In early March 2007, the French Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, rejected outright the requests made by five trade unions active in the civil service sector in a letter addressed to him on 16 February.
In spite of a day of action on 8 February 2007, called for by the majority of civil service trade unions, the government has still refused to open negotiations on pay in the civil service. Increases in 2006 simply maintained public servants’ purchasing power and no increases have been announced for 2007.
In early March 2007, the French Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, rejected outright the requests made by five trade unions active in the civil service sector in a letter addressed to him on 16 February.
The five trade unions concerned were: 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), the Independent Union – Solidarity, Unity, Democracy (Union syndicale – Solidaire, Unitaire, Démocratique, SUD) and the National Federation of Independent Unions (Union nationale des syndicats autonomes, UNSA). The unions have asked for negotiations on pay, employment and working conditions in all three sections of the civil service: central government, local government and hospitals.
National day of action
The trade unions’ demands were outlined following a relatively successful national day of action, held by civil servants on 8 February. Six of the eight civil service unions had called for the demonstration. However, 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) did not take part in the protest, and only the local authority workers’ union affiliated to the French Christian Workers’ Confederation (Confédération française des travailleurs chrétiens, CFTC) called for the day of action. A higher proportion of civil servants participated in the strike action compared with last year (FR0603029I): according to the Ministry for the Civil Service (Ministère de la Fonction Publique), 20% of the country’s 2.5 million civil servants stopped working, which was 4% higher than in February 2006.
Mobilisation was particularly strong in schools, where more than 30% of the workers went on strike; this is no doubt related to the ongoing reforms in the education sector. A decree proposed by the Minister of National Education, Gilles de Robien, is in the process of being adopted; the reform will reduce the number of teaching hours in each school and, in the longer term, oblige teachers to teach two subjects.
According to the protest organisers, the demonstrations on 8 February involved more than 180,000 civil servants throughout France; this included about 40,000 railway workers. The Minister of Civil Service, Christian Jacob, had tried to stop the dispute by awarding an additional 0.3% pay increase for 2006 on 1 February 2007.
Trade union demands and reactions
The trade unions considered the extra increase to be derisory and, judging by the level of mobilisation, so too did the civil servants. The additional rise brought the overall pay increase for 2006 up to just 1.5%, which is exactly the same as the inflation rate observed for that year. The trade unions insist that merely maintaining purchasing power is not sufficient to make up for losses in real pay during previous years, which they estimate to amount to about 6% since 2000. The last pay agreement in the civil service dates back to 1998. Given the government’s refusal to negotiate, no pay increase has been announced for 2007.
In spite of their apparent unity, the trade unions are divided on the issue of follow-up action subsequent to the aforementioned day of action. The unions that signed the letter to the Prime Minister have decided not to take part in the meetings of the central civil service joint bodies, in order to denounce the absence of social dialogue. The three other trade unions, namely the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (Confédération française démocratique du travail, CFDT), CFE-CGC and CFTC, opted instead to ask the presidential election candidates about their policies on this issue.
Catherine Vincent, Institute for Economic and Social Research (IRES)
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
Eurofound (2007), Deadlock in civil service pay negotiations, article.
