Tribune. The crisis resulting from the pandemic had at least one virtue: the recognition of the commitment and skills of civil servants. Who would claim today that the women and men of the public hospital, those of national education, the departmental fire and rescue services receive fair remuneration? And what is true for these professions is also true for all those who work in the general interest and the protection of populations, whether they are in the front of the media scene or not.
At a time when, quite legitimately, purchasing power is once again the main concern of the population, the personnel of the three sides of the public service cannot be satisfied with laudatory speeches or piecemeal measures. The attractiveness of the public service is also at stake, and its ability to recruit and retain staff members for the training and qualification of the highest possible level, an essential dimension for the quality of the public service.
Significant and urgent general increases are essential. Without delay, we must therefore break with the absence of general measures: we must therefore revalue the index point, the freezing of which, in more than ten years, has led to considerable losses of purchasing power, lack of recognition of qualifications. and stunted careers. Other measures – such as assigning a uniform number of points to everyone – should be considered.
Opening of real wage negotiations
We do not forget that more than 60% of the personnel of the public service are women. We must therefore put an end to the professional inequalities of which they are victims. We do not forget that more than a million non-tenured and precarious workers work in the public service and that their situation must also be improved.
We, the signatories of this forum, come from different backgrounds: activists in associations, political life, trade unionists, women and men of culture … but all of us consider that the public services, for which our attachment is flawless, need women and men with a decent and rewarding salary.
This is why we ask that the President of the Republic and the government open without waiting for real negotiations to proceed, from the start of 2022, to the general salary increases that civil servants amply deserve.
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