{"id":5913,"date":"2018-03-19T14:44:52","date_gmt":"2018-03-19T13:44:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unionsyndicale.eu\/?p=5913"},"modified":"2023-12-23T14:55:47","modified_gmt":"2023-12-23T13:55:47","slug":"working-conditions-at-epo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unionsyndicale.eu\/en\/working-conditions-at-epo\/","title":{"rendered":"Working conditions at EPO"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"l-section wpb_row height_auto\"><div class=\"l-section-h i-cf\"><div class=\"g-cols vc_row via_flex valign_top type_default stacking_default\"><div class=\"vc_col-sm-12 wpb_column vc_column_container\"><div class=\"vc_column-inner\"><div class=\"wpb_wrapper\"><div class=\"g-cols wpb_row via_flex valign_top type_default stacking_default\"><div class=\"vc_col-sm-2 wpb_column vc_column_container\"><div class=\"vc_column-inner\"><div class=\"wpb_wrapper\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"vc_col-sm-8 wpb_column vc_column_container\"><div class=\"vc_column-inner\"><div class=\"wpb_wrapper\"><div class=\"wpb_text_column us_custom_432d3f53\"><div class=\"wpb_wrapper\"><blockquote>\n<p>Working conditions at the <a href=\"https:\/\/unionsyndicale.eu\/en\/?s=epo&amp;lang=en\">European Patent Office<\/a> (EPO) have been the subject of persistent criticism for years now. The trade union federation USF recently sent <a href=\"https:\/\/unionsyndicale.eu\/en\/social-policy-and-rule-of-law-issues-at-epo\/\">a letter to all 38 of the EPO\u2019s delegations<\/a>. In the letter, the USF\u2019s chair, Dr Bernd Loescher, describes the situation at the EPO as \u2018extreme\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Excerpt :<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>USF is the largest Federation of unions in the European international public service and has been following with great concern the situation at the European Patent Office (EPO) which deserves to be labelled as extreme. A number of shocking events around social policy and rule of law issues at the EPO were reported upon in various media over the last few years. These reports also reveal fundamental flaws in the institutional setup of the EPO taken in combination with its assigned jurisdiction, the ILOAT.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Several <a href=\"https:\/\/www.europarl.europa.eu\/doceo\/document\/P-8-2018-001379_EN.html?redirect\">questions<\/a> were arisen by a Danish MP :<\/p>\n<p>1.\u00a0What are the Commission\u2019s views on the criticism that has been raised about working conditions at the EPO?<\/p>\n<p>2.\u00a0How is the Commission planning to follow up on the criticism about working conditions at the EPO?<\/p>\n<p>Excerpt of an <a href=\"http:\/\/patentblog.kluweriplaw.com\/2019\/11\/08\/protest-in-the-hague-against-deteriorating-working-conditions-at-the-european-patent-office\/\">article<\/a> on Kluwer Patent Blog :<\/p>\n<p>Back to sad old days at the European Patent Office. Last Thursday, hundreds of EPO staff members protested outside the Portuguese Embassy in The Hague against the lack of justice and deteriorating working conditions at the EPO. They are also concerned about the way the management is pushing for reforms without proper consultation of staff representatives.<\/p>\n<p>It was the first time a protest was held in The Hague under the presidency of EPO president Ant\u00f3nio Campinos, who has the Portuguese nationality. Last month, a demonstration was organized in Munich around the meeting of the Budget and Finance Committee.<\/p>\n<p>Campinos has been in office since July 2018 after years marked by unrest and conflicts under his predecessor Benoit Battistelli. Despite many conversations with staff members and pledges to improve the social climate, his presidency has disillusioned many.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/div><div class=\"w-separator size_large\"><\/div><div class=\"w-separator size_medium with_line width_50 thick_3 style_solid color_primary align_center\"><div class=\"w-separator-h\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"vc_col-sm-2 wpb_column vc_column_container\"><div class=\"vc_column-inner\"><div class=\"wpb_wrapper\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section><section class=\"l-section wpb_row height_auto\"><div class=\"l-section-h i-cf\"><div class=\"g-cols vc_row via_flex valign_top type_default stacking_default\"><div class=\"vc_col-sm-12 wpb_column vc_column_container\"><div class=\"vc_column-inner\"><div class=\"wpb_wrapper\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Working conditions at the European Patent Office (EPO) have been the subject of persistent criticism for years now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5911,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"dossier-special":[],"class_list":["post-5913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Working conditions at EPO<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Working conditions at the European Patent Office (EPO) have been the subject of persistent criticism for years now.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/unionsyndicale.eu\/en\/working-conditions-at-epo\/\" 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