Stéphane Place and Marion Gauthier and edited by Thibault Nadal 3:45 p.m., February 15, 2022
The town hall of Saint-Loubès in Gironde has decided to fight against the absenteeism of its agents by offering them a "presenteeism" bonus, which can go up to 800 euros if they are absent less than four days a year.
According to the mayor of the town, 25 municipal agents would be permanently absent.
In Saint-Loubès, north of Bordeaux, the town hall says it is facing abuse on work stoppages.
To counter these absences, the municipality has decided to take the problem upside down and reward those who put in their hours.
Concretely, this device will make it possible to pay a “presenteeism” bonus to diligent employees.
Clearly, the agent will receive 800 euros if he has not had more than four days off during the year.
Then, it is decreasing up to 40% of this bonus, if it has not exceeded between five and nine working days of absence.
Between ten and 12 days, it will only be 10% of the sum.
And nothing at all beyond 12 days of absence.
This measure does not concern leave taken for a birth, a death or even because of an accident at work.
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A proposal "attackable" in court
A device that made Paule Castebrunet, Force Ouvrière secretary of the union of small towns, jump.
“Giving bonuses to agents because they are there and doing the work of colleagues, or taking bonuses from agents because they are sick, it is impossible”, she explains, before adding that she intends to attack the municipality: "With the 2014 decree on the Rifseep (compensation scheme for state officials, editor's note), it's forbidden, it's attackable. Can you imagine doing such a thing? You're all going to go up agents against each other."
The trade unionist continues and is alarmed at the microphone of Europe 1: "There are agents who will be sick, who sometimes need four days off, five days, two days. They will still come to work sick because they know that at the end of the year, in their forties, that they are not going to have their bonuses normally, it is not acceptable."
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25 agents are on permanent arrest in the municipality
On the side of the town hall, we denounce the recurrent absenteeism of the agents.
"The results of 2019 were more than 17% of time lost due to absenteeism. This corresponds to 25 agents on permanent leave, so we are around 900,000 euros in cost to the community, details the mayor Emmanuelle Favré.
Figures which justify, according to the mayor without a label, taking such a measure: "The idea is to value only those who are there. Nevertheless, the idea is really to be in a work around the well-being and not to limit ourselves to this bonus. There are often discussions that have not taken place or things that have been identified and which lead to these sick leaves. Our wish would be for there to be a dialogue before we are in the sick leave box rather than ending up with agents in pain and on leave when we could have solved the problem before”, concludes Emmanuelle Favre.