Euro Patent Office prez survives crunch talks – but pressure mounts European Patent Office (EPO) president Benoît Battistelli has survived a meeting of the organization's administrative council, but remains under significant pressure to tackle growing unhappiness in his staff's ranks. Under a resolution approved by a majority of the 38 country representatives of the council, Battistelli was …
One of the reasons for mistrust of The President.
As a staff member of the European Patent Office, l can honestly say that less than 5 per cent of the total staff don't trust him or his little band of followers, in other words the Vice Presidents. He has already ruined the image of the European Patent Office, and colleagues are resigning in there droves. He's cancelled Good Friday in one of our offices, which because he says its not an official holiday in that land. That is not actually true.
According to Article 1 § 1 (2) of the Austrian Law on Public holidays (Feiertagsruhegesetz), Good Friday is an official public holiday for all members of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession, Evangelical Church of the Helvetian Confession, Old Catholic Church, and United Methodist Church in Austria. Furthermore, pursuant to 2. Abschnitt § 7 (3) of the Austrian Law on rest from work the above members are exempted from work obligations on Good Friday. Since the late 1990s Good Friday has been an official holiday for the staff of the Vienna office.This status of Good Friday was based on the Office's recognition that the largest proportion of staff in Vienna are members of the Evangelical Church. Indeed Good Friday is the highest religious holiday for Protestants.
A similar situation as in Austria regarding the status of Good Friday exists in The Netherlands, where Good Friday is not an official holiday. Nevertheless, Good Friday is listed as an official holiday for The Netherlands office.
The Presidents attitude to the whole situation, was that our (the Vienna staff) religious beliefs do not interest him or the office.
Due to the ongoing problems within the office, l am unable to disclose my full name.
The EPO staff have difficult jobs. They need 20 weeks holiday a year. Multiple levels of review and confirmation in order to ensure that only the best patents get granged. And SAP ERP system to manage everything.
I.e. the less they do the better. Less productivity in the EPO means less patents.
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