In an attempt to force the government to reopen pay negotiations, France's civil service trade unions called a second strike on 22 March 2001. However, it was much less well-supported than the strike held on 30 January. The government and the unions are still at odds over back-pay for 2000, despite a proposal by the civil service minister to raise the wages of the low-paid.
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In an attempt to force the government to reopen pay negotiations, France's civil service trade unions called a second strike on 22 March 2001. However, it was much less well-supported than the strike held on 30 January. The government and the unions are still at odds over back-pay for 2000, despite a proposal by the civil service minister to raise the wages of the low-paid.
Pay negotiations for France's 5.4 million state, local authority and hospital civil service employees (FR0012108N) became deadlocked in January 2001, when the seven civil trade service unions - CFDT, CFE-CGC, CFTC, CGT, CGT-FO, the Confederation of United Trade Unions (Fédération Syndicale Unitaire, FSU) and the National Federation of Independent Unions (Union nationale des syndicats autonomes, UNSA) - rejected the proposals of the minister for the civil service. While the minister had committed himself to maintaining the purchasing power of all civil servants over the 2000-2 period, and raising that of the lowest paid, disagreement arose over the method for calculating overdue pay rises for the period since 1999, when the previous pay agreement expired (FR9802192F). To pressurise the government into reopening talks, the unions unanimously called a day of strikes and mobilisations on 30 January, which was well supported (FR0102127N).
The same seven unions called a second strike on 22 March, again to demand the reopening of the pay negotiations. However, the level of support from civil servants was only around half of what it had been on 30 January. The March strike was especially well-supported in the state education sector, with over 25% of teachers in both primary and lower-secondary schools taking strike action, and in the Ministry of Finance, where almost 30% of staff took action. In Paris, around 15,000 civil servants took to the streets. Nevertheless, according to the Ministry of the Interior, there were no more than 55,000 civil servants striking in the whole country, far below the 90,000 to 150,000 who participated on 30 January.
The many other disputes which are current brewing in the various sections of the civil service, and the isolated strikes that they are generating in various places, partly explain why the second attempt at mobilisation was less popular. These sectoral disputes relate to the implementation of the 35-hour working week (FR0003151F), deadlocked negotiations over pay and the lack of funding and staff shortages. For example: at the Louvre museum, a dispute over the 35-hour week has been continuing since mid-March; staff at the Ministry of Roads and Infrastructure demonstrated over wages, their career paths and staffing levels on 27 March (in response to a call launched by CFDT, CGT and CGT-FO); while Labour Inspectors demonstrated for the same reasons on 30 March.
The government, which had committed itself to taking a definitive decision on civil service pay after the local elections held in March, has been slow to announce this decision. The main disagreement is not so much over the pay rises for the next three years, as over back-pay for 2000, with the level of the government's offer being deemed "ridiculous" by the unions. The proposed specific measures for low-paid civil servants, mooted by the civil service minister in January, have not got talks back on course. The unions are now waiting for the Prime Minister to arbitrate in their favour. If he does not do so, according to Jean-Paul Roux, the general secretary of UNSA, he runs "the risk of turning the spreading crisis of confidence among civil servants, which can only get more serious, into an irreversible tide".
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
Eurofound (2001), Civil servants continue to mobilise over pay, article.
