The RATP announced on Friday January 6 that it had signed an agreement with the FO and UNSA unions, the majority between them, providing “an increase in the working time of drivers by one hundred and twenty hours on average per year”.
In return, bus and tram drivers will see their salaries increase by 372 euros gross per month. With this agreement, the RATP hopes “find it as soon as possible” a quality service while a quarter of the buses have not run since September due to recruitment difficulties, an increase in absenteeism and sporadic strikes. This agreement “testifies to a renewed social dialogue”, welcomed the RATP. It puts an end to several months of conflict with the surface network (RDS) which operates 354 bus lines in Paris and in the inner suburbs.
quest for serenity
The previous management had already proposed an agreement to increase the working hours of machinists in exchange for wage increases, in order to prepare for the opening to competition scheduled for 1er January 2025, but no union had agreed to sign it. The former CEO Catherine Guillouard had therefore decided to unilaterally modify the working conditions of drivers by making them work twenty hours more per year in exchange for an annual increase of 460 euros gross.
Arrived at the head of the RATP at the end of November 2022, Jean Castex immediately made social dialogue a priority of his mandate to restore serenity within the company, faced with a major upheaval because of the end of its monopoly.
The agreement signed by two out of four unions (the CGT and the CFE-CGC refused it), therefore provides for the passage from 121 to 115 days of rest per year by 2024 for 18,000 bus and tram drivers. The daily working hours will also increase from 11 a.m. to 13 p.m., and more services ” in two times “ – that is to say two services in the same day – will be possible. Finally, the average daily working time will be increased by forty minutes, from 6:42 a.m. to 7:22 a.m.
In addition to the salary increase of 372 euros gross per month which will take place from January, bus and tram drivers will benefit from a 20% increase in the qualification-difficulty bonus, “bringing it to 70 euros gross per month”.
“More and more demanding job”
Thanks to this agreement, the RATP also hopes to improve its attractiveness to promote the recruitment of drivers “whose job is increasingly demanding in the dense urban area of the Ile-de-France region”. In 2022, the public group has almost reached its target of 1,500 recruitments and forecasts equivalent recruitment volumes for 2023.
All bus lines in Paris and the inner suburbs will be opened to competition in accordance with a 2007 European regulation. The companies that win the tenders will take over the employees and will also be responsible for operating the depots. The changeover must take place on the night of December 31, 2024 at 1er January 2025.