The four representative unions of the French National Railway Company (SNCF) signed an agreement on Monday, with management, on the end of the careers of railway workers. The latter notably provides for a significant improvement in the early retirement system, in particular for railway workers who have held positions of proven arduousness, such as controllers or drivers. The latter will therefore be able to begin an “early cessation of activity” 30 months before their retirement with, as a bonus, 15 months worked paid at 100% and 15 months not worked paid at 75%.
For the president of the Les Républicains group in the Senate and senator from Vendée, Bruno Retailleau, this text is quite simply “a capitulation” on the part of the SNCF. “The strike blackmail paid off,” he denounced this Wednesday on the set of La Grande interview Europe 1-CNews.
A circumvention of the pension reform
For the senator, the agreement concluded by the SNCF is a concrete example “of everything that should not be done”. He points to an agreement which is in contradiction with the pension reform enacted in 2023 and which came into force on September 1. “It is a circumvention of the pension reform which is about a year old, and this, on public funds. The federal secretary of SUD-Rail said ‘this makes it possible to partly compensate for the harmful effects of pension reform.
“The SNCF buys social peace on the back of the taxpayer”
Bruno Retailleau denounces an agreement which represents “everything from which we suffer. In France, there is not enough work and that is why we are not prosperous”, he assures. “This is why we wanted to pay, with credit checks, for the increase in purchasing power, and this is what the SNCF is doing. It is buying social peace at the expense of the taxpayer, on the backs of users.”
Because these promises and these advantages granted to railway workers will indeed have an effect on the life of the taxpayer who will pay the bill in two ways. “First of all through our taxes, since the SNCF is financed with billions of euros,” recalls Bruno Retailleau. “Our own pension system costs us 3 billion euros per year, but we also pay for it through train tickets. You know a lot of modest French people who can afford train tickets on the main lines at a high price ?I don’t know many.”
A silent government
But for the former deputy for the 4th district of Vendée, the government also has a large share of responsibility in this agreement. “A few days ago, Gabriel Attal castigated the SNCF and ordered employees, railway workers, to have a duty to work. But do you believe for a single moment that there was no information between Mr. Farrandou , the SNCF boss and the government? Of course not. Have you heard the executive denounce this agreement for 48 hours? Nothing, total silence,” regretted Bruno Retailleau.
“There is complicity (…) It is a capitulation of the State with a very bad signal. The signal that finally, we can work without doing anything.”