Staff solidarity meeting ‘denied’ by EPO
A “peaceful” meeting arranged for staff to show support for a suspended internal committee member at the European Patent Office (EPO) has been blocked, it has been claimed.
The meeting, originally scheduled for Friday (November 7) at the EPO’s branch in The Hague, was advertised as a “general assembly” to show solidarity with the suspended staff member.
But, in an email seen by WIPR, staff members have been told the meeting cannot be authorised.
The worker, who WIPR has been asked not to name, was until last month a member of the internal appeals committee (IAC), an internal board that looks at disputes affecting staff, at the office’s Munich branch.
He had been nominated by the office’s central staff committee (CSC).
It is not known what the exact reason for the suspension was but, according to the office’s staff union, it was “linked to former activities” in the IAC. The EPO did not comment on the suspension.
WIPR understands staff members were told that holding the meeting could “cause considerable disruption” due to confidentiality reasons surrounding the suspension.
But staff members claimed that confidentiality clauses would only apply if there was an investigation into the suspension, and that they wanted to “express solidarity”.
It is the second departure in recent weeks at the EPO following the departure of communications chief Oswald Schröder in mysterious circumstances last month.
The IAC is a body that oversees disputes about decisions that affect staff members. But in recent months management at the EPO and staff have clashed over how it should be run.
According to the CSC, it was asked to appoint new members to the IAC earlier this year. But the CSC challenged the legality of the request, made by the office’s vice presidents, and said the IAC’s current members had been appointed for a calendar year and should not be replaced mid-term.
The request formed part of the EPO’s self-titled “social democracy” plan, which made changes to the make-up of staff committees so that they are primarily made up of directly elected members.
According to the union, it was these changes that “prematurely ended” the staff member’s time on the IAC.
