“Put France to a standstill”. This is the watchword of several unions, which have called for a renewable strike from Tuesday March 7, against the pension reform.
The education unions predict a rate of 60% of strikers in the primary sector. We must expect a massive mobilization, while the text is currently in the hands of senators.
Certain branches of the public sector, particularly unionized, are accustomed to mobilization. However, each day of strike is subject to strict rules depending on the profession, and leads to significant deductions from wages. Update on the rules surrounding the right to strike in the public service, and its economic consequences for strikers.
1. Who can strike?
In theory, almost all French employees, public or private, can strike. For all, there are three principles to respect: a total stoppage of work, a collective stoppage for all striking employees, and professional demands, and not only political ones.
In the private sector, workers do not need to file notice, and there is no limitation according to trade or branch. Strikers only have to make their demands known to the management, but they are not obliged to personally inform their employer that they are exercising their right to strike. Deductions from the strikers’ wages are subject to negotiation. Things are more framed in the public service.
2. What are the specific rules for the civil service?
There are three types of civil service. The state civil service includes teachers, nurses, firefighters, police, army, and ministry employees. The territorial civil service includes employees of territorial administrations. Finally, the public hospital service represents all employees of the public hospital sector.
Some civil servants do not have the right to strike: the national police, the army, prison guards, judicial magistrates and signal personnel from the Ministry of the Interior.
Other civil servants can exercise their right to strike but must give notice 5 clear days before the strike, i.e. on D-7.
The only exception: kindergarten and elementary school teachers. They have the obligation to declare personally if they will go on strike at least 48 hours in advance, with one working day.
Pensions: the CGT calls for “bringing the French economy to its knees”
3. How are payroll deductions calculated?
The fact of going on strike implies that the employee is not paid. State civil servants are bound by the “indivisible thirtieth” rule: whatever the duration of the strike – one hour, half a day or a whole day – they automatically lose one thirtieth of their salary on the month for each strike day. In addition, if a teacher, for example, goes on strike for the week, the count applies even on the days when he does not usually teach.
The European Committee of Social Rights (CEDS), which depends on the Council of Europe, was seized by the CGT on the subject, and has just called the French State to order. According to the CEDS, the State applies “disproportionate” deductions from the salaries of its striking agents. What the Ministry of Public Service responds that the rule has not been challenged by the tricolor Constitutional Council. “This system is protective insofar as the deduction is one-thirtieth of the salary, less than the remuneration of an actual day of work”, we answer to the cabinet of Minister Stanislas Guerini. Therefore, the government has no plans to change this status.
The CEDS also argued that there was no “objective justification” for the differences applied between agents. Because if the State public service feels aggrieved, it is also because the rule is different for the territorial and hospital public service. For these two categories, the deduction from wages is proportional to the number of hours on strike: 1/30th for a day, 1/60th for half a day and 1/152nd for an hour on strike.
Note that each day of unpaid strike does not count for retirement, since it does not generate contributions.
4. How does minimum service work?
Certain professions in the State civil service have the obligation to provide a minimum service, i.e. to maintain a sufficient number of employees, even if they want to strike, in order to ensure the continuity of the service. ‘activity. This is the case, for example, of air navigation, Météo France, or even for the reception of children at school if 25% or more of the teachers go on strike.
For the territorial public service, the number of agents necessary for the minimum service in the event of a strike is determined upstream, between the management and the unions. This minimum service applies in particular to the branches of waste treatment and collection, public transport, aid for the elderly or disabled, crèches, after-school care and collective catering. For the hospital public service, the minimum service conditions are negotiated directly with the director of the establishment, and therefore depend on each hospital.
5. In what cases can the State requisition workers?
Last lever for the State, the requisition. The notion of requisition is induced by the need to make the public service accessible and continuous for the French. It is legally possible to requisition agents in the State civil service and in the hospital civil service. But in this case, the decision, taken by the ministry or the prefects, must be strictly reasoned. It can therefore be appealed to an administrative judge.
On the other hand, apart from the civil servants, the State can also requisition certain employees of the private sector for reasons of continuity of the public service. During the refinery workers’ strike last September, the state requisitioned a certain number of workers. Unions had filed appeals, rejected by various courts.
In the energy sector, particularly for companies such as EDF, GRDF, Engie or RTE, employees are subject to the rules of the right to strike in the private sector, but they can be requisitioned. For example, for the electricity network operator RTE, it is possible to requisition some of the employees if electricity needs increase. The decision is made unilaterally on the employer’s side.