Civil servants: the CFDT joins the call for a strike on November 17

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu received the civil servant unions this Friday morning, who were particularly upset. Faced with discontent, the head of the executive, upon leaving this consultation, announced the opening of a month-long negotiation on several projects. In particular, he wants certain transport costs for civil servants to be better covered in a context of rising fuel prices. The negotiations must also make it possible to strengthen equal pay, the protection of public officials and their independence. Above all, Sébastien Lecornu promises “emergency measures to revalorize low salaries and the opening of a project for structural reform of the grids”, he details in a publication on social networks.

Obviously, the promise did not convince. At the beginning of the afternoon, the CFDT announced in a press release that it would finally join the call for strike and the public mobilization of other unions for November 17. “The government still refuses to release adequate budgetary resources to respond to the continued loss of purchasing power of agents,” wrote the third union force in the public service, denouncing proposals which “do not constitute real progress” with “hundreds of thousands of agents” whose basic salary will remain below the minimum wage.

Organizations have in fact been denouncing for months the “smicardisation” of agents. The last increase in the index point - on the basis of which the remuneration of civil servants is calculated - took place in 2024. In its draft budget, the government plans to freeze it again in 2027. Paradoxically, the next increase in the minimum wage - which does not concern public employees - adds salt to this wound. The basic salary of public employees is determined by salary scales, and as the minimum wage is increased, it catches up and exceeds the lowest salaries. Consequences: a growing number of agents whose base salary is lower than the minimum wage must receive compensatory compensation (known as “differential”), because the law prohibits any remuneration below the minimum wage.

With the increase in the minimum wage announced in June, 862,000 agents received this compensation. And with the new boost planned for next month, more than a million could benefit. According to estimates from the collective of agents Le Sens du service public, there are 1.1 million of them who receive a basic salary below the minimum wage, or nearly 20% of agents. The Prime Minister also announced this Friday that he will receive the unions again on December 11, i.e. after the professional elections in the Civil Service, to “seal progress from mid-December”.