The boss of the CGT federation of state officials Céline Verzeletti (C), March 27, 2023, in Cournon d’Auvergne (AFP / Archives / JEFF PACHOUD)
General increase or increases targeted at the lowest paid agents? The government receives the eight unions of civil servants in Paris on Monday to reveal to them the wage measures it is considering in order to cushion the persistent shock of inflation.
Faced with soaring prices (5.1% over one year in May, according to INSEE) and especially food products (+ 14.1%), the unions, united by their common opposition to the pension reform, unanimously demand a general increase, of varying magnitude depending on the organisation.
While one in five public officials is paid the minimum wage, “piecemeal patching is no longer on the agenda”, warned Friday by press release the CGT, the first union in the public sector.
“A general revaluation of at least 10%” of salaries is necessary, adds to AFP Céline Verzeletti, patron of the CGT federation of state officials.
The trade unions should be fixed Monday at 2:30 p.m. on the intentions of the government.
In recent weeks, the executive has seemed determined to make a gesture for the lowest paid civil servants but has maintained the vagueness on possible general measures which would benefit all of the 5.7 million public officials.
The Minister of Public Service, Stanislas Guerini, leaves the Elysées Palace in Paris, May 16, 2023 (AFP / Emmanuel DUNAND)
The Minister of Public Service, Stanislas Guerini, has already received the unions one by one at the end of May.
“We are open to long discussions” as part of the plenary meeting, told AFP the entourage of the minister, who hopes to be able to agree with the unions on Monday and announce the measures adopted in the process.
“We have heard” the desire for a general increase in the unions, we are assured at the ministry. But in a constrained budgetary context, “the efforts (…) must be concentrated on the purchasing power in particular of low wages”, adds one from the same source.
Measures targeted at the lowest paid agents would not be “necessarily incompatible” with a general increase.
The salary of State agents, communities and hospitals has already been increased by 3.5% in the summer of 2022, a gesture whose cost for public finances has been estimated at 7.5 billion euros in full year.
A substantial amount at a time when the government is hunting for savings for its 2024 draft budget.
– Resuming the dialogue –
On the side of the communities, which employ 2 million civil servants, “there is not much room for maneuver on the budgets”, already tied up for months, assures AFP Philippe Laurent, the spokesperson for the Coordination local employers.
For Mr. Laurent, a general increase “around 2%”, accompanied by measures for the lowest salaries, would be appropriate.
“We cannot continue to run after the Smic as we have been doing for too many years”, insists Gaëlle Martinez, general delegate of Solidaires Public Service (6th union).
Whatever wage arbitration is chosen, it risks falling short of the expectations of the unions, which often demand a two-digit increase.
Stronger than the previous ones, the 3.5% increase last summer did not lead to an “equivalent increase in the purchasing power of public officials”, regretted Friday Le Sens du service public, a think tank essentially composed of executives from the sector.
It was a “strong increase” but it took place “in a context of significant inflation and after ten years of freezing” of the salaries of civil servants (apart from a two-step increase of 1.2% at the end of François Hollande’s five-year term), notes the think tank.
Beyond wages, the government wants to renew a lasting dialogue with the unions, which for a time boycotted official meetings at the ministry to protest against the postponement to 64 of the legal retirement age.
Stanislas Guerini thus hopes to quickly submit to them a draft agreement on the financing by the State of the pension costs of its agents.
Housing aid schemes for civil servants could also be announced in the coming weeks.
© 2023 AFP
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