The Constitutional Council in Paris.

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DURAND FLORENCE / SIPA

The Constitutional Council ruled on Friday in favor of the descendants of minors unfairly dismissed for their strikes of 1948 and 1952, thus paving the way for their compensation, as part of a priority question of constitutionality (QPC).

"The Constitutional Council considers unconstitutional because contrary to the principle of equality before the law of the provisions subordinating to certain conditions the payment of allowances repairing the infringements carried out on the rights of minors unfairly dismissed for acts of strike which took place in 1948 and 1952", he announced in a press release.

First recognition in 2014

In the fall of 1948, thousands of miners had stopped work to protest against decrees providing in particular for the reduction of their remuneration.

At the end of nearly two months of strike, marked by very violent clashes with the police, nearly 3,000 of them had been dismissed and hundreds prosecuted and sentenced, some to prison terms. .

Another similar movement had taken place in 1952.

The laid-off miners had notably lost accommodation, heating and free healthcare provided by the mine.

In 2014, Parliament finally voted to recognize the unfair dismissal of these minors, allowing them to receive, themselves or their dependents, an allowance of 30,000 euros each.

Deceased minors supposed to open a case themselves

But if the text opened the way to compensation for descendants - up to 5,000 euros per child -, a provision made it conditional on the opening of a file by the minors themselves with the ANGDM (National Agency for the guarantee of the rights of minors, created in 2004) within the framework of the finance law.

However, many of them had died on the date of entry into force of the law or were not aware of this provision.

Regretting a "differential" treatment between minors still alive and those who died before being able to open a file with the ANGDM, some 50 descendants had filed a QPC before the Paris industrial tribunal, which had transmitted it. in February at the Constitutional Council, via the Court of Cassation.

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  • Constitutional Council