Flights canceled at airports, schools and colleges closed, disruptions in town halls or tax centers: the mobilization in public services promises to be important, Thursday, December 5, for the strike movement involving seven unions (CGT, CFDT, Unsa, FSU, CFE-CGC, Solidaires and FA-FP) called the officials.
Only Force Ouvrière has not formally called a strike, favoring a renewable movement on December 10, 11 and 12, but the first representative organization in the state civil service will participate locally in mobilizations.
Despite the political crisis, and the probable resignation of the government, civil servants intend to protest against the government’s plans to review compensation for sick leave, to fight against absenteeism, and to demand better remuneration, in the face of a government which it criticizes a lack of consideration.
Aligning the public with the private
Particular target of their anger: the Minister of the Civil Service, Guillaume Kasbarian, an outspoken liberal who intends to fight against“excess of bureaucracy”. Even if he is pushed to resign with the Barnier government, the unions also want to maintain the pressure.
Tuesday, the meeting of the Common Council of the Civil Service (CCFP) was canceled, “lack of union quorum”following the boycott of the CFDT, Force Ouvrière, FSU, Unsa and Solidaires who protested against the examination of a draft decree by Guillaume Kasbarian reducing compensation for sick leave from 100% to 90% of the remuneration for contractual public agents. The finance bill under discussion in Parliament provides for the same measure for civil servants.
The minister, former consultant in the private sector and one of the first supporters of Emmanuel Macron in 2017, also wishes to increase from one to three the number of waiting days, that is to say the days not compensated by insurance -illness in the event of sick leave.
Fight against absenteeism
With these two measures, the government wishes to align civil servants with the private sector, but civil servant unions point out that, according to the Court of Auditors, “around 70% of employees do not suffer any loss of income in the event of short-term sick leave, with numerous collective agreements providing for salary maintenance beyond the minimum levels set by the monthly payment law, without a waiting day”.
Furthermore, while Guillaume Kasbarian compares the twelve days of absence for health reasons per year and per civil servant with the 10.3 days in the private sector, the unions note that, with eight days, the state civil service shows less absenteeism than the private sector.
According to the annual report of the General Directorate of Administration and Civil Service, absenteeism is however higher in local authorities (14.7 days) and in the hospital civil service (14 days).
Purchasing power
Another watchword of this Thursday’s strike: remuneration. The Barnier government notably announced the non-payment, in 2024, of the Individual Purchasing Power Guarantee (Gipa), a bonus guaranteeing public employees the maintenance of their level of remuneration when their index salary has evolved less quickly than the inflation over a four-year period. More than 200,000 civil servants had benefited from it in 2023 for an average amount of around €700.
More broadly, civil servants are concerned about the fact that, in the absence of regular revaluation of the index point used as a basis for calculating their remuneration (and frozen from 2010 to 2016 and from 2017 to 2022), their purchasing power is being eroded. by inflation. According to INSEE, from 2011 to 2021, the average net salary of civil servants only increased by 2.1% in the public sector, compared to 4.9% in the private sector.