This Monday, June 12, we will talk about purchasing power Rue de Grenelle. Stanislas Guerini receives the public service unions in the afternoon. After having met individually with each of the eight federations in May to listen to their proposals, the Minister of Transformation and the Public Service begins the sensitive stage of negotiations.
After a tense social winter, he makes it a point of honor to continue social dialogue, which he is pleased to have been able to maintain despite the arduous battle over pension reform. While the trade unions will take advantage of this multilateral meeting to recall their fierce opposition to the reform, priority will be given to the thorny issue of purchasing power. Like last year.
Already in 2022, the government had conceded a historic revaluation of 3.5% of the index point, which serves as the basis for calculating the salary of civil servants. A first, while this famous point had experienced long periods of freezing between 2010 and 2016 and from 2017 to 2022. And a significant financial effort for the State of 7.5 billion euros in a full year, because this revaluation is applies to the three sides of the civil service (State, hospital and territorial) and is a permanent measure. But, faced with soaring prices, the unions consider the gesture insufficient.
“What was done in 2022 was a good thing, but it remains well below inflation which is certainly easing a little, but remains high, around 5%. And which is much superior in food, energy and basic necessities, ”explains Mylène Jacquot, secretary general of the CFDT public functions. Faced with Stanislas Guerini, the confederal secretary of the CGT Céline Verzeletti will therefore recall the “first emergency”, a new revaluation of the index point and will even plead for a 10% increase. “Below, it will not make it possible to compensate for the continuous loss of purchasing power of public officials for a decade. Because today, with the same qualifications and in the same position, a civil servant earns less than ten years ago. We cannot accept it, ”insists the trade unionist. Less greedy but just as determined, the other trade unions hope for a revaluation at least equal to the 3.5% of last year. A wishful thinking?
“I will make proposals on Monday, promised Stanislas Guerini. Proposals that will have a real impact on purchasing power and that I will explain to the unions.” The minister even says he is ready for “a salary effort”, without revealing its nature. Our colleagues from Les Echos evokes a “rumor” among the unions “of an increase of 1 to 1.5%”. But the minister’s entourage still points out that an increase in the index point of 1 point costs the state 2 billion euros per year. On good terms. The person in charge of some 5.7 million French civil servants will therefore remind his interlocutors that “various instruments are on the table to improve purchasing power: compensation tools for example, or measures on the question of transport or housing”.
Proposals that echo the organization of an interdepartmental committee for the housing of civil servants, announced last week. We will certainly see his proposal to provide young police officers, teachers or caregivers with housing close to their place of practice. In line with his confidences in Figaro last March, when he said that, “if we want to make public services efficient, we must take more interest in the lives of agents. Obviously, this goes through the payslip. But you also have to understand everything around you.” The minister wants to convince the unions that he wants to focus his efforts on low-wage agents, who “suffer the most from inflation”. If the principle of a general increase does not seem to have his preference, the minister nevertheless assures that he “does not exclude anything”.
The unions warn: “If the minister is satisfied with targeted measures without a general increase, it will be an end of inadmissibility: we will not continue to discuss”, threatens Céline Verzeletti. A blockage of social dialogue which would be embarrassing, during the hundred days of appeasement desired by the President of the Republic and at a time when the public service transformation project that Stanislas Guerini wishes to launch is immense.
Far beyond the simple question of the index point. Because the public sector is struggling to attract talent, while 60,000 positions are looking for takers. A problem of attractiveness that trade unions attribute to remuneration but also to the lack of career development. It thus takes twelve years to get out of the minimum wage for a category C civil servant (the lowest salaries) and three years for a category B civil servant. “There is a structural project to be launched”, estimates Mylène Jacquot of the CFDT, for whom it is necessary to get out of the dogma of tax cuts, which goes against all public policies. The unions consider their demands necessary and urgent. But their cost in a tight budgetary context does not work in their favour.
