Non-teaching school staff transfer to local authorities in decentralisation move

Even before the 1 January 2008 deadline, when technical staff employed by the Ministry of Education have to make a decision on whether or not they wish to transfer to local authorities, half of the workers have already chosen to become local authority civil servants. Such transfers of state civil servants to local authority bodies are not without consequences for both trade unions and staff representation bodies.

The 2004 law on decentralisation (FR0410105F) increased the transfer of certain responsibilities from state bodies to local authorities (FR0304107F). In particular, the legislation provides for the transfer of staff working for the Ministry of Education (Ministère de l’Éducation Nationale), the majority of whom are technical staff; this encompasses some 90,000 employees who are working as receptionists, cleaners, or in maintenance, accommodation and catering in secondary schools (collèges and lycées).

Transfer of technical staff to local authorities

Following the agreement on transfers between the Ministry of Education’s local representative institution (rectorat) and the local authorities, the staff concerned were granted two years – that is, until 1 January 2008 – to choose between two possible employment options:

• incorporation into the local authority (départements and regions) civil service;

• unlimited secondment.

By 31 August 2006, some 45,000 people – that is, half of the staff concerned – had made a decision:

• 74% chose to be incorporated into a local authority;

• 26% opted for secondment.

If the remaining half of the workers do not make a choice, they will automatically be seconded.

Trade union concerns

The trade unions took action on maintaining the unity of the educational community in 2004 and 2005. The action was taken due to concerns about the way in which staff would be appointed to fixed positions, and with regard to the distribution of remuneration between the civil service pay structure, on the one hand, and bonuses on the other.

In order to take these collective concerns into account, the law provides for temporary transitional procedures.

Effects of transfers

The trade unions have not given the same recommendations to their members and the staff concerned. The General Federation of National Education Staff (Syndicat général des personnels de l’Éducation nationale, SGPEN), affiliated to the General Confederation of Labour (Confédération générale du travail, CGT), is against any procedure involving a choice and had not envisaged working together with its CGT counterpart in organising local authority staff. The French Democratic Confederation of Labour (Confédération française démocratique du travail, CFDT) advised waiting until the deadline, but envisages an agreement between its affiliate in the education sector, the Federation of National Education General Unions (Fédération des syndicats généraux de l’Éducation nationale, SGEN), and its local authority affiliate, Interco. The General Confederation of Labour – Force ouvrière (Confédération générale du travail – Force ouvrière, CGT-FO) is demanding the repeal of all the laws on decentralisation.

Meanwhile, the National Federation of Independent Unions-Education (Union nationale des syndicats autonomes de l’Éducation, UNSA-Éducation) has decided to change its scope and its name – it is now called the National Federation of National Education and Local Authority Staff (Syndicat national des agents de l’Éducation nationale et des collectivités territoriales, SNAEN-CT). At the same time, the United Union Federation (Fédération syndicale unitaire, FSU), which has been strengthened by the arrival of CFDT activists (FR0611019I), has established a new affiliate – namely, the National United Union of Local Authorities of the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Social Affairs (Syndicat national unitaire des collectivités locales, du Ministère de l’Intérieur et du Ministère des Affaires Sociales, SNU-CLIAS).

Unlike the situation in the state civil service, no national joint employer-union structures exist in the local authority civil service. Only the individual careers of seconded staff are managed by the joint administrative committee (Commission administrative paritaire, CAP) attached to the part of the state civil service from which they originally came. Other staff who opted for the local authority civil service will be represented in the local CAPs of their particular grade (grade C for technical staff), until the general renewal of local CAPs in 2008.

The joint technical committees (Comité technique paritaire, CTP) are responsible for the organisation of the services.

CAP and CTP elections

Elections for the renewal of the national CAP for state maintenance and reception staff took place on 21 March 2006 (Table 1).