The compulsory annual negotiations (NAO) relating to an increase in wages in the road freight transport sector ended in failure, deplored Thursday the CGT, FO and the CFE-CGC, who demand a real revaluation to no longer be below the minimum wage. Transport employees “need a strong signal from their employers and this necessarily involves a revaluation that is not the crumbs they want to throw us», Affirmed the three trade unions at the end of the third and last round of negotiations which was held Wednesday.
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Employers’ organizations (FNTR, TLF, OTRE) have proposed a salary increase of around 5% and an improved health and provident fund with more guarantees on social protection or even long-term sick leave. None of the five unions around the bargaining table found the proposal acceptable. All were asking for a minimum increase of 10%, or even a thirteenth month for some. With the increase in the minimum wage on January 1 (+ 0.9%), “the only coefficient which was still above the minimum wage went below», Are indignant the CGT, FO and the CFE-CGC.
Recruitment difficulties
If inflation continues, “we are not immune to a new automatic increase in the minimum wage which would, once again, place all of our grids below it”, Including with the employer’s proposal for a 5% wage hike. “How can we still be there with the two years that we have just gone through?», Denounce the three organizations.
The profession of truck driver is one of the sectors in tension where companies are struggling to recruit due to the lack of attractiveness and low wages. According to Patrice Clos, secretary general of FO Transports, there is currently a lack of between 60 and 65,000 truck drivers in France.
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“Threatening to seek labor from the far reaches of Europe will not solve the problem in the long term.“, Warn the unions in their press release. Two other representative trade unions (CFDT and CFTC) did not sign this press release, hoping for a resumption of negotiations and leaving the door open to a possible agreement.
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