Staff Union Welcomes Next EPO President, Hopes For Dialogue

In a letter to its members, the Staff Union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO) in The Hague, Netherlands has welcomed the election of Antonio Campinos as new President of the EPO a week ago, expressed hope for a change in EPO management-workforce relations and has some recommendations for next steps.

The union has gone all the way to the European Court of Human Rights with a complaint against what it claims are “violations of fundamental rights and an apparent systematic disregard for the rule of law” and “management by fear, isolation and punishment” by the outgoing EPO President Benoit Battistelli.

In the 18 October letter [pdf] to its colleagues obtained by Intellectual Property Watch, it calls for a renewed dialogue over working conditions and staff welfare. The Administrative Council, according to the Suepo letter, paved the way with “unprecedented requirements” put in the vacancy notice for the top position. The notice included a request for “an outstanding ability to engage in social dialogue.” For Suepo, this is an indication of the Council’s desire “to re-establish harmonious working conditions” and “to dissipate the atmosphere generated over the past few years.”

Looking ahead, the union recommended a multilateral working group between management and staff to address a number of issues. The working group should set out on a truth-finding mission and consider, according to SUEPO’s call, “concrete action where necessary” on violations of law and staff welfare.

It should also consider reversing rather politically motivated sanctions of all staff representatives and union leaders and identify problems with reforms initiated by Battistelli to push efficiency, it said. Suepo, the letter states, is prepared to fully support such efforts.

At a recent event with the newly elected chair of the EPO Administrative Council, a considerable number of patent lawyers expressed their support for changes at the EPO which due to the pressure on its staff was producing substandard search reports (IPW, Europe, 16 October 2017).

Campinos is not due to take office until July 2018.