The issue of purchasing power for members of the public function is this Monday on the executive’s agenda. The government is going to receive the eight civil servants’ unions in Paris to reveal to them the salary measures it is considering in order to cushion the persistent shock of theinflation.
Faced with soaring prices (5.1% over one year in May, according to INSEE) and especially food products (+14.1%), the unions, united by their common opposition to the pension reform, unanimously call for a general increase, of varying magnitude depending on the organisation. The unions should be fixed at 2:30 p.m. on the intentions of the government.
The CGT wants “a general revaluation of at least 10%”
While one in five public officials is paid the minimum wage, “piecemeal patching is no longer on the agenda”, warned Friday by press release the CGT, the first union in the public sector. “A general revaluation of at least 10%” of salaries is necessary, adds Céline Verzeletti, patron of the CGT federation of state officials.
In recent weeks, the executive has seemed determined to make a gesture for the lowest paid civil servants but has maintained the vagueness on possible general measures which would benefit all of the 5.7 million public officials. The Minister of Public Service, Stanislas Guerinihas already received the unions one by one at the end of May.
“We are open to long discussions” within the framework of the plenary meeting, indicates the entourage of the minister, who hopes to be able to agree with the unions as of this Monday and announce the measures adopted in the process. “We have heard” the unions’ desire for a general increase, we are assured at the ministry. But in a constrained budgetary context, “the efforts (…) must be concentrated on the purchasing power in particular of low wages”, adds one from the same source.
The executive hopes to renew the dialogue on a lasting basis
The salary of State agents, communities and hospitals has already been increased by 3.5% in the summer of 2022, a gesture whose cost for public finances has been estimated at 7.5 billion euros in full year. This time, regardless of the wage arbitration chosen, it risks falling short of the expectations of the unions, who are often asking for a two-digit increase.
But, beyond wages, the government also wants to renew a lasting dialogue with the unions, which for a time boycotted official meetings at the ministry to protest against the postponement to 64 of the legal retirement age. Stanislas Guerini thus hopes to quickly submit to them a draft agreement on the financing by the State of the pension costs of its agents. Housing aid schemes for civil servants could also be announced in the coming weeks.