Communities: the controversial decree on the exceptional bonus published in the Official Journal

Criticized by the unions, the decree organizing the payment of an exceptional bonus to local authority agents was published on Wednesday in the Official Journal. Announced in June by the Minister of the Civil Service Stanislas Guerini to cushion the shock of inflation on the purchasing power of civil servants, the bonus is paid automatically to state and hospital civil service agents paid less than 3,250 gross euros per month. Under a decree published on July 31, its amount, between 300 and 800 euros depending on the level of income, is fixed.

But in local authorities, the payment of the bonus is optional and its amount is left to the discretion of employers, two provisions denounced for months by the six unions representing the territorial public service (CGT, CFDT, FO, Unsa, FA -FPT, FSU). The latter unanimously refused, twice, to examine the draft decree (separate from that published on July 31) which was submitted to them for consultation before its publication.

The inter-union denounced in a press release published at the beginning of October a “conception of the territorial civil service reduced to a subcategory”. “Inflation, which puts the entire population in difficulty, makes no difference between the different sides of public functions,” she stressed. The unions asked to be received “urgently” by Stanislas Guerini and the general director of local authorities Cécile Raquin, to discuss the subject of the bonus but also the functioning of social dialogue in the territorial public service.

“The role of figuration in which we are placed is not accepted. The expected and necessary dialogue is reduced to a minimal portion, leading to an increasingly expeditious examination of the texts” submitted for consultation before their publication, the inter-union was indignant in its press release. The government argues for its part that the optional nature of the payment of the exceptional bonus responds to a request from territorial employers, who are also faced with inflation and salary increases not provided for in their budgets.