FRANCE
The French Government has launched a “profound modernisation” of the country’s Public Service, which is expected to cost 120,000 jobs over the next three years.
After more than a year of negotiations, the Cabinet approved a draft law covering the 5.5 million-member Public Service, which President, Emmanuel Macron says will liberalise the economy and reduce Government spending.
Minister responsible for the Public Service, Olivier Dussopt (pictured) said the aim was to have the law passed in Parliament by the northern summer and to apply it from the start of next year.
Seven of France’s trade unions called for a day of strikes and industrial action on 9 May in protest against the reform, which they see as watering down the labour rights and the independence of PS staff, making them more like private sector employees.
The Government says the new law should make PS staff more responsive to the changing needs of French citizens; allow them to move more easily to and from jobs in the private sector; and save money by reducing the number of those who benefit from special provisions allowing them to work fewer than 35 hours a week on full pay.
A secret report from the Government Auditor, which was leaked to journalists, said that 310,000 Government employees worked fewer than 35 hours a week, including 190,000 who did not work in difficult conditions that merited special treatment.
About 30,000 jobs could be cut simply by making those staff work normal hours, the report said.
The report noted that PS employees benefited from extra days off if they took vacations outside the favoured summer months, and some also received additional holidays granted by their Ministries.
At the Ministry of Culture, staff benefited from an extra seven days for Malraux Week (named after the writer André Malraux) and a further two “Minister Days”.
Such a wrenching reform could nevertheless prove awkward for Mr Macron, who last year successfully tightened the previously generous conditions for train drivers in the State railway network, SNCF.
Paris, 29 March 2019
