The government is presenting a draft agreement to civil servant unions on Friday which aims to strengthen the guarantees offered to the 2.5 million state civil service agents in terms of disability, incapacity and death.
After the presentation by the administration of a first version of the text in July, the Minister of the Civil Service Stanislas Guerini must this time formally present to the unions the final version of this draft agreement.
Salary maintained at 100% the first year of sick leave
On the “incapacity” aspect, the document provides in particular that the State compensates civil servants placed on long-term sick leave at 100% of their index salary (the equivalent of the basic salary), the first year of the leave. The agents concerned would also keep a third of the amount of their bonuses. The following two years, compensation would drop to 60% of the index salary and bonuses.
In terms of disability, the civil servants concerned will be able to continue to work in the public sector if their health allows it, where disability has until now meant dismissal from civil service executives.
For these civil servants who are disabled but still able to work, the State will pay, in addition to the remuneration linked to their work, a monthly pension corresponding to 40% of their salary and their bonuses. As for disabled civil servants who can no longer work, they will be placed on “availability for health reasons, without time limit” according to the draft agreement.
“A transformation of the triple diet”
“The objective of this transformation of the regime is threefold: return to employment, better consideration of life accidents and simplification of the regime”, it is specified in the document.
The draft agreement finally relaxes the conditions for payment of the death benefit to the beneficiaries of a deceased public official. The new guarantees in terms of incapacity and death must apply “during the year 2024”. Those relating to disability will come into force “no later than January 1, 2027”.
Laborious negotiations
After Friday’s meeting, the unions will have to choose in the coming days whether or not to sign the agreement proposed to them. Their possible signature would close laborious negotiations that began in spring 2022 but were successively delayed by the presidential election, professional elections and the unanimous opposition of unions to pension reform.
A first agreement, relating to the guarantees offered by the State in terms of health, was signed unanimously by the state civil service unions in January 2022.