In 2020, SNCF cut 1,946 jobs, according to a social report. The total workforce of the public rail group is now 150,774 employees, a decrease of 1.3% compared to 2019. “This decrease reached 2.9% for the execution college”, with 2,120 positions eliminated (including 203 positions of train drivers for example), while “the executive college increases by 1.6%”, with 548 positions created, notes the management in its social report 2020. The number of supervisors has decreased by 0.8% , with 374 positions eliminated.
Compared to 2018, the total workforce decreased by 3.2%, with the elimination of 5,046 positions. The year 2020 was that of the end of hiring with the status of railway worker, but five agents could be recruited under this status because it was about “hirings of December 2019 entered in January 2020”, specifies the management. In total, the group recruited 3,846 people last year, after 4,121 recruitments in 2019, a drop of 6.7% in recruitments.
An “alarming” finding
Both the UNSA railway and SUD-Rail unions described this social report as “catastrophic”. For the rail Unsa, “the finding is alarming”, with a record in “the continuity of the precedents”. The second representative union of SNCF notes the surge in departures during the trial period (360 departures, + 22.4% compared to 2019). Management notes for its part that these departures join the “level observed in 2018”, after a decline last year.
But, deplores Railway Unsa, “too many agents” at all levels of the company “are experiencing a feeling of unease within the group “. For several months, our union organization has not ceased to alert the management of the SNCF to the heavy and burdensome climate, ”she underlines, pointing to a“ lack of recognition ”, the“ wage freeze ”,“ all-out restructuring ”and the still“ socially undefined ”framework of opening up to competition.
SUD-Rail also protests against “the deterioration of the social situation” and criticizes “the catastrophic social reports” made “year after year” by the SNCF, including that of 2020 “is no exception to the rule”. The third union of the group denounces “the choice” of the management to “cut field jobs while it recruits executives.” “As in the previous year, it is above all the execution posts that are impacted” in 2020, denounces SUD-Rail.