In 2022, hotel and catering employees will be able to add a little butter to their spinach. At the end of a long round of negotiations, the employers’ organizations of the sector had put on the table, Thursday, December 16, a proposal for an agreement with an average increase of 16.33% on the whole of the salary scale and a minimum remuneration greater than 5% of the minimum wage from the first level. The ball was now in the unions’ court, with a deadline of January 17 for their answer.
The CFDT, one of the main unions in the branch, announced Tuesday, December 21, that it was going to sign the agreement, judging the result of the discussions as “An unprecedented advance in the sector”, and measuring “The effort of employers” even though she had asked for a 25% increase. Without formal opposition from other unions, it should therefore be ratified. “We will not be a signatory, but we will not oppose. We cannot prevent the employees from touching a few coins ”, reacted Arnaud Chemain, negotiator of the CGT.
On the FGTA-FO side, discussions are continuing, according to its negotiator, Nabil Azzouz: “ We will have a final decision the first week of January. Our current position is for non-signing ”, he affirms, before adding that in a personal capacity he “Do not think it is reasonable to oppose a salary scale, certainly not sufficient to revive the sector and respond to the problem of recruitment, but expected by the employees”.
Attractiveness issue
There was strong pressure on employers’ organizations to revalue salaries in this branch, the scale of which had not been amended since 2018. The government had placed itself on the front line. After providing unfailing financial support to the entire sector to help it get through the Covid-19 crisis and its long months of administrative closure of establishments, the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, called of his wishes an agreement before the end of the year. The Minister of Labor, Elisabeth Borne, had also stepped up to the plate. Without forgetting the media coverage of the issue of employment and working conditions in the hotel and catering industry, which also provided support for union demands.
In this tense context, a first meeting, organized on November 18, failed to reach a compromise. Even if Thierry Grégoire, negotiator of the Union des trades et des industries de l’hôtellerie (UMIH), denounced “The interference of the labor ministry in this negotiation”, its organization, the main one in the sector, the GNI, which represents the independents, the GNC (hotel chains) and the SNRTC (thematic and commercial catering), finally improved its proposal to win the agreement.
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