Of the 5.1 million civil servants registered on the lists, only 2.2 million took part in the ballot.
Civil servants shunned the ballot box: participation in professional elections has collapsed by more than six points to fall to 43.7% in 2022, according to official results published Thursday which make Force Ouvrière the second union behind the CGT in the audience. Of the 5.1 million agents registered on the lists, only 2.2 million took part in the ballot organized from 1 to 8 December. They confirmed the CGT as the first public union with 20.8% of the vote, ahead of FO (18.7%) and the CFDT (18.5%).
The expansion of electronic voting, denounced by the unions as excessively complex, “can explain part of the disaffectionof voters, analyzes Catherine Vincent, researcher at the Institute of Economic and Social Relations. For this specialist in social dialogue in the public service, the sudden drop in participation is also explained by the “little use» that public officials attribute to their social dialogue bodies, which have been largely reformed in recent years.
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“In total, participation fell by 6.1 points“Compared to the previous election in 2018, details the General Directorate of Administration and the Public Service (DGAFP) in its press release published Thursday evening. It fell by 5.9 points in the State civil service (44.9% participation), by 6.2 points in the territorial civil service (45.6%) and 6.4 points in the hospital civil service ( 37.8%). Some 106,000 blank or invalid ballots were recorded, indicates the DGAFP.
Participation in professional elections has continued to decline for ten years in the public service, falling for the first time below the 50% mark in 2018 (49.8%). This growing trend of abstentionnevertheless shows a loss of legitimacy of trade union organizations“says Catherine Vincent. “They should find a way to have a close relationship with public service agentsadds the researcher.
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“Lucidity”
In addition to the disaffection of voters, the other great lesson of the election is the decline of the CFDT, the first French union, to 3rd place in the civil service. The organization is overtaken by FO of less than 3,000 votes. Force Ouvrière is benefiting in particular from its very clear progression in the hospital public service (+1.9 points to 26.6%). The union also consolidated its first place in the state civil service (+0.7 point to 17.8%).
Down 0.5 points compared to 2018 with an erosion in state and territorial public functions, “the CFDT gives up second place for about 0.05% of the votes of the electorate“, conceded the union. Four years after supplanting the CGT as the first national union (public and private combined), “these results will call for an in-depth analysis in the coming days to enable the CFDT to respond even better to the expectations of members and colleagues.“, Continues the central headed by Laurent Berger.
If it retains its first place, the CGT sees its score drop by 1.1 points compared to 2018. As of Wednesday, the Montreuil central had promised to analyze “with lucidity“the results of the professional elections and to continue”the construction of a trade unionism (…) in line with the concerns and demands of the staff“.
Unlike the CFDT and the CGT, the results of the Unsa (fourth with 11.7% of the votes), the FSU (5th with 9.2%) and the CFE-CGC (7th with 3 9%) progress, which allows the latter to overtake the FA-FP, demoted to eighth place with 3.1% of the vote. Solidaires retains its 6th place with 5.7% of the vote.