Saving the May bridges and the Olympic Games has a cost, and not just financial. The end-of-career agreement signed on April 22 at SNCF by the four representative unions is becoming a political burden for the government. Since this device was made public by the press in mid-April, Bercy, Matignon and the Elysée have passed the buck, swearing that they were not informed in advance, nor did they validate the agreement. And they focus on the director of the public company, Jean-Pierre Farandou, as well as, implicitly, on the delegate minister in charge of transport, Patrice Vergriete, who was following the negotiations.
The agreement provides, among other things, for an improvement in the early retirement system, in particular for railway workers who have held positions of proven arduousness. While it made it possible to ward off the threat of a new strike by controllers during the May holidays, the right sees it as a circumvention of the pension reform adopted in 2023. The subject is all the more difficult for the government that it wishes to strengthen the work of seniors, less represented in paid employment in France than elsewhere in Europe, to meet its objective of full employment in 2027.
Bruno Le Maire expressed his exasperation on Thursday May 2. “An agreement is signed which effectively commits the balances of the pension reform and the financial balances of the SNCF. I was not warned”said the Minister of the Economy on BFM-TV. “The minister is not used to being informed by the press,” annoys those around him. “This agreement is not satisfactory in my eyes, there was a malfunction”, declared Mr. Le Maire.
The government’s number two announced that it had “summoned” in the coming days Jean-Pierre Farandou, the CEO of the public company, of which Bercy has partial supervision via the State Participation Agency (APE), so that he “accountability”. This agreement is “provocative for many of our compatriots” and “gives the feeling of double standards”, insisted the tenant of Bercy. The CEO will also have to explain himself to senators on May 7.
“The taxpayer will not pay a cent”
The oppositions did not wait for explanations from the executive to take up the subject during the question session with the government on April 30. “By what right does a public company allow its employees to exempt themselves from a reform which applies to all French people, reacted Horizons MP Alexandre Vincendet, while the State has taken over the SNCF debt to the tune of 35 billion euros between 2020 and 2021? »
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