"While the public company SNCF claimed to have got rid of asbestos on wagons, it is hundreds of railway and railway workers - working in a dozen maintenance workshops - who face a health and social crisis" says the union in a statement.
The company's management emphasized that "safety, and therefore safety at work, is SNCF's number one priority that has never neglected or underestimated the risk of asbestos and strictly complies with the regulations in force" .
"We are extremely attentive and give the greatest credit to any new report of potential risk," she added. It also assured that "when there is any doubt about the presence of asbestos, precautionary measures are taken to ensure the protection of employees".
A delegation was received by SNCF management
A delegation of the federation was received Thursday by the management of SNCF, said one of its representatives, Julien Troccaz. "The employer does not deny the crisis," he said, "but we regret the lack of resources and methodology that should be urgently implemented." "We have colleagues who learn that they have been working for years without precautions, and today there are still no concrete measures of management," he laments.
The SUD-Rail Federation demands that national plans be taken and that this subject be treated at the highest level of the company, he said. For the moment, it intends to make use of its right of warning, and "does not refrain from actions in court".
A right of alert filed for serious and imminent danger
According to the magazine Health and Labor, the social and economic committee of the TER of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, on which depends the maintenance site of Ambérieu (Ain) where were discovered several asbestos pieces, deposited in January a right of alert for serious and imminent danger.
It quotes the report of two labor inspectors according to which SNCF management has not sufficiently taken into account the risk of exposure of freight agents to asbestos.
A cabinet seized by the CSE, Ergonomnia, for its part, believes that "the way the company has managed this problem has major flaws." Thus, SNCF relied on certificates of non-presence of asbestos, issued by suppliers of wagon parts, received between 1980 and 1985. But she never verified itself that these parts did not contain asbestos, says Ergonomnia.
The census of staff exposed to asbestos risk, demanded by labor inspectors and staff elected since February, is still not carried out, added Julein Troccaz.
According to Santé et Travail, the SNCF has also not drawn up a rigorous inventory of suspicious cars, while managing 30,500 bogie wagons.