This is a new victory for employees who are fighting for better pay. And there is no question here of a Macron bonus or profit-sharing: the base salary of non-executive staff at Dassault Aviation will increase by a minimum of 140 euros gross per month (107 euros net) over thirteen months, i.e. 1,820 euros per year. An agreement which was signed by the management and the unions CFDT, CGT and FO, ending a social conflict which had disturbed the production of the aircraft manufacturer in France since December. The agreement comes a month after the biggest increase obtained in twenty years at Airbus, another heavyweight in the aviation sector.
This increase will also be indexed to seniority, which will mean that an employee with nine years in the box, for example, will be increased by 120 euros net, according to Anthony Dupuy, CGT union representative in Mérignac, where the Rafale is assembled. To this general increase is added 1.7% of individual increases, including 0.5% for seniority, which will be paid while the minimum wages are revalued by 2.8%.
Order book full
The agreement also provides for the payment of 80% of strike hours. The individual increases for executives, who were not parties to the conflict, were also increased to 4.1%, against 3.75% recorded at the end of the annual negotiations. “What we won was unheard of at Dassault. Certainly, it is not up to what we asked, but what we remember is that when the employees moved, the employees managed to win, ” says Anthony Dupuy. All these measures will be applied retroactively, from January 1, 2022.
Since December, the movement affected most of the aircraft manufacturer’s production sites, slowing production, without completely interrupting it. The CGT, CFDT and FO unions relied on the thickness of the order book, which includes more Falcon business jets than before the health crisis and large orders for the Rafale combat aircraft, such as the one placed by the United Arab Emirates (80 aircraft), to demand better redistribution.