After months of negotiations, Anne Hidalgo hoped to have found a miracle solution to the problem of the thirty-five hours at the Paris City Hall. A clever device making it possible to officially increase working time without actually doing it, to satisfy both the elected officials of Paris, the State and the unions. It missed. The new regulation fixing the working time of 55,000 agents was admittedly validated in July by the city council. But, denounced by the unions who consider it too harsh, it is now also rejected by the State, for the opposite reason.
In a letter sent on July 29 to the socialist mayor of the capital and unveiled by The Parisian and The echoes, Marc Guillaume, the prefect of the Ile-de-France region, strongly criticizes the project. On several key points, this text does not respect the law, he writes. He therefore invites Anne Hidalgo to review his copy.
Leave canceled but compensated
It all started with the law of August 6, 2019 on the transformation of the public service. According to this text desired by the macronists, the effective working time of territorial civil servants must be identical to that of the State civil service, the equivalent of thirty-five hours per week. Question of equality. However, in Paris, the agents benefit from a more favorable treatment acquired for a long time, at the time when Jacques Chirac held the Town hall. For the 55,000 or so agents in the city, the reference working time is limited to 1,552 hours per year, instead of the standard 1,607 hours. In a series of special cases, this time is still further reduced.
In principle, the 2019 law obliges Paris to end these benefits. Legally, the City “Must abolish eight days of extra-legal leave from the 1er January 2022 », admits the Town Hall. But she goes backwards. The socialists in power in the capital believe that increasing working hours would go “Against progress”. And how can the staff swallow such a questioning of social gains?
Anne Hidalgo and her team have therefore imagined a device that aims to comply with the law without increasing the actual working time, or at the margin. While removing the eight days of illegal leave, the regulation passed on July 6 recreates seven, thanks to a series of tips. It is these mechanisms that the prefect Marc Guillaume denounces, like a spectator who whistles the sleight of hand of which he has spotted all the tricks.
You have 50.7% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.