In July 1999, management and trade unions at the RATP Parisian public transport network reached an agreement on the means by which the company will move to the 35-hour working week.
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In July 1999, management and trade unions at the RATP Parisian public transport network reached an agreement on the means by which the company will move to the 35-hour working week.
RATP (Régie autonome des transports parisiens), which employs 36,860 workers, runs the Paris and suburban transport system (buses and underground trains). In the context of the move to the 35-hour working week, following the June 1998 legislation on the issue (FR9806113F), management and trade unions at RATP have worked closely together to draw up joint principles on which negotiations on the reduction of the working week and job creation will be based. An agreement was signed on 2 July 1999 by five of the seven union "families" at the company - CFDT, CFE-CGC, CFTC, some of the CGT unions (those representing bus employees, manual workers, supervisory staff, technicians and office workers) and the "autonomous unions coordinating group". The signatories represent more than 65% of the votes cast in the most recent workforce elections.
The "ultimate goal" of the agreement's signatories is to turn RATP into a company capable of "sustaining 40,000 jobs with full employee status" by 2001. In order to achieve this, around 1,200 jobs will have to be created. The reorganisation and reduction of working time should improve the staff's working conditions, thanks to an increase in the number of rest days, a switch to a four-day week where possible, and the opportunity to choose from various forms of part-time working (organised on a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly basis). The main points of the agreement are as follows:
reduction of working time and pay. A move from a 38-hour working week to a 35-hour week, calculated as an annual average, will be accomplished with no loss of pay. However, RATP will fund its job creation scheme in the period up until 2001 largely through "pay rise control". The outcomes of future annual pay negotiations "will maintain staff purchasing power";
implementing working time reduction. RATP will refer directly to legislative provisions on the establishment of the limits on overtime, the method of calculating hours worked, the calculation of breaks, emergency cover, the setting out of maximum periods of work or shifts, and work patterns (in terms of number of days on and off). A "time savings account" will enable employees to save up time off for longer holidays, on a voluntary basis;
decentralised bargaining. The signatories state their "shared willingness to innovate" in the area of work organisation through decentralised bargaining. In each case, discussions should produce an agreement involving the unions representing the majority of the workforce in the given field in question. Staff consultation can be set up "at the relevant level, on the initiative of the negotiators, in order to consolidate the projects negotiated"; and
final agreement. The final agreement on the implementation of the 35-hour working week will be established following these decentralised negotiations. Special negotiations for managerial and professional staff will take place centrally.
As RATP is a state-owned company, the agreement will not be funded by the state grants provided for in the law on the 35-hour working week.
Eurofound rekommenderar att denna publikation citeras enligt följande.
Eurofound (1999), 35-hour week agreement at RATP, article.
