The request went unheeded. The public service unions are finally received, Friday November 13 from 9:30 a.m., by Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu. In particular, they are awaiting announcements on salaries, a few days after a boost in the minimum wage, which does not concern them, and before a strike announced to the public on November 17.
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This meeting should make it possible to "examine as a priority concrete measures" likely to improve the situation of public employees, "paying particular attention to agents with the lowest incomes", promises a letter from the Prime Minister to the unions consulted by AFP. Even before the meeting, the solutions outlined by the executive did not satisfy the union organizations. Franceinfo takes stock of their demands.
The Index Point Thaw
The main demand from the unions concerns the revaluation of the index point, from which the basic remuneration of public agents is calculated, and its indexation to inflation. It was frozen from 2011 until 2015, followed by a thaw in 2016 and 2017, before being blocked again. The index point was nevertheless revalued twice in 2022 and 2023, in a context of significant resurgence in inflation.
While fuel prices have increased sharply in recent months, the unions are once again calling for the revaluation of this point, which would allow a general increase in the remuneration of civil servants in order to compensate for the loss of their purchasing power. But the request was dismissed this summer by the Minister of Public Accounts, David Amiel, who announced a new freeze. He had notably argued for a constrained budgetary context, while the public deficit should reach 5.4% of GDP in 2026. A uniform revaluation of 1% of the value of the index point would cost the State 2.4 billion euros, which is "not possible", his office argued.
The revaluation of salary scales
While the minimum wage must increase on December 1, the unions denounce the "smicardization" of public employees. As the minimum wage is increased, it catches up with, or even exceeds, the lowest salaries of public employees, which are determined by salary scales. This induces a “settling”: the categories of agents slightly above the minimum wage find themselves aligned with this increased minimum wage. As a result, a growing number of agents are stagnating for many years at low income levels. “The pay gap between the levels is narrowing dangerously, warns the collective of agents Le Sens du service public. You can now have more seniority, exercise more responsibilities and progress in your career without necessarily earning significantly more. It is the very meaning of professional progression which is weakened.”
Furthermore, when the minimum wage increases, hundreds of thousands 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. According to estimates from Sens du service publique, 1.1 million civil servants will receive this allowance from December 1, or nearly 20% of agents. Asked by AFP, the Ministry of the Economy did not confirm this number. However, for them, it is a "double penalty", points out to AFP Christian Grolier of Force Ouvrière Civil Service: "They remain on minimum wage and lose for the future because they do not contribute to a salary which corresponds to the minimum wage."
At the beginning of October, after several mobilizations, David Amiel proposed to the unions an increase in the minimum index of civil servants, to allow 400,000 public agents to receive a base salary higher than the minimum wage. “This increase will be accompanied by lasting injections of index points in the first levels [for the most modest remuneration], to begin to restore the value of advancement and seniority,” he declared.
Repeal of the waiting day
