POPA is concerned about the recent electronic tool outages at the USPTO. We have been advocating for compensation for examining time lost due to inability to work and for lost DM credit. In some situations for which management has agreed to provide reasonable compensation, there are some supervisors or directors who do not appear to be following through. In order to confirm where this has occurred, we are requesting your help in gathering information:
OUTAGE LAST WEEK: Compensation should have been made available for time lost due to inability to work as well as for recreation of lost work. We have heard from many of you that this time is being denied. Please keep whatever records you can of your requests for time and the subsequent denials so that we can use them to resolve the issue. You can send your information to David.Reip@uspto.gov with the subject: Compensation for January 5.
OUTAGE THE WEEK OF DECEMBER 21: We have heard from many of you that you were not permitted to take administrative time to the proper extent or were not compensated for your time the evening of Tuesday, December 22nd. Employees on IFP who had regular duty hours remaining in the pay period for which they had not previously requested leave should have been permitted to take administrative leave to compensate them to the fullest extent possible for the outage. If you were not fully compensated for this outage, please send an e-mail to David Reip at the e-mail address above, with the subject: Compensation for the outage of December 22-27.
ADVERSE CONSEQUENCES: Finally, the series of outages and the lack of full compensation may lead to adverse consequences for one of the last couple of pay periods or the quarter with respect to awards, promotions, within grade increases, safety zones, performance warnings, maintenance periods, or abeyance agreements. If you are someone negatively impacted in one of these ways due to the series of outages, please contact me at Pamela.Schwartz@uspto.gov with the subject: Adverse Consequences.
If you have questions, you can contact any of our officers or representatives or can attend or call office hours on Tuesdays in our Randolph Office between 11:00 and 1:00 ET (571-272-7162).
Thanks in advance for your information and feedback, Pam
This message is intended for all Patent Examiners.