It has been more than two years since the railway world had experienced such mobilization. Wednesday, July 6, 20% of SNCF employees went on strike for their salaries and their purchasing power. A level which reached 47%, on average, among drivers, with peaks in the region (where only two out of five TERs were circulating) and on the Ile-de-France Transilien network (one out of two trains). We have to go back to the movement against the pension reform of December 2019 to find higher rates of strikers in the public rail group. The levels of mobilization were then even more spectacular. On the first day, December 5, 2019, nine out of ten drivers stopped work.
It is therefore a strong social warning – without being massive – that the railway workers launched this Wednesday; a warning that management had been expecting, with dozens of local disputes having sprung up in recent times; a warning she obviously heard. During a round table on wages, which was held at the same time as the strike, François Nogué, the director of human resources of the SNCF, proposed a significant wage increase, which should cost 290 million euros to the company.
Railway workers will benefit from an increase which will be around 3.1%. “It’s a median, Mr. Nogué told reporters. This means that 70,000 railway workers [sur 140 000] will have more. » This increase will reach 3.7% for the lowest salaries in the company and 2.2% for executives. It will be retroactive to 1er April, but, for payroll organizational reasons, the surplus salary will not be received by the agents until October, at the latest.
“The account is not there”
Rather than increasing the index point by more than 3% as in the civil service, the management has mixed a series of measures introducing a dose of progressiveness which allows this boost to low wages. There is indeed a general increase of 1.4%, but there is also a fixed revaluation of 400 euros gross and a certain number of targeted increases. Bonuses – a key element of the remuneration of SNCF agents – will be increased by 4%, with a bonus for first-line railway workers (rolling agents, maintenance employees), who will see their night, Sunday and public holiday bonuses. and on-call duty increased by 7%.
The lowest hiring salaries for enforcement agents, who were being caught up by the rise in the minimum wage, and for whom recruitment difficulties are the greatest, will be increased by 4%. Other more marginal measures come in addition such as a revaluation of the holiday bonus, which goes from 400 to 500 euros, or a 3% increase in travel allowances. All of these measures do not replace the mandatory annual negotiation (NAO), which will take place in December to possibly decide on other increases. “It’s a calendar that opens up prospects for the future”said Mr. Nogué.
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