Paris, Toulouse … these cities that hack to stay under 35 hours
The proliferation of cycle paths, the prohibition of diesel or old vehicles and the limitation to 30 kilometers per hour will not be enough. The air will continue to be unbreathable in Paris. It is not a green activist who thinks it but Anne Hidalgo herself. So, to spare its agents who will have, by the end of 2021, to spend 35 hours as in the private sector, the city council has invented a new “subjection” of service for them: “the intensity and the particular work environment. agents of the capital city ”. A kind of noise and pollution compensation that the town hall has calculated at three additional days of leave per year.
But now, the regional prefect Marc Guillaume let it be known at the end of July that the measure was illegal. It is not pronounced, in this case, on the bottom of the air. But the representative of the State considers that this measure cannot be applied equally to the garbage collector and to the museum keeper.
Another interesting dispute to submit to the administrative courts. Because Paris is not the only city to have imagined this kind of hacking to circumvent the law of transformation of the public service of August 2019. This reform wanted by Emmanuel Macron aims to align the working time of local people with the common system . Or until then they had only worked 1,587 hours on average with 35 days of leave and RTT (against 1,711 hours and 28 days in the private sector) according to the report on the state of the public service annexed to the last law of finances. In addition to the equity dimension, make them work more authorize the elimination of at least 31. FTE (full-time equivalent) – even 50,000, according to the liberal think tank Ifrap, or 2.5% of the current staff of the territorial public service -, to reduce the wage bill and taxes. A saving estimated by the Court of Auditors at 1.2 billion euros per year.
A majority of municipalities have taken note of the change (the departments and regions have until 2023). To date, there remains, according to the Randstad cabinet, a small quarter of town halls which have not yet completed negotiations with their staff. Mainly the big cities, where the staff concerned (55,000 in Paris) and the strong unionization brought together the acrobatic discussions.
Reims, Châtellerault, Saint-Denis, Toulouse, Nantes, Dieppe, Aubervilliers, Calais, Lorient, Le Havre, Lille… All over France, strike movements are increasing to contest this project. “This reform is reflected, depending on the case, by the elimination of 5 to 12 days of leave, we deplore the CGT Federation of public services. Pure and simple theft, especially since it does not even provide for financial compensation. “
It must be said that the 35 hours have never really been applied in local communities. At the time of their establishment, on a derogatory regime, going back to the decentralization law of 1984, which allows local executives to grant even shorter working hours. The agents were thus granted days of the mayor, carnival, removals or back to school, for good measure, on an added days of RTT to compensate for overtime. “This system had its faults, but it was used to buy social peace,” recalls Claire Le Calonnec, former secretary general of Interco CFDT. We are poorly paid in town halls, in the order of 1,800 euros net for a category C employee, the grade of the majority of agents, so we offered free time. “
To maintain this wobbly pact, which hardly favors dynamic personnel management, some town halls have therefore shown imagination. Paris, the agreement voted by elected officials would lead to 7 days not worked out of the 8 extra-legal days that must be removed. Faced with unions united behind the slogan “not a minute more”, the possible Socialist presidential candidate does not want to attack the advantages acquired. She therefore made various proposals to them. Those who pose 8 days in a row in winter will be granted 2 days of “splitting”. For a few more minutes per day, 2 days of RTT will be granted. And the reform will be phased, or even postponed until September 1, 2022 for school staff.
Everywhere, HRDs scrambled to find subterfuge. Thus, the town hall of Toulouse (on the right) proposes to go to 36h10 per week in exchange for 10 days of RTT. “We were very keen on these 10 days, it’s an arrangement that suits us,” said a FO delegate from the Pink City. In Belfort, we go up at 37:30 – but now counting the passage to the locker room to put on your uniform – in return for 15 days of RTT.
In Colombes, one of the few left-wing town halls of Hauts-de-Seine, where no agent worked more than 1,547 hours, some employees were even more pampered. “We wanted to respect the law, but we had to be creative not to harm employees,” assumes a member of the city council. The working time was reduced to 7:30 a.m. per day, which made it possible to save 15 days of RTT, while the agents at the most arduous work (gardeners, help for the elderly, technical services …) were still entitled to 5 days additional RTTs.
More radical bis, Jean-Philippe Gaufrais, the mayor (Left Front) of Fontenay-sous-Bois, one of the last strongholds of the “red suburbs”, quite simply decided that he would not apply the law. “They want us to cut into social benefits, well, that’s no!”, Warns the elected official, co-signer of a forum of the association of elected Communists and Republicans of Val-de-Marne.
All these arrangements remain subject to the approval of the trade unions and also, as seen in Paris, to that of the prefects. According to our information, Matignon would have asked them not to be too zealous. Knowing that the State had other means, otherwise persuasive. It is in fact the treasurer-payers general, representatives of Bercy at the level of the departments, who regulate the salaries of municipal agents. “They say they will put pressure on the most recalcitrant,” says Jean-Philippe Gaufrais. From there to blocking salaries a few months before the elections?
- The RTT coup
The most guarded. In Sedan, 24 additional minutes per day allow you to recover 10 days of RTT per year. - The locker room blow
The time spent in working clothes will be included in the hours count, as in Armentières (59). - The coup of sports and cultural activities
Two hours per week which should include in the working time, this is what the town hall of Bonneuil-sur-Marne (94) imagined. - The blow of hardship
Up to 5 days of leave will be granted to holders of the most difficult positions by the Lille town hall. - The blow of the split days
Those who agree to take part of their vacation in winter earn 2 additional days off, in Reims for example.
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