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6 March 2018Patents

Controversial EPO employment provision dropped

European Patent Office (EPO) president Benoît Battistelli has ensured that a controversial term in an employment proposal has been dropped, just weeks before the EPO’s supervisory body, the Administrative Council (AC), will deliberate the plan.

Battistelli and Elodie Bergot, principal director of human resources, had added a motion to discuss the plan to recruit staff on renewable contracts of five years during a budget and finance committee meeting in October last year.

A first discussion of the proposal, which is called the “Modernisation of the employment framework of the EPO”, took place during the AC’s meeting in December.

It was then amended to include article 53(1)(f) of the EPO’s Service Regulations, which read: “Without prejudice to the expiry of a fixed-term appointment in the same circumstances, the appointing authority may decide to terminate the service of an employee: ... (f) if the exigencies of the service require abolition of their post or a reduction of staff.”

The term proved controversial—according to the EPO-Flier team, a group that “wants to provide staff with uncensored, independent information at times of social conflict”, the draft reform would have put an end to permanent employment at the EPO.

“We fear that the first victims will be the Directorate-General 1 directors who have been made redundant and put on specially created posts,” the team said previously.

This term has now been dropped by the AC’s board and will not be presented to the AC during its meeting in Munich on March 21 and 22.

A source close to the Staff Union of the European Patent Office said: “The words of article 53(1)(f) will not be in our codex, but are engraved in everybody’s mind.”

They continued: “How many colleagues among staff today still believe that the top management of this office or the upper echelons of the HR department intend to do the right thing?”

In an EPO communique seen by WIPR, Battistelli said he understood that the article had caused a great deal of concern among staff members, which is why he convinced the AC board to abandon it.

“I am confident that this proposal reflects now the views of a large majority of the stakeholders and has reached the appropriate balance, addressing the future needs of the office in providing a new tool for its recruitment policy while keeping the fundamental features of an international public service,” said the communique.

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