Stanislas Guerini took everyone by surprise on Tuesday by announcing in Le Parisian have “no taboo on the dismissal of civil servants”. However, the Minister of the Civil Service was leaving a consultation meeting with the unions, during which the subject was not raised. “We learned about it in the press,” said Natacha Pommet, general secretary of the CGT Civil Service, on Franceinfo.
Concretely, Stanislas Guerini wants to open the door to the end of the “lifetime career”, playing on the stubborn cliché of the lazy, inefficient, even incompetent civil servant.
But what does the law currently say about the dismissal of civil servants? Are the rules well enforced? What exactly is the minister’s plan? 20 minutes make the point.
What is the rule now?
The idea that once you enter the public service, you only leave it once you retire, is largely outdated. In reality, there are already several ways to be “fired”. “There are already actions planned when an agent commits a mistake, it is well regulated, defined by a grid”, explains to 20 minutes Céline Verzeletti, co-secretary general of the UFSE-CGT and present at the consultation meeting with Stanislas Guerini Tuesday morning. These sanctions range “from reprimand to revocation in very serious cases. And when you are dismissed, you can no longer take the civil service exam.”
Then comes the question of “incapacity linked to a health problem, if reclassification is impossible we put you into early retirement”, explains the union leader, then the famous “professional insufficiency”. The latter must “be proven, the employer must provide proof that you are not able to meet expectations, to carry out your tasks”, insists Céline Verzeletti, before “initiating a dismissal procedure”. Finally, since 2020, an experimental conventional termination system has been put in place.
To what extent are these rules enforced?
Leaving the civil service is therefore very regulated, and relatively rare. Regarding conventional terminations, they benefited 5,300 state civil service agents, who retrained professionally, between 2020 and 2022 according to a ministry document that 20 minutes was able to consult.
Stanislas Guerini “spoke of 200 dismissals for misconduct, but we don’t know where he got these figures from,” relates Céline Verzeletti. A “rare” case therefore, which can also be explained by the “sanctions panel”.
“You can be laid off for one or two years without pay, or you can be demoted,” she illustrates. Finally, for cases of professional inadequacies, only 13 dismissals took place in 2023 out of a total of 2.5 million agents, the minister indicated on France Inter.
What is the government trying to do?
Little statement to test the waters? Publicity stunt before the European elections? The reasons which motivated Stanislas Guerini to say that he had “no taboos” remain mysterious for the union leader. “It’s quite amazing,” she marvels. Still according to the support document which was used during this “first multilateral meeting, which we had been waiting for for a long time”, the dismissal is not expected to be facilitated. On the other hand, the question is asked about whether employers and managers are sufficiently equipped to “take into account professional inadequacy in the career process”, and whether it is possible to provide “a graduated response”.
So “talking about dismissal goes in the opposite direction,” proclaims Céline Verzeletti. “Perhaps he wants to extend the dismissal beyond this framework and he cannot admit it,” the union leader is wary. Because today, economic dismissal does not exist in the public service. “If a service closes, we cannot fire the agents,” explains Céline Verzeletti, highlighting the duty of continuity and accessibility of the public service. “If he wants to go that way, then that’s another subject,” she warns.