Some garbage collectors in the Aix-Marseille-Provence metropolis were on strike, at the call of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), since Thursday, September 23. Force Ouvrière (FO), the majority union of garbage collectors, joined the movement on Monday, September 27. Since then, the bins of certain districts of Marseille have been overflowing onto the sidewalks.
But Friday 1er October, a strike exit protocol was found, announced the local authority, led by Martine Vassal (Les Républicains, LR). “The Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis is pleased to have been able to reach an agreement aimed at the application of the law on working time in the public service”, she wrote in a press release. “The metropolis wishes to resume collection in the coming hours in all the municipalities”, she adds, explaining that the “Street rehabilitation will be done gradually, with a return to normal expected within a week in the most affected neighborhoods”. For its part, the CGT Métropole deplored in a press release having been “Excluded from these negotiations, which is illegal”.
The law on the transformation of the civil service
At the origin of this conflict, the desire of the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis, resulting in 2014 from the merger of six inter-municipal authorities, to apply the law on the transformation of the civil service. This 2019 text imposes the application of 35 hours on the 1er January 2022, ie 1,607 hours of work per year for all civil servants, while opening up the possibility of negotiating arrangements to take into account the arduousness.
According to a report from the regional chamber of accounts to be published, quoted by Roland Mouren, vice-president of the metropolis, during a press conference on Monday, the garbage collectors of the metropolis currently work on average between three hours and three and a half hours per day over six days.
With the agreement announced on Friday, the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis ensures that it has taken into account the arduous work of garbage collectors, with a discount of 9.5% of working time compared to the 1,607 legal hours for a 35-hour period, ie 1,455 hours, the opening of a time savings account, the setting up of training courses to avoid accidents, and help with retraining, in particular.