the government ready to negotiate more on salaries

2023-10-16 16:08:12

The administration and civil servant unions begin a new round of discussions on remuneration on Tuesday in Paris, with the government announcing its objective of establishing in the public annual salary negotiations similar to the “mandatory annual negotiations” (NAO) in the private sector.

In a recent letter to the unions consulted by AFP, the Minister of the Civil Service Stanislas Guerini affirms his “interest” in “real” salary negotiations between the employers of the three branches of the civil service, the representatives of the agents and the government . In recent years, unions have regularly denounced salary measures announced by the executive without prior negotiation.

A new “method” of annual negotiation on remuneration

At the end of the discussions that Stanislas Guerini is due to launch on Tuesday, the government hopes to reach an agreement with unions and employers on a new “method” of annual negotiation on remuneration, more participatory. Concretely, employers (ministries, local authorities, hospitals, etc.) and unions would meet each year in the first half of the year to agree on the salary increases to be applied the following year.

Enough to give a little visibility to territorial employers, who do not appreciate having to integrate salary increases decided during the year by the government into their already voted annual budgets. The envisaged model is inspired by “compulsory annual negotiations” (NAO) which bring together business leaders and employee representative organizations each year to set the level of future increases.

Discussions until November

According to the provisional timetable sent by the government to civil servant unions, negotiations on this new framework for salary discussions must continue until November. Beyond the negotiation method, the government also intends to launch separate negotiations with the unions in November on “the structural principles of career development and remuneration”.

Despite two general increases granted to 5.7 million public employees in 2022 (+3.5%) and 2023 (+1.5%), unions continue to demand pay increases to support the purchasing power of civil servants facing inflation, measured at 4.9% over one year by INSEE in September.

Tense dialogue in communities

Social dialogue is particularly tense in the communities, where the six representative unions (CGT, CFDT, FO, FA-FP, Unsa, FSU) again regretted in a press release on Monday that their role was “limited to figuration”. The inter-union cannot accept that a bonus announced in June by the government, which ministries and hospitals are obliged to pay, is optional in communities.

To mark her dissatisfaction, she announced on Monday that she would boycott the next meeting (scheduled for Wednesday) of the Superior Council of the Territorial Civil Service, a consultative body bringing together the administration, territorial employers and unions.

Apart from salaries, Stanislas Guerini proposes in his letter to the unions to open negotiations on professional equality (between mid-December 2023 and March 2024), working conditions (January-June 2024) and professional training (April -June 2024). On the other hand, a simple “consultation” of representative organizations is planned on the future bill devoted to the civil service, which the government hopes to develop by the end of the year.

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