Solidarity Day Monitoring and Assessment Committee Presents Report
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In July 2005, the Solidarity Day Monitoring and Assessment Committee presented its report to the Prime Minister. It suggests that the idea of an extra working day be continued in principle, but that it should not be systematically set for Whit Monday.
In Spring 2005, following stringent criticism from the unions (FR0505108F), the government charged UMP deputy Jean Leonetti with setting up a Solidarity Day Monitoring and Assessment Committee. This 13-member committee comprising parliamentarians, high-ranking civil servants and leading figures, presented its report to the Prime Minister on 19 July 2005.
The report paints an uneven picture of the solidarity day:
- 56% of employees actually worked on Whit Monday. Few sector or company-level collective agreements had set an alternative day for it. However, 20% of employees did not take part and will not take part in the solidarity day (one day off given by the employer or normal work on Whit Monday and no other working day requested by the employer).
- EUR 2 billion was actually raised from the solidarity day.
- Changing May 16 into a working day meant that particular tourist events and short-break hotels and bed and breakfast venues were visited less frequently than usual (a 40% reduction in business in rural areas). However, the macro-economic impact is hard to assess.
- In the state education system, the strikes held by teaching and technical staff, in response to calls for action from the unions, and the high levels of pupil absences (around 50%) were the main factors making the day a failure.
The report stresses that 'the policy deployed would be more successful if it were more flexible, more comprehensible and more equitable than in it was in 2005'. For 2006 :
- The report recommends focussing more on the extra 7 hours of work to be carried out, and suggests, as a number of companies have requested, that this time may be spread over the year. Considering the knock-on effect of the public services on the other activities, it recommends that organisations in this sector give the lead. One particular proposal is that, while not changing the school calendar for pupils, teachers should spend 7 hours supporting children with learning problems, or engage in projects specific to their school.
- It recommends devoting one day a year to promoting and facilitating solidarity work in the local area with the elderly and people with disabilities.
- To provide long-term income for the National Solidarity for Autonomy Fund (Caisse nationale de solidarité pour l’autonomie, CNSA),
(FR0412105F), the Leonetti report identifies a number of avenues:
- increasing the proportion of the tax on income derived from property and financial investments,
- a financial contribution from the professions, the craft work industry and the self-employed.
- and, for example, an increase in the Universal Social Contribution (Contribution sociale généralisée, CSG).
After reading the report, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin stated that he was in favour of 'greater flexibility in the way the solidarity day is implemented', and asked the Minister for Education to come up with proposals before the beginning of the school year.
The French Democratic Confederation of Labour (Confédération française démocratique du travail, CFDT), reiterated its 'opposition to funding through increasing working time' and argues that it should be 'based on all sources of income'. The General Confederation of Labour (Confédération générale du travail, CGT), demanded 'the whole thing be scrapped, purely and simply', since it 'rejects any idea of unpaid labour'. The General Confederation of Labour - Force Ouvrière (Confédération générale du travail - Force ouvrière, CGT-FO), expressed its 'opposition to this measure' with profound reservations over the CNSA, while restating that 'it is in favour of taking charge of dependent people and funding this objective within the social security system'. The Education branch of the National Coalition of Independent Unions’ (Union nationale des syndicats autonomes, UNSA Education) renewed 'its demand to open genuine negotiations on solidarity and its funding'. The French Christian Workers’ Confederation (Confédération française des travailleurs chrétiens, CFTC) argued that 'the ways and means that must be implemented should be subject to scrutiny by the Economic and Social Council' (Conseil économique et social, CES).
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