Pay negotiations in civil service end in failure

For the eighth consecutive year, pay negotiations in the civil service have ended in failure. The trade unions have not obtained their desired pay demands, and increases for 2006 will instead adhere to those recommended by the civil service minister. Nonetheless, three of the seven civil service union federations have agreed to sign an agreement providing for improved social conditions and pay scales for civil servants.

Background

Originally scheduled for mid-November, collective bargaining in the civil service sector only commenced on 6 December 2005. Talks involved representatives of seven civil service trade union federations: the French Confederation of Professional and Managerial Staff – General Confederation of Professional and Managerial Staff (Confédération française de l’encadrement – confédération générale des cadres, CFE-CGC), the General Confederation of Labour (Confédération générale du travail, CGT), the General Confederation of Labour – Force ouvrière (Confédération générale du travail – Force ouvrière, CGT-FO), the Unitary Union Federation (Fédération syndicale unitaire, FSU) (which represented 51% of civil servants’ votes in the latest workplace elections), the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (Confédération française démocratique du travail, CFDT), the French Christian Workers’ Confederation (Confédération française des travailleurs chrétiens, CFTC) and the National Federation of Independent Unions (Union nationale des syndicats autonomes, UNSA).

Prior to this, the Minister of the Civil Service, Christian Jacob, presented the unions with a framework document broadening the scope of bargaining beyond the typical elements relating to pay demands. This includes, for example, raising the value of the index point according to which civil service pay is calculated. Minister Jacob thus reintroduced the proposal made by the French Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, in late October 2005 to devote part of the savings made through staff cuts in the civil service to increasing civil servants’ purchasing power.

Another unique feature of the minister’s proposal was to incorporate two additional strands into the bargaining process:

• a social dimension providing for a state financial contribution to specific employee expenses, such as help with childcare, housing for young civil servants in the greater Paris area (Île de France region), increased relocation rates and travel expenses;

• a career-based dimension relating to an improvement in pay scales for civil service employees, including an increase in the lowest wages, the establishment of additional grades or bonuses for civil servants reaching the top level of their category and bridges between categories.

Pay negotiations

Negotiations began by addressing the pay issue. The unions demanded an increase which, at the very least, would reflect the 2006 inflation rate of 1.8%. At the same time, Minister Jacob recommended a:

• fixed increase of 0.5% as of 1 July 2006;

• variable increase tied to gross domestic product (GDP) growth, to be granted at the end of 2006.

As bargaining took place after the 2006 budget – a budget reflecting the government’s determination to cut public spending – the minister had very narrow parameters within which to operate and talks soon came to a standstill.

Moreover, the united union front was also rocked by the other two strands of the negotiations. On the one hand, the four union federations CFE-CGC, CGT, CGT-FO and FSU refused to open bargaining on the other strands, as long as the minister refused to review his pay proposals. On the other hand, the three union federations CFDT, CFTC and UNSA agreed to discuss the three components separately and, if necessary, to turn them into stand-alone agreements. In order to secure their signatures, Minister Jacob agreed to final concessions in January 2006, but stated clearly that if no agreement was reached, the career-related and social strands would in fact be abandoned. The agreement was eventually signed on 25 January 2006 by the three union federations CFDT, CFTC and UNSA.

Although the minister added a 0.5% pay increase, to be granted on 1 February 2007, as well as a general increase of one index point in early November 2006 – equivalent to an average 0.2% pay rise – all the unions deemed the agreement’s pay strand to be inadequate. As a result, they called for a day of industrial action in February 2006.

Strike action

Following the failure of the pay negotiations, six of the seven civil service unions (i.e. excluding CGC) called for strike action to take place on 2 February 2006. According to the Ministry of the Civil Service, the attendance by civil servants was relatively poor, with only a 20% observance rate among central government civil servants, much lower than the 40% rate recorded during the last pay strike in March 2005 (FR0501102F, FR0504101N). In the Ministry of Finance, where strike action is often well supported, the official figure for strikers did not exceed 18%. Support for the strike was stronger in the Ministry of Education. In primary schools, 28.5% of staff went on strike (or 40%–50% according to the unions), while in secondary schools, 29% of staff joined the strike (or 41% according to the unions). These figures reflect the level of anxiety felt among teaching staff, who have had to face sweeping reforms for several years (FR0504108F).

Some of the unions admitted that the strike had been a failure and recognised the need for new forms of action that are better able to mobilise workers to take part. The unions that did not sign up to the social and career-related components of the agreement criticised the poor status and demobilising nature of the agreement. Meanwhile, the signatory unions expressed their disappointment with the fact that the Ministry of the Civil Service had not sought to endorse constructive and open negotiations by conceding to extra pay rises.

Catherine Vincent, Institute for Economic and Social Research (IRES)