of the document are to be believed. They conclude that “It is only fear and intimidation instilled at all levels by the current EPO top management that holds the system together”. They also denounce the “toxic atmosphere” undermining staff well-being and health.
Despite this situation, the EPO, on the outside, is in rude health, with the quantity of patents processed constantly rising. It also inaugurated new premises at the end of June in the Netherlands (see EUROPE 12051). According to the report from the 1 July meeting, the member states, by way of the administrative Council of the European Patents Office, welcomed, in this connection have in this respect welcomed the balance sheet of the president and his “remarkable achievements and the transformation of the EBO, which he has carried out since 2010”. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)