Eric Woerth has no illusions about the way to go before convincing the French. “We are not here to scare people, but I can see the work that remains to be done to obtain a consensus on this point”, recognizes the president of the finance committee of the National Assembly. And the one who fed the convention of the Republicans (LR) party on the effectiveness of public action, on March 30, is very cautious. At this stage, he says, these are only lines of thought for the party; they remain to be refined.
For the time being, the idea of LR is already radical: henceforth, they propose, all civil servants would be bound to the State by a contract. The interest of this “public contract”? End lifelong employment for all, especially when the agent does not do his job properly. “There cannot be a statute which guarantees an occupational pension, explains the deputy for Oise. A contract evolves, it breaks. A status does not change, it is not personal. “
The public contract, which “Will integrate elements of the statute and private labor law”, would only apply to new agents. With the great majority of the civil servants in post, entered in the administration by competition and thus enjoying the famous “general statute” instituted in 1946, LR leaves the choice to sign or not this contract. For the others, those who were recruited directly by a department head, this would not change much, since they are already bound to the State by a contract, whether it is for a fixed term or not. The novelty is that the situation of the minority would henceforth be extended to all public officials. But, assures Mr. Woerth, “We remain in the French model. We are not advocating the privatization of the public service, but a more flexible public service ”.
Up 5% per year
The Republicans are only accelerating an evolution that has already started. Because for fifteen years, the number of agents recruited on contract has increased considerably in the French civil service: from 755,307 in 2005, they rose to 1,125,900 in 2019, an increase of 49%. This brought their share in public employment to 19.9% in 2019, against 14.3% at the time.
“I am one of those who think that the State must be reduced to the sovereign and to the essential missions (police, justice, education …)”, Loïc Hervé, UDI senator from Haute-Savoie
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