The Minister of Transformation and Public Service Stanislas Guierini announced Tuesday, June 28, that the index point for civil servant wages would be raised by 3.5% in July after years of stagnation. The trade unions consider this insufficient in the context of high inflation. This general increase will appear on the pay slips for agents in August, and will be retroactively to July. Celine Verzeletti (co-secretary general, CGT-Public Service), criticizes “our working conditions are deteriorating” and also criticizes the agent’s purchasing power.
How can you accept this promotion for civil servants
The thawing index point is, in principle, a good thing. It has been requested for many years. The governments have been content with distributing bonuses or upgrading only certain sectors. This increase, however, is much less than inflation of 5.2% in May 2022. With rising prices, the purchasing power of civil servants has been falling. Some agents, especially those in category C, find themselves regularly below the minimum wage because of automatic inflation increases.
Cascading resignations in health and education are both linked to difficult work conditions, but also low pay. These conditions do not reflect the qualifications or social utility of those who are practicing these professions. The worse working conditions are the smaller the workforce. It’s a vicious cycle. The situation today is alarming.
You asked for a 10% increase but you didn’t just want…
The index point for civil servants was raised twice since 2010, in 2016 and 2017. Each time, it increased by 0.6%. To compensate for the drop in purchasing power, we estimated that a 10% rise retroactively to January 1, 2022 was necessary. This calculation also did not account for the recent price rise. We propose also indexing the index point to inflation as we did during the 1980s period of high inflation. Also, we recommend a revaluation and reindexing of the index grids. This would be good for equality between men and women, as the lowest rungs on the index grids are occupied mainly by women.
What will the thaw in the agents’ pay slips look like at the end of August?
Stanislas Guerini’s calculations show that this is a minimum 35 euro net increase for the lowest category C salaries, such as administrative agents. An average sixth-grade teacher will earn between 80 and 90 euros more per month if they have a little experience. It is always a good idea to save thirty-five euro. For people with difficulty making ends meet, however, this amount is not sufficient. It will be necessary to revalue the remunerations within three months.
What are the next deadlines on this case? Do you feel that the government of Elisabeth Borne is listening to your problems?
The government promised us before the elections that many projects would open if the public service was attractive. Stanislas Guerini got in touch with us and we don’t know when the next meeting will be. All trade unions denounce this revaluation. We will talk about the follow-up. We are headed towards an offensive September, that is certain.
The government can’t talk about the cost of the public service constantly. It fulfills essential, even vital, needs and it demonstrated this during the pandemic. Emmanuel Macron in 2020 spoke of professions that have strong social utility and needed to be revalued… Public Service is a common good. It cannot function without agents or without investments.
